The "standardization" of Second Life©?
I know using a question as title for a post may be not “right”, but about this issue i want to talk about i have more doubts than trues, specially because it’s more a question of opinion than a question of reality.
Possibly i can say i’m kinda old in Second Life©, more than two years, not sure if is old, but is enough to perceive some kind of evolution, or change around.
I have the feeling something is changing gradually in the community, something i can call “standardization”. I have the feeling like some of the so called “sub-cultures” are disappearing, or being less visible. Furries, tinies, robots, etc. I see more and more “humans” and less “different” avatars. Even inside the “human” group i perceive this normalization i was talking about, in tones of skin, styles of shapes, clothing, hair, …
Someway i think something the old diversity is lost in a big group of Mediterranean look guys and stylish girls wearing them all fantastic outfits created by the SLfashion gurus. Of course i still see some really imaginative avatars around, some furries and some tinies, but i have the feeling they are not so much as before. Ok, maybe is just a feeling and maybe this is caused by the environment i’m exploring or the people i have social contact inworld. I’m not sure, so this post is a way to express this ideas and also know what others think.
It may be all that i just said, and it also may be a reality caused by the discrimination existing to the different avatars. I saw some places where the visit of furry avatars was forbidden (not only some clubs, also some other places), i saw “human” avatars insulting a furry and calling him very bad things, including comments about the sexuality or the preferences (including animalism) of him/her.
I don’t have the moral superiority to preach, and i don’t pretend to do it, i just think there was more avatar diversity before and i miss it. I don’t pretend someone to change, i am what i like to be and i’m sure everybody is the rest, but i’m not talking about individual behaviours, is about group behaviour.
All this post is rambling, is a feeling, is just something i have in mind sometimes. I wanted to share it and i’d like you to share your opinion about it.
15 Responses to “The "standardization" of Second Life©?”
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I think part of the standardization relates to something I will call “Beauty Vigilantes” – those all knowing residents who like to make fun of others in blogs for skin/hair/clothes/shapes that don’t match their definitions of how avatars should look. I think – especially if you are fairly new and/or just trying to fell like a part of the community – people try to avoid having these “experts” make fun of them, so they conform.
You’d think in SecondLife we’d have the opportunity to explore/experience and celebrate all kinds of diversity. Instead it sometimes feels like we’re surrounded by high school cliques telling us how thin/fat/tall/short/ we should be, whether our boobs and butts are too big/small, if we’re too shiny or not shiny enough, if we do or don’t wear face lights that are too bright or not bright enough, what we should/shouldn’t wear, etc.
I’ll stop venting but maybe SL should start having “beauty” contests that celebrate the most interesting/different/odd/unique avatars out there.
I haven’t been on the grid for very long, but have been present while a furry was being discriminated against. One night while I was at a lesbian dance club, the DJ shouted out for everything to TP their friends in. So I invited one of my best friends on the grid to come and dance. She also happened to be a furry. She was there for not even 5 minutes before an employee of the club IMd her and told her she was not welcome as a furry, but if she switched to a human female, she could stay. At a lesbian dance club! I was angry and embarrassed that I had brought my friend to such a place. She told me it actually happens much more than I probably think it does.
I found it amazing that a group of people(GLTB community) who have suffered so much by a large portion of society are now choosing to do the same to another group (furry). Could they not see the hypocrisy?!
Sorry I rambled so much about this, but I get very upset when I see things like this happening. I appreciate you writing about this, as I have many robot avatars I like to bring out on occasion that get me odd looks…
I already said this on your plurk, but I suspect that the people who got into SL when it was young were from the gamer/geek/anime/rp/artist communities. That crowd is not only familiar with unusual avatars, but embraces creative thinking. As SL has become mainstream, people are joining who haven’t been exposed to diverse visual genres. In addition, there is the pressure to conform that comes the mainstream. I think that many people use SL to project their idealized selves, and since advertising is people’s main exposure to art, they all end up looking like fashion illustrations. Couple that with a lack of creative skin, hair and clothing design, especially for men, and you get the Attack of the Clones.
I’ve witnessed many instances of harrassment, from people griefing Gorean sims, to anti-furry signs, to people making fun of vampires – we’ve suddenly been transported back to the agonies of middle school. Just like gentrification in cities, I think the artists who created the rich environment will move on, and SL will become Walmarted and Starbucked.
I have to agree with Silver. The change you are seeing is just coming for an adjustment in the average SL resident. There are more mainstream people in SL than geeks. I am almost 5 years old in SL, and this has been happening with increasing numbers yearly for quite some time in SL.
I agree with the comments above. In the (nearly) three years I have been in SL, the ‘average’ resident has definately changed. I too miss seeing diversity when I am out exploring or going about my daily Second Life. It’s still out there, but tends to be confined more to areas where people know they won’t be abused.
