IS THE METAVERSE SAFE FOR WOMEN?

Virtual reality promised us a new world. It's become a breeding ground for sexual harassment.

- MOIRA DONEGAN

There was snow all around her, and white caps topping the mountain peaks in the distance. The woman ascended to the top of a stone tower and looked out over the virtual world of QuiVr, a headset-based archery game. The game was vivid, enchanting. "Never had I experienced virtual reality that felt so real," she wrote later, under the pseudonym Jordan Belamire. "I was smitten. I never wanted to leave this world." From her perch atop the tower, she drew closer to the edge. "I took a single step off the ledge and....nothing happened. I didn't fall, and I was walking on air. I was a god."

Soon, Belamire switched to a multiplayer version of the game. In QuiVr, player avatars at the time appeared as disembodied helmets, above floating hands that clutched bows and arrows. There's an equality that's implied when everyone looks alike, reinforcing to the players that they're all on the same team. But QuiVr also has a voice chat component, allowing users to talk to one another through the microphones in their headsets. When Belamire spoke to her teammates, it was in a woman's voice. "Suddenly, [a male player's] disembodied helmet faced me dead-on," she wrote. "His floating hand approached my body, and he started to virtually rub my chest. 'Stop!' I cried...... This goaded him on, and even when I turned away from him, he chased me around, making grabbing and pinching motions near my chest. Emboldened, he even shoved his hand toward my virtual crotch and began rubbing." The incident only ended when she removed her headset, exiting the game. In virtual reality, Belamire thought she had found a world where anything was possible. She could kill monsters; she could fly. But she still couldn't keep a man from groping her.