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Our Avatars, Our Selves: Gender & Second Life
The Real World: Do Virtual Lives 'Count' ?
New York, 9:46 PM
Sun Nov 29
22 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/06/09
11/07/09
@Brawlita: For fun I tried to create The Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman in the Sims once. Trying to create an accurate Despair was nearly impossible, and not just because I couldn't have her naked. #videogames
11/06/09
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11/06/09
He reads superhero comics (side note: I dislike Uncanny X-Men and was so disappointed in the lack of race, gender ANYTHING nuances. I had heard so many good things about X-Men and it just didn't stack up). I get annoyed with people who draw all the women with the same bodies. Granted, they draw men all the same, too. But this is what's frustrating! People look different! Give them different proportions and faces!
He argues that it's an escape fantasy, and that people want to read about what are essentially wet dreams about what they wish they were - beautiful, strong, superpowered, adventurous, whathaveyou people. I think that's bull. I want to play lots of different people when I game. I always choose a race other than human (or its equivalent), because I find that more fun. I make characters that I wouldn't really ever want to be, but I want to explore what it might be like to be a princess, or an assassin, or have giant-ass horns. He always picks someone who is more or less him.
I don't want a fantasy world full of idealized characters. I want flaws, I want scars and missing limbs, different races, different genders, sexualities, abilities and all of that. It's so much more of an escape fantasy that way, I feel. I don't want to be me, I want to be someone else, to try to figure out what that might be like. I'm wrong, of course, but it helps me relate to people better. I remember playing a deaf woman, and how challenging it was to know that she couldn't hear anything (it was D&D and she was a bard. That was a roleplaying challenge). It made me think about my own abilities, my own prejudices, and my privilege to be able to hear in a way that I probably never would have experienced in any other way. Do I know what it's like to be deaf? Of course not. But it made me think more about what life would be like and made me a little more sympathetic to my own privilege.
I don't think this is necessarily a dangerous thing, but I think it's like erosion. A little is not that big of a deal. But over time, it starts to matter. We start to see this as "normal" - I know too many people who already do. They see this as what men/women should strive to be, and those who don't are strange and uneducated. This is the picture of health and beauty, and they won't settle for less. Sometimes for themselves, but most often for partners. I don't think video games will like, bring down society or anything, but I think it can exacerbate problems that already exist. It doesn't happen overnight, but over years and years of escaping into this fantasy, so many of my friends seem to have trouble breaking out of it. #videogames
11/06/09
Tell him to read Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol. The three main characters are a woman with multiple personalities, a man who had his brain put in a metal body, and a male/female amalgamation. #videogames
11/06/09
The other points you made are valid, we do struggle with real life images and ideas on sexuality in a platform that allows you to be anything you wish (yes even a Panda!). I think that many of us make our avatars an idealized version of ourselves.
I would invite you to look into the Second Life fashion community for just a small sample of the blogs out there. I think you would be surprised that there are some realistic looking avatars represented there along with yes many fashion model looking avatars. Here is a link to one of the fashion feeds: [fashion.shopaholicfeed.com]
Also, the photo you attached to your article is at least 4 years old and in no way represents current avatar, fashion or even architectural trends in Second Life. #videogames
11/06/09
And yes, SL does change often - I generally do race research on games and there are some interesting articles published about racial representation in SL and how that has changed as time goes on and the gaming population changes.
As for realistic looking avatars, I would expect no less - as a black player, I always try to make my avatars as close to myself as possible, as a way of representation. I would not be surprised if many women - especially those sick of the ideal - modeled their avatars as closely after themselves as possible.
As for the photo, I just went looking for SL people with boobs. Thanks for your comments though! #videogames
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That seems completely off base and inaccurate. Something tells me that the interviewed avatars were not from a wide cross section of the population, but more from a single location (say, a club). My SL friends almost unanimously said their face was their primary concern when creating their shapes.
As a Second Life resident (and content creator) I've found that a person's avatar tends to reflect what that person is in SL for. If that resident is there for sex, hyper-sexualization of the features is just expected. That does seem to be a fairly large percentage of the population but it's not the rule. People who are more fashion oriented (where they can truly have the most fabulous shoes in the world) or socially oriented tend to have more in keeping with a beautiful actress or model than a completely out of this world video game character.
Oh, and @ TheUptightMidwesterner you can be a panda! You just need to find and buy the panda avatar from another user.
11/06/09
I just really want to be a Panda. #videogames
11/06/09
11/06/09
Blame China! I would be a panda person too! #videogames
11/07/09
11/06/09
My point, I guess, is that people already feel like they have permission to be total tools when they’re online, and I think the hypersexualization of female avatars exacerbates that. That dick would have been unlikely to treat my mom like that in real life. These creations don’t look like women, who should be respected, they look like blow-up dolls, which exist purely for the gratification of men. So the men who are already douchebags are even more likely to objectify and mistreat the female avatars. #videogames
11/06/09
I take issue with the idea that they do not look like women "who should be respected."
All women, even those who "look like blow-up dolls" and are dressed in a sexual manner, deserve respect. Those creations may not look like the majority of women, and their body types should not be the only ones to represent women as a whole, but women who look or dress like them still deserve respect.
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I was also very disappointed in Fran - it seems like FF has to 'compensate' for a kickass female character by overemphasizing her sexuality - not just Fran, but Lulu in FFX, who was awesome but had gravity-defying cleavage and would do a Sunshine Girl cleavage shot as her winning pose. I still loved her, but that pose made me angry every time I saw it. #videogames
11/06/09
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And the Tauren avatars had such fantastic hips, too. #videogames
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11/06/09
In regards to the article though, I play WoW and I have for about 3 years. And yeah, there's a ton of gender stereotyping that goes on; when I group with people I don't know, I never tell them that I'm a woman at first because I know that's just inviting stupid messages or that people will assume that I suck at playing.
I try to let my l33t skillz speak for themselves ;) #videogames
11/06/09
11/06/09
Any other WoW players have male characters? PS - Servers? I'm on Dunemaul... #videogames
11/06/09
That said, most of my Sims are incredibly pretty. #videogames
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I stopped playing much because well.. I do have other things to do... and also, the amazing sculpture-like hairstyles with realistic movements were ruining my graphics card... #videogames
11/06/09
I too am incapable of making a truly ugly Sim. Even the one I made to be the "village idiot" is kind of handsome. #videogames
11/06/09
@purpleshoes reminds everyone to take typing breaks and stretch, ow: OMG, if you have Sims 2, at Mod the Sims 2, they have a ton of ethnic garb from all over, including salwaar khameezes. I even had 3 burkhas from Sims Resource. Damn, I miss that game. #videogames
11/06/09
This just makes me incredibly sad. #videogames
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11/21/08