The body culture in Second Life is such that one’s avatar must look *just so*. Making sure your hair is perfectly adjusted to flit and fly and animate in synch with the head movements is a complicated business. I am simply blown away by the technical and scientific discourse in this post at Linden Lifestyles: Hair Editing 101. Those women are goddesses of style and intellect - they deserve honorary doctorates for their contributions to posthumanism!
Hello! I have not seen these “hairstyles” yet on Second Life. It’s really amazing how Second Life is evolving! How do you like it so far?
I recently was involved with a podcast on Second Life with Jeremiah Owyang and Robert Scoble. Let me know what you think:
http://ebizz.wordpress.com
-Chris
Comment by Christopher Salazar — April 29, 2006 @ 8:07 pm
Why thank you, I’m very happy to accept honorary doctorates on behlf of myself and Salome
That’s an interesting point about one’s avatar looking *just so* and something I’ve thought a lot about. I think there is a mainstream look, which is clearly humanoid and most often proportioned like Ken or Barbie, as applicable.
However, I think there are a lot of perfectly accepted avatars who break the body mold - elka Lahane and Ingrid Ingersoll are both very high profile women who design popular clothing lines and have what would generally be considered “heavy” SL avs, much more proportionate to RL women.
In addition, don’t forget that there are plenty of goths, punks, dragons and furries as well as barbie avs - and for the most part, all of these groups mix very normally together. So while I think there’s a lot of consumer focus in SL on achieving the exact look you want, I don’t think its a particular or culturally prescribed look. Do you?
Comment by Sabrina Doolittle — April 30, 2006 @ 4:35 pm
Hello again! Actually, I think the beauty of Second Life is the creativity. I do not believe that culture really has a big impact on the look of avatars (hairstyles, dress, etc). In fact, its more of a “real” fantasy world where a person can explore as many places in just a few minutes. So, perhaps my avatar would be someone I’d hope to be (i.e. buff), rather than who I am in real life.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Comment by Christopher Salazar — May 1, 2006 @ 5:04 pm
Oooohhh these comments are so fab they’ve inspired me to write a new post about body culture. Stay tuned!! And thanks for commenting, so nice to see Second Life citizens here!!! *huge smiles* Make sure to say hi if you see me in world!
Comment by Anya — May 2, 2006 @ 1:08 am
Christopher’s comment is interesting. I agree its often about fantasy, but for me its not a fantasy about someone I’d hope to be but rather a fantasy about things one cannot be. One cannot fly, for example, or don wings, or be a dragon, or have hair that does any of the hundreds of extraordinary things so many SL hair styles do. But within SL, I get to play with the impossible and I find that really rather interesting.
Be you a Barbie doll or a dragon, however, I think the avatar one constructs will somehow reflect key self-identity points. And that is probably worth a whole thesis on its own!
Comment by Sabrina Doolittle — May 2, 2006 @ 10:57 pm
I haven’t had a chance to really play with hairstyles yet. I often think I should grow my hair long again; perhaps I will have my avatar do so
Comment by William Wend — May 8, 2006 @ 12:53 am