Why am I an Ebony avatar?
Lately there has been a bit of flack going about in the blogosphere and Plurk realms about the propriety of gender and race bending. Is it right, wrong, or what? All I can say is that if you don’t understand that an avatar is form of expression and not a depiction of reality, then what the hell are you doing here? The only person who I think even comes close to representing their true selves is Rik Riel. He went to the trouble of having his real life face meshed to his avatar. His activities also pretty much mirror what he does in the real world. Aside from Rik most everyone else in SL portray themselves differently than their RL selves. Some even go to extremes. How many of us are tiny rabbits and squirrels in RL?
In my case I deliberately chose to wear a black skin. I am white in RL and have no aspirations to be anything other than what I really am. In SL I have the freedom to chose. I chose an ebony look because I find it appealing, interesting and fresh. In my own way I am also honoring all those wonderful black women in my life. The beauties, the confident, the lively and the powerful women I have admired. Black is beautiful baby! And you know what? You don’t have to be black in RL to appreciate it, honestly! . NEVER let anyone tell you that you can’t do anything you want. A narrow view of the world guarantees you’ll miss out on all the sights and get blindsided from time to time.
Peace!
I don’t understand why someone would say “You can’t be black!” just because in RL you’re white. What about all the little Japanese avatars walking around? Why would that be different? Or the furries or the Glamazons or what-have-you?
If I wanted to look just like my RL self, I’d stay in RL.
Well said, GoSpeed, well said!!
we are free to be who ever we want to be, no matter what colour, gender, or species… i’m certainly not part rat in real life nor am i a shapeshifter, shinigami, or even thin…
does it matter in a world where imagination is supposed to be the driving force?
NO
I ♥ you for this post!
You go girl!
/me salutes
I choose to wear a black avatar for much the same reasons. At first, though, it was because I simply never saw anyone else wearing a black av and wondered what kind of reaction I’d get. After a while (and nobody really saying much aside from “I like the change!”) I just stuck with it. Now it’s normal for me, and people are surprised when I switch back to a white av for a while!
I have no illusions about who or what I am in RL. SL is partly escapism for me. I have no desire to be my RL self in SL (though I do have an av for it). Being my RL self is *borrrrrrrrring*. I could just go look in the mirror if I wanted to be me!
Be who you want to be. Like the old saying goes, “those who matter won’t mind; those who mind won’t matter.”
I don’t comment on blogs often, I usually just read. however this is an intresting topic, and I believe the key word here is freedom. In our world today, specially the western world the word freedom is one of the most important words. From what I understand is that you are stressing on the fact that you are free to live the way you want, and you should not be judged for it. I can’t argue that, I do believe the whole “freedom” idea is a cleverly constructed lie for political purposes, so explaining the fault in this way of thinking cannot be a simple disgreement to your examples in your blog. However, think about this, what would happen if every person in this world was free to live the way they chose and fought for their freedom ? Simple answer is, we would all be killing each other and ultimately none left alive.
Everything in this world exists in comparession to its opposite. an object is only as short as another object is tall, something is only as beautiful if another is ugly, something can only be good if there is bad. The whole concept of “beauty” for example would not even exist if “ugly” and “unappealing” objects did not exist in this world. Religion, Law, Honor, Rules, Faith, Belief they are all merely tools to keep the balance between the right and wrong, by keeping a firm concept of “wrong”, they allow “right” to exist. It is by keeping the balance that we can cherrish the “good” in life, and to keep the balance, we do need the “bad”. This is true, specially considering that the idea of what is good and what is bad is different for each person.
There is a good quote “We shouldn’t be fighting to change the world, we should be fighting to keep it the way it is now, with all its flaws and chaos. It is through battle, hardship and death that people will come to understand the fullness of life”. Infact without death, how would life even begin to exist ? Life itself exist and lives on because of death.
So can we have freedom without rules and restrictions ? Freedom wouldn’t exist. So no, we are not and should not be able to be free to do as we please. This idea of absolute freedom which has been nothing but a constructed lie for political purposes, it should not be taken for granted. There needs to be a fine balance between freedom and restrictions/rules for freedom to exist, which means, there are certain things we should not be allowed to do, regardless of if we are free to do so or not.
Hey Sands, your comment is very extensive and well thought out. But, my main thrust was that people should not be categorized and pigeon-holed. What I did not mention was that this commenter on another blog implied that only black people could use a black avatar in SL. For me as a white person to do so was an insult and in some way taking away from black people. I contend that to be moronic and facetious. If someone can point out where I have ever portrayed my avatar in a damaging and stereotypical fashion I would concede the point.
