This article about second life is about gender in virtual worlds. It explores how you pick the gender you want to be in Second Life and that shapes how you act in the game. I found it interesting that in second life its all about “the breasts, the legs and the pectorals”. How your body looks and what you are wearing determines how much attention you will get when you are in second life.
Its interesting that in second life the stereotypes of what beautiful stays true. the girl with a filled out waist, smaller breasts said the following: “I felt like such a loser. In a virtual world!” There is still a need to ‘fit in’ in the virtual world of second life which is very disheartening. I always thought second life is a place for no judgement but there obviously is the need of approval similar to the one we may need in reality.
Its interesting that in second life the stereotypes of what beautiful stays true. the girl with a filled out waist, smaller breasts said the following: “I felt like such a loser. In a virtual world!” There is still a need to ‘fit in’ in the virtual world of second life which is very disheartening. I always thought second life is a place for no judgement but there obviously is the need of approval similar to the one we may need in reality.
Too true. Second Life is billed as an alternate virtual world, but the same conventions of stereotypes exist, and the basic primatial idea of visual attractiveness gets tied to genders and exaggerated with avatars in the game for mass consumption online. Those "breasts, legs and pectorals" are the norm in Second Life, so to fit in would be to take advantage of those same elements as well to become appropriately immersed in the virtual world the game provides. In that sense, trying to fit in continues in the online space just as it does in reality, but with a heightened sense of visual attention and economics surrounding exterior appearances in Second Life that is far from the norm in ordinary situations.
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