Ophelia's Gaze: Hotness and the Male Avatar

Exclusive to NWN, Iris Ophelia's ongoing showcase of all things stylish in SL

This is the third year I've done New World Notes' Top Ten Hottest Male Avatars list, and every year, the controversy surrounding it has steadily grown. (You can read just one of the heated argument threads from the semifinal rounds here.) This has forced me to take a look at how I develop the final list, and to share my approach with you.

What Hot Male Avatars Are Not

First of all, let me be entirely clear: This is not, never was, nor ever will be a Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest. If that's what you're expecting, I really do recommend that you look elsewhere in SL (because there's plenty of that available already). When Hamlet asked me to do the first list in 2007, I drew on my circle of fashion-forward acquaintances and put it together the best that I could. Men's fashion was really starting to take off at that point, and there was a growing caste of stylish men to choose from that were breaking the longstanding molds of beefcakes, Nosferatus, or newbs. My goal was mainly to promote and encourage the idea of more male avatars being as varied and style-conscious as many of their female counterparts.

But the response was much higher than both Hamlet and I had expected -- even attracting rogue flocks of SL Gossip Girls pursuing the chosen ten boys. It was not received with universal positivity, however, and I started hearing what would become a very popular complaint -- These males aren't manly enough! Fortunately, we had a solution (or so we thought):

The Wisdom of Ogling Crowds

By 2008, I no longer had an idea where of to begin in selecting for the list, so we began taking reader nominations. We also started judging based on what we could tell of their personality, their skills, and their contributions to Second Life's economy and community, to narrow the massive list down as much as possible. With criticisms in mind from 2007's list, I also made a concerted effort to include a wider variety of avatars, including body type, skin colour, and personal style, and ultimately produced a two part list with a new People's Choice feature (Part 1, Part 2).

But still, the complaint resurfaced. These men were still not "manly". One reader even said that since many of the finalists identified as gay, the list was boring -- or in her words, "zzzzzzz". That's when I realized what the list is really about.

What Hotness in Second Life Means to Me

Second Life is a world where anyone can express the deepest (or most superficial) parts of themselves with complete control, and I've always tried to represent that in my New World Notes articles where I can. In my opinion, that's the essence of what makes SL fashion so powerful. What few boundaries there are shrink with every passing day. Niche markets get bigger, more content is created for them, communities swell, and so on. Being hot in Second Life is even more subjective than being hot in real life, because there are so many more variables for these niches to take into account. What a solid list of ten hot avatars is for a Caledonian steampunk or a club-going fashionista will undoubtedly be very different. How can you quantify hotness on such a broad scale? To say that hotness in SL is one specific thing is to miss the point entirely. Hotness in SL is about doing something with your avatar and doing it well, whether you're bulky or scrawny, gay or straight, elf or neko, butch or effete, clown or supermodel. It's about taking the pretty lame bits of mesh and code that we're given on this platform and making them yours in the most effective way.

If I can compile a list that's so varied, everyone reading it can point to at least one male on it and say "He's hot", I've done what I set out to do. I hope that every year I will be able to make the list more varied than