To judge an avatar based on it’s skin color is wrong. To judge a person on their RL skin color is just as bad if not worse.
GoSpeed, you rock for this! What a terrific post. I think the essentialists, the people who say you can’t speak about something or present as something unless you’ve been born to it, deny the very prospect of learning from each other, from having meaningful communications, from sharing and growing.
Being who we want to be, showing ourselves in the light we choose, is just a fundamental right. But like you said, it can even be more than that – it can be a sign of honor, respect, celebration – of understanding, empathizing, sharing.
You’re gorgeous, you’re terrific, and you’re standing up for what digital freedom is all about!
Good post and I agree 100%! SL is a fantasy world, I can be there what ever I want. Omg it would be boring if people could only be like they are in rl. I have black skin, brown skin, red skin, blue skin, monkey skin, cat skin, bunny skin… I love to be in SL what i could never be in rl. Luckily the people you are talking about are a minority
I’m with you all the way GoSpeed.
Oddly enough I have a wear totally white skin, and I have some Chinese and Australian Aboriginal ancestors, even though I look mostly white in RL. Now I wonder if someone will complain I’m faking as well.
Woot! As you are so am I. Black that is. Next comes the handicap. Forcing avatars to make all their homes wheelchair accessable, oh and we should have signing for the deaf and seeing eye furries for the blind to come in and enjoy the world. We all get it, ok. Its a fantasyworld. Sands logical and well written peice is still poop in as it applies in world. I could get all deep and probing too, but I am here to enjoy myself,not probe the inner workings of social behaviours and political correctness. Since I am causing no grief to no one, what others say is meaningless. My friends like me, and at the end of the day, I am pretty fine with that.
True Shinigami, as I mentioned in my reply earlier, cannot disagree with her comments on expressing yourself freely, specially in cyber space.On a smaller scale it is easy to agree/disagree with certain ideas, however things can quickly turn into a much more complicated and controversal topic. Here is a scenerio, what if a rl male decided to be a woman in an online eviorement, be it sl, word of warcraft whatever. On the surface and based on most poeple’s reply here, he should be free to express himself the way he wishes, however lets say this person ends up in an online relaitonship with a woman, who is under impression that she is communicating with another woman not a male. Now is that also acceptable behaviour ? I can see how someone should be free to express themselves in any way/shape they desire, but what about the other side of things ? Look at it from the perspective of the woman, where we can argue and say such a freedom of expression was damaging to her and she could feel that she was used.
Now granted GoSpeed Racer’s act of “freedom of expression” is harmless in her case, however as you saw in my example “freedom of expression” be it in rl or online should not be a “right”. So in my opinion, it is not ok to just express yourself in way you see fit. However who am I to say what is right and what is wrong, just my opinion, right and wrong are perspectives that differ from person to person. So my suggestion is, this shouldn’t be a question of “right” or “wrong”. If you believe in something to be the right thing for -you-, then go for it by all means, however understand that your “right” maybe someone else’s “wrong”, so do take the resistance and opposition your decisions may bring in mind. Value your feelings towards it and see if the resistance/opposition that you will face is worth it to -you- as an individual. Though disclaiming the black person opinion about this issue and calling it “stupid” is not the right thing to do. Right and wrong is a man made thing, there are no absolutes.
(apologize in advance for my horrible spelling and grammer, english isn’t my first language)
Great post,GoSpeed!! I have thought about this a lot myself. Just over a year ago, I created an alt to kind of get away from things. I’m a DJ in SL also, and with other social things I have going on, sometimes it was overwhelming and I created an alt to get some quiet time. The interesting thing was I decided to create a female alt for the hell of it. And strangely enough….I came to enjoy being her more than I do Crighton sometimes. It has definitely been an eye opening experience for me, which went even further along when I tried on an ebony skin on Aeryn and absolutely loved the way it looked. So yes, I agree wholeheartedly with your post. I am honest about who I am, and I do not let anyone one with Aeryn as I’m already in a relationship and I don’t need things more complicated than they are already.
I love the freedom within SL, and what it gives us…..the chance to experiment with different aspects of ourselves. As long as I’m honest about what I’m doing, I’m just fine. I don’t have to broadcast to everyone, “Hey, I’m a dude!!” But I do let my friends know…..I think they think I am nuts…..well…..shit, anyone who knows me knows that already.
Anyhoo…great post!!
Great post! SL does give us the freedom to be who we want to be. SL is an escape for me, therefore, I’m going to be who and what I choose to be.