Friday, August 08, 2008

Yet another must-read: in defense of unrealistic avatars

Sophrosyne Stenvaag posts a defense of "unrealistic" avatars that is well worth reading, and I have to say I agree.

Yes, body image and what people do to themselves in RL is a serious issue. Models who look like they went straight from the concentration camp to makeup to runway are neither beautiful nor healthy.

But... this is SL, where we can do better. [Insert sound clip from The Six Million Dollar Man here.] Why should we settle for our RL selves, products of genes selected for scarcity in a world of abundance, our telomeres shortening like that ominous fuse crawling across the Mission: Impossible intro?

Head over to Sophtopia and, as Glenn Reynolds says on Instapundit, read the whole thing. (And some other things, too, while you're there.)

2 comments:

Vidal Tripsa said...

Soph and your good self do remind me of what it is and what it means to have the form I am (that's me in the picture she included in the article, by the way). It's a tough indulgence; breathtakingly wonderful, with the occasional, sad and niggling realisation that I am what I cannot be in first life. Most of the time I shrug such thinking off very quickly and simply continue to be myself, however both you and Soph have posed the question now, as to how I might at least take something from this form. I had my time dealing with what I do here and how I can bring that back; perhaps now is a good time to try and bring out some of the way we look, too?

CronoCloud said...

Linden Bachelor Farmers, so you know they're reentrant. he he he

Can't buy dialog like that.

SL wouldn't be the same without the cat-girls, fox-men, winged girls, mermaids and so forth.