Second Life politics
Uggh, politics.
Ever since I became actively involved with Second Life (SL) I have spent most of my time there at the Transgender Resource Center (TRC). I have been actively involved with it, including being one of the volunteers (admins/helpers) there. Now in a short time it has gone to where very some good friends who I would never dream of being opposed to me range from treating me coldly to refusing to talk to me. Going there often feels like an obligation.
So, how did all this happen?
The issue I have with them centers around child avatars. While the rest of the world would probably go “what is the problem?” in SL they have become the center of a controversy. While the reasons for people having them are usually innocent ones (reliving youth, having a childhood they wished they had, etc.) the common perception in SL is that people have child avatars for sexual reasons. Even the language has some myths about it as uninformed people in SL refer to it as ‘ageplay’, which on SL has sexual connotations.
The TRC’s rules ban child avatars and refer to it as ‘ageplay’. While banning child avatars may or may not be valid (after all, you need to be over 18 to be on SL) the language always bugged me since I have friends playing child characters. I learned to live with the policy though and just chalked it up to being written by someone uninformed about the issue. That is, until I created an alternate character who was a child. At that point my feelings towards the wording of the policy were taken to a whole new level.
As they were unwilling to completely eliminate the policy (and as I said, there may be valid reasons for keeping it) I made what I thought was a reasonable request. That we lead the way by showing how enlightened we were and rephrasing the rule’s language into something which was not inflammatory.
From the reaction you would think I had asked them to completely change it! This was the point where people started to avoid me.
Oh, and the administrative meeting where my proposal to change the wording was formally voted on? It passed unanimously when the facts of what I was asking were separated from the hysteria. Not that that changed any opinions towards me though.
Ever since I became actively involved with Second Life (SL) I have spent most of my time there at the Transgender Resource Center (TRC). I have been actively involved with it, including being one of the volunteers (admins/helpers) there. Now in a short time it has gone to where very some good friends who I would never dream of being opposed to me range from treating me coldly to refusing to talk to me. Going there often feels like an obligation.
So, how did all this happen?
The issue I have with them centers around child avatars. While the rest of the world would probably go “what is the problem?” in SL they have become the center of a controversy. While the reasons for people having them are usually innocent ones (reliving youth, having a childhood they wished they had, etc.) the common perception in SL is that people have child avatars for sexual reasons. Even the language has some myths about it as uninformed people in SL refer to it as ‘ageplay’, which on SL has sexual connotations.
The TRC’s rules ban child avatars and refer to it as ‘ageplay’. While banning child avatars may or may not be valid (after all, you need to be over 18 to be on SL) the language always bugged me since I have friends playing child characters. I learned to live with the policy though and just chalked it up to being written by someone uninformed about the issue. That is, until I created an alternate character who was a child. At that point my feelings towards the wording of the policy were taken to a whole new level.
As they were unwilling to completely eliminate the policy (and as I said, there may be valid reasons for keeping it) I made what I thought was a reasonable request. That we lead the way by showing how enlightened we were and rephrasing the rule’s language into something which was not inflammatory.
From the reaction you would think I had asked them to completely change it! This was the point where people started to avoid me.
Oh, and the administrative meeting where my proposal to change the wording was formally voted on? It passed unanimously when the facts of what I was asking were separated from the hysteria. Not that that changed any opinions towards me though.