Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Identity Mobility and Self-Presentation in Social Virtual Reality: A Dual Case Study Based on VRChat

Tianyu WangUniversity of York*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Social virtual reality (VR) is often regarded as a space that enables flexible self-reinvention. However, daily interactions indicate that "identity mobility" is fundamentally constrained by structures. This article explores how identity mobility (defined as the ability to cross and maintain embodied identities across different scenarios, without excessive restorative labor) is restricted in VRChat. We used digital anthropology and participant observation methods to analyze two diagnostic breakdown cases. Case 1 focuses on a form of gender ambiguity, in which a cute anime girl image, a masculine voice, and a feminine interaction style triggered viewers' scrutiny and interrupted normal conversations, revealing legibility as a normative threshold for recognition. Case 2 witnessed interference in a community world dominated by Mandarin (the "Chinese bar"), where an intrusion led local participants to switch to English to set boundaries, thereby compressing expressive participation into functional speech and making linguistic legitimacy manifest as symbolic power. Overall, these cases demonstrate how comprehensibility and legitimacy shape who can be recognized and heard in social VR, and this process requires extremely low interaction costs.

Keywords: VRChat; Social Virtual Reality; Self-presentation; Linguistic Capital; Symbolic Violence
Published: May 25, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.BJ33806
Volume: CHR Vol.110
pp. 54-60
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