Monday, June 22, 2009

Prejudice in Second Life


One of the great things about Second Life is, you never know who you might run into while wandering the streets late at night. When I spotted this fashionista, with her shiny latex body suit, I just had to strike up a conversation.

She was surprisingly friendly.. looks can be deceiving and was eager to tell me all about her dominatrix who apparently keeps an entire herd.. flock.. harem.. troop.. whatever the word is for a group of submissives.

When I complimented her on the lovely collar, we somehow got on the subject of the Neko lifestyle and she started asking me a lot of questions about the different types of roleplay in SL. She wasn't very new, but I got the impression that her experiences in the metaverse were limited to her current situation.

She seemed surprised that anyone bothered to engage her in conversation, which made me think about how residents are judged by their appearance here, maybe even more than in First Life. The reason seems to be that in SL we choose who we become, externally, while away from the computer, much of what makes up who we are is out of our control... like the language we learn to speak, the color of our skin, our sex, etc.

Here, it seems, prejudice against some groups is excused, because they've chosen to express their individuality in a way that differs from the masses.

I think maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge. Second Life should be a safe haven to explore those little quirky kinks of personality, things you'd never do in real life.

On a side note.. I haven't seen headgear like that since the fourth grade when Donny Mathews got his uber orthodontic braces over Christmas vacation to fix his overbite.

Seriously.

I think he's still in therapy.

That's my two cents worth (or like 50$L) for now. We'll talk again soon. Ya'll have a good one and I'll see you around the grid.

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