It seems like the blogsphere topic du jour is avatar body shape. Please do read Sophrosyne, Kate Ahmdal, Myg and the ongoing series of posts at New World Notes on this topic. Of course my good friend Rosie Barthelmess has talked about shape and size in her own wonderfully intelligent way for a very long time. Lots and lots of people are talking about avatar and body shape. Clearly, people in the virtual world are about as obsessed with body image as we are IRL. Why are we so consumed with how we look? Why? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I dunno either. Moving on.
When I was a two week old newborn fresh off Orientation Island JellyBean Madison dropped a shape on me. I spent some time tweaking that shape and use it to this day. My avatar is smaller than average in SL as I am just 5'8" and I don't have the ginormous breasts that are the norm either. I am much more "Mary Ann" than "Ginger." Still, sometimes I go for a look that is a little different than the girl next door.
How I choose to look is an expression of my mood. It changes. The longer I live in the virtual world the more I experiment with looking different than the western standard of beauty. Still, on any given day it is likely that I will look something like this:
So is the point of this post to show a long line of vanity photos? Maybe a little. Ok not really. The point I am trying to make is how an avatar looks can be a creative choice or it can be a statement. It can be an attempt to seek attention or it can be an attempt to deal with a RL hurt. You just don't know. And because you don't know what some one's motivation is or what their goal is I personally find judging an avatar's appearance distasteful.
So all this talk about how its wrong to be too thin, too fat, too conventional, not conventional enough -- it all just makes my head spin. I would not think of judging some one's appearance IRL because you can't control the biological package you were handed. So in a world where we get to choose our body is it suddenly ok to judge a person's shape? For me the answer is no. I make a point to accept other people exactly as they present to me.
Having said that I would hope people take some time to think about their avatar. Why do I look this way? What does my appearance say about me? How do people react to me because of how I look? Does my appearance work for me? Do I want to change what I look like? These are the types of questions I would hope people are asking themselves. SL allows us great freedom of expression. Since we get to decide how we look it seems like a good idea to allow ourselves to explore a little and make our appearance choices thoughtfully.
I personally am grateful for the opportunity to be a tiny pink robot on occasion.
15 minutes ago
4 comments:
I really shouldn't be surprised at this point, but this is exactly what I've been thinking as well. Thank you for writing this.
I mentioned the whole avatar body shape debate to a friend. She said it sounded like reverse prejudice: Look how much more creative *I* am in my non-RL shape. I'm not sure it's quite that extreme. But I think you are right that we should be more tolerant. It's as hurtful in SL as it is in FL to have someone scorn your appearance.
Great write up!! And I SLove the tiny pink robot!! Too cute!
I agree we shouldn't judge people's shapes as in "that's bad! you shouldn't look that way!". On the other hand I think a (what?) milder form of judging is entirely valid; if someone looks a certain way, it's reasonable to conclude (to judge?) that they're someone who wants to look that way (since they have so many other choices). Still don't know just WHY they've chosen to look just that way just now, so not safe to make any Fixed Judgements, but it's certainly a clue.
You, for instance, look adorable and wise and lovely. And you are! :)
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