From Living in the Metaverse:
There is also another thing that bothers me. If this trend continues,
and it probably will, we'll have a nice "clean" world, world where even
nipples on 15th century paintings are too much. At the same time, just
a few sims away, we'll have places where kinks get the forms closer to
pathology than to sex. We'll have the violence, mutilations,
humiliation, sex with animals and rapes.
I very seldom write about anything substantial here, or do any
editorializing. My Second Life is mostly about shopping, finding cute
clothes, finding fun places, and that's as it should be. But something
has been bothering me lately, and I keep meaning to write about it, but
just haven't.
It isn't about fashion, but actually, in a way, it is.
Everyone is different, and everyone gets their kicks in a different
way, and that doesn't bother me. To each his own, and Second Life
gives us all a way to be whatever we want to be--younger, prettier,
more muscular, taller, a vampire, or an angel, or an animal. We can
have (theoretically) guilt-free sex with whomever (or whatever) we
want, we can dress any way we please.
Just because I have no interest in dressing in latex, stiletto-heeled
boots, or body oil, doesn't mean that other people can't, and I have
nothing to say about it. It's not for me, and I just don't care. I
don't have any interest in role-playing, and I find the whole Gor thing
sort of amusing. I can't really understand anyone wanting to role play
as a slave, but obviously some do, and so be it.
But there is something that I absolutely can't understand. I'll never
understand BDSM, although I guess I can, kind of, strictly on an
intellectual basis. People, like I said, get their kicks all kinds of
different ways. But the thing that floors me is the so-called fashion
designers who come up with things like bloody skins, bloody clothing,
skins with bleeding cuts, bruises, etc. Although I can't imagine
wanting something like that, I suppose there must be a demand for it.
But why would anyone want to make such awful things? You don't have to
sell things just because there are people out there will buy it.
How can anyone have respect for themselves if they're making and
selling things like gags or torture devices? I'm repulsed by all of
the facial piercings, the lip piercings especially, but at least that's
something that people are doing to themselves. Take a look at that
article I referenced, and look at the second photograph (NSFW). What's
that all about? If Second Life can be all things to all people, there
are going to be people out there who get their kicks looking at a woman
impaled on meathooks. But is it something we want to encourage? My
vote would be an unequivocal "No."
LL seems to be hell-bent on keeping child roleplay out of SL, and I
understand that. I find child avatars fairly creepy, frankly, and have
no interest in that kind of roleplaying. But how can they work so hard
at keeping child roleplay way out on the fringes, yet let things like
mutilation and torture go on? Yeah, it's all just pixels, but as we
all know, pixels have power, too. There is a real person behind every
avatar, and some of them are going to be people we wouldn't want to
meet in a dark alley. If at all possible, I don't want to meet them in
SL, either.
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