Sexy Second Life

My first day on Second Life, I had no idea what to do. I walked around for about an hour and no one would talk to me. Two girls finally came up to me (Frangelica and Veronika) and told me that my outfit was terrible and that they would give me some of the clothes they had created. The outfit I created is in the first snapshot and the outfit that Frangelica gave me is in the second snapshot. They told me that being here was all about your image and your appearance and the sexuality your portrayed. I don’t know what they thought I was here for, but I figured we were not here for the same reasons.
From here I proceeded to a beach front dance club. This is where I got my first taste of the different type of people that were in Second Life. The area that I saw the most focus on here was sexuality. The avatars here were dressed in provocative clothing and were as well talking to each other very provocatively. I decided to listen in on others, and I noticed a group of attractive avatars all hanging out and dancing together. When I started to read what they were saying I noticed they were discussing and laughing about raping another avatar because they said she was dressed like a hooker. I could not believe they were saying this about the girl. Then, one of the avatars from the group went up to the girl and was trying to get her to have sex with him. The avatars that were hanging around continued to talk about it and laugh about it right to her face. From the time I came in this girl had not bothered them or even stood near them. It is people like this that who give Second Life the reputation of distorted characters being the ones who hang out here. It did not stop there; a guy and a girl avatar were then talking about their “crotch” areas and things they could do. They then left to go somewhere together but did not return. The avatars emphasis on sexual matters seemed the most prominent conversation in this dance club.
This sexuality role that I noticed in avatars was one that I had heard frequently about in Second Life and was why I wanted to do my autoethnography in this virtual world. I wanted to find out for myself if the things I was hearing about were accurate. For this being my first experience, Second Life was turning out to be everything I had heard about it. There were strange people and inappropriate happenings here which fit right in with the stereotype and stigma that comes with it. I am continuing to keep an open mind throughout this process and going into my next sessions with Second Life and hope that there is something or someone within this virtual world that will change the preconceived notion I had about this.