2024-11-21T22:18:46-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/144578296/are-virtual-reality-systems-sexist Amelia Taylor-Hochberg 2015-12-30T14:20:00-05:00 >2016-01-17T22:00:29-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/hp/hprd6rmr050rny37.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>That headline paraphrases the research question of Danah Boyd, who, as a computer science student in 2000, wrote her <a href="http://www.danah.org/papers/sexvision.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bachelor thesis</a> on whether VR systems were being designed in such a way to defer to, biologically, the male gaze. The research is in no way definitive, but probes an essential question as VR technologies become more ubiquitous and technologically advanced, and for our understanding of "inclusive" programming in design.</p><p></p><p>Boyd revisited her research in a 2014 <a href="http://qz.com/192874/is-the-oculus-rift-designed-to-be-sexist/#/h/57418,1,3,57427,2,3/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Quartz</a> article, on the occasion of Facebook acquiring Oculus Rift (signaling a huge move for VR research and commercialization). In the article, she outlines how&nbsp;human sight is heavily influenced by a person's sex. More sex hormones hang out on the retina than anywhere else (other than the gonads) on the human body. And so depending on your sex chromosome, you'll get more of a certain set of hormones &ndash; and the balance of those hormones affect how we see.</p><p>Depth perception in human vision is rendered, biologically, in t...</p>