Btw, it’s interesting that you should write this today. I’ve just come out of SL after having spent a happy afternoon, recreating myself as a green skinned woodland faerie
Interesting observations Raul. I have noticed it depends what I am “looking for”. If I look for diversity, I see diversity. If I look for prejudice snobs, I see prejudice snobs. Usually it has to do with what is in my mind at the moment
… For example, when I first started SL I wanted my avi to have tan skin and I did not see that many avi’s with darker skin. I went to my favorite surfing sim with my new skin and there was a group of surfer avi’s (all pale white LOL). I was nervous I would not fit in. When I walked closer the chat changed to racial jokes about Mexicans and how Mexicans should stay out of the US and stay where they belong! One girl asked why they were now talking about Mexicans? And chat got totally quiet. So I left. What was this about? I believe it was about my own fear, my own self confidence. I was very hurt about the racial comments based on my avi’s “appearance”. But later I was very grateful because it helped me to believe in myself and to love what I created in my avi (not someone else’s love for my avi).
Now I try to go past physical avi appearances, it does not matter to me if so many avi’s look the same (standardized). I now try to see all avi’s as a creative expression and I try to go past the appearance – even if it all looks the same to me
))
Aloha
@ Honour: Your point is really interesting and i think you may be right about some “Beauty Vigilantes” can be quite cruel in their critics, not expressing his/her dislike about something but attacking personally someone, even giving avatar names.
@ Talia: That is true and sad. Two years ago i had a furry BF in SL, and you can imagine the kind of discrimination he had to suffer, and me as his BF. Thanks for sharing your experience.
@ Silver: Yeah, this process is happening and surely is affecting this issue. The “gentrification” happens in SL when we pass from 10000 residents to almost 90000 residents in the “rush” hours. This is an interesting issue that may deserve more than one post about it.
@ Eboni: You have even more vision than me about this, or at least more perspective due the time you were in SL. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
@ Phoenix: We are almost the same old and is nice you keep doing this things, like being a fairy for some hours (i should confess i was a minotaur for a long time today too
). Thanks for being here.
@ Sahoni: Of course all this maybe only a feeling, but i think is something real. I agree not everybody is the same, and SL is full of great people in all sense… and also there are some dorks around, anyway this post was not about personal chooses and is more about social group behaviour. As an example, i look like a Mediterranean guy, and i’m Mediterranean RL, but even i was Eskimo it would be ok to look Mediterranean, the question is more how that small social or group preasures coming from different places may push the average to a less diverse crowd. Thanks, my friend, for sharing your mind.
Thank you Raul for helping me to focus on possibilities and not problems. After reading your initial post, I made the intention to see wonderful diversity in SL (I did not leave my sim). I was visited by only two humans today, the others were an elf, elf-hybrid, a dragon and a zombie… all were new people, complete strangers LOL … thank you for helping me not only to look, but to “see”. aloha!
Well, welcome to mainstream SL. Not only that there is less and less “not-centerfold” avies iSL, those that express diversity are retreating to their own corners. There are furries inworld, of course. They just rarely come out of their own sims. SL is becoming ghettoised. Which is a sad fact, but it is a fact.
Talia, there’s never a guarantee that a minority or special group welcomes diversity. At best they may demand that they be accepted. Lesbianism is defined by celebration of the female form and of female sexuality. They feel this is their haven from other groups and that this is where everything is all woman. You will have to expect that places will be picky about the avs people wear on their premises. And yes, I share what you’re thinking right now. But it’s true: almost any interest group can be potentially a group which omits others.
Thank you for putting up this topic Raul! It’s something that has crossed my mind quite often.
I can only partly agree with you though.
Yes, it certainly is a pity that there isn’t more diversity in a world where you could be everything you’d like to be. Somehow people seem to prefer the most obvious – a RL model look – not realizing that what is unique in FL is mainstream in SL.
But no, I don’t think this is a recent development. I’ve also been in SL for two years now and except for a few hours always have had a non-human avatar. And I have always felt rather lonesome like that: I’m not a roleplayer and seldom visit RP sims, but outside I’ve only occasionaly met other non-humans, and even more seldom were they fulltime.
Since my very first days I’ve been asked why I was wearing wings, why my skin was blue, why I had spots on my face, why I had ears, or whatever my appearance was like. I think the forming of ghettos, like Dande describes, was already a fact when I entered SL.
There is another change however, that I’ve noticed in the past years. More and more often people seem to see their avatar as an extension of their RL persona, like a 3D chat icon or such. When they ask how you’re doing, they are not referring to SL but to RL in the first place, and a couple of times I’ve even been asked for my name on a first meeting (hey that’s written above my head!) Maybe that’s why they in general also feel safer in a human body?
(hmm could have made my own blogpost out of this instead of this lengthy reply
)
I wish I could remember the wording right but a fellow furry posed a question that seems to fit in here perfectly “Why in a realm such as Secondlife where you are only limited by your own imagination would you choose to be a human?” I for one say if I wanted to be a human there is a world outside my front door I can play in.
If anyone feels like searching me out go ahead I don’t scratch unless i have to… wait that sounded aggressive. mew
cat
Well, Cat, i think is just a personal option, i don’t have the right to critizise somebody for what he/she chooses to be in Second Life… as nobody has the right to critizise me for choosing to be a human most of my SLtime. All together is a question of respect under my point of view.
I think the ‘others’ are still there but sl gets bigger and bigger groupings evolve. There is some prejudice against others.
There are places I am not welcome as a Neko. There are plenty of places vamps are not welcome, but maybe that has to do with the tricksyness of Bloodliners looking for their next victim.
Sadly discrimination exists, what is kinda sad in what was supposed to be a new world… but this new world became finally a copy of the “real” one, with all its good and bad things…