The other day i had a super interesting interaction in Second Life. An young buff male avatar approached my avatar and after brief informal hellos and introductions he mentioned that my avatar was still new-looking (in Second Life you can coustomise the body of your avatar to a near infinite amount of looks or styles, but it seems that there are waaaaay more advanced models of avatars that you can obtain as you keep going.) Clearly i looked like a newbie! About a week prior to this interaction a girl befriended me and helped me 'rezz' some new clothes and hairstyles...she obviously thought i could use a makeover too!
So I was feeling pretty confident with my new tight black jeans and corset ensemble. Most of the clothes she had offered me were kind of hussy to say the least so I think my selection was quite modest. There seems such an emphasis placed on the sexualisation of your avatar in second life. I had not considered this until now. I knew that people were for sure engaging in all kinds of sexual activity in Second Life, I just thought I'd have to actively seek it out as opposed to it coming to me.
So this man, Cahn I think he calls himself, he asked if I'd like to be sexier. Yes Please! Hell yeah I want to be a sexier avatar. Thus began my transformation! He transformed himself into several models in order to demonstrate to me the kinds of hotties I could become. He rested for a while on 'jane' I like this one. Jane is PORNSTAR to say the least. Her body even holds sexy poses in order for her to seem more appealing and alluring. Nice. So sure, ill take her. We decide on a hairstyle and he sends me the files to apply to my avatar and now Brigit Batriani is a cyber-hussy. Just brilliant!
He asks would I like to try a hug? wow I've never had a hug in second life before...sure. A combination of keys typed into the local chat box and there, we embrace. Well our avatars embrace. That's so weird I'm thinking because watching a virtual embrace is so very different from a real life hug! Now lets try a kiss? he asks.
He wants me to follow him over to this grassy bank near the ocean (we teleported here earlier) I assume he knew the exact locations of some little pieces of programming and he seemed to know his way around this spot quite well. Now he asks that I click on a pink ball that rests in the grass next to a blue ball. Again a quick combo of keys....woah our avatars have laid down in the grass and are beginning to make out. This is hilarious to me. I'm watching this porno looking boy and girl roll around in the grass, passionately locked in some serious kissing. I want to preserve this moment so I change the view of my window and take some snapshots to save as proof. (I'm thinking that I'm so sneaky, it felt naughty and as if i might be a bit predatory for have recorded our interactions. At the time i thought that my video camera was still on as well and that i was recording the projection onto my body....but the camera had shut off..no battery left! time had gotten away on me.)
So after about a minute or two of this, hes saying, hot kiss huh!?
I felt like I didn't reall know what to do...what the rules of engagement might be...
I had to leave shortly after this so we said goodbye with the intention to meet again.
Since all of this happened my mind has been going crazy trying to analyse and decipher what had really happened and what i had experienced and the nature of embodied virtuality.I felt so removed from my avatar...especially as she became a projection of this guy's fantasy. And yet strangely I felt I needed to confess the interaction to a few people, it felt kind of private but not entirely. Was I fulfilling his fantasy? What a sexualised space i had entered into! This constant emphasis to be hotter/hottest is just so fascinating. I guess if you can look like a pornstar why would you want to look fat and bald huh?
Its worth mentioning that after our avatars had kissed he blurted, I'm 39 by the way. (his avatar looks like a 20 year old blonde body building jock.)
Neat I thought. And for the first time I really tried to picture this real life person-in sweden he tells me- sitting at a computer while interacting in a virtual world. Wow so many places for our bodies to go!
So many more questions and analysis to come I'm sure.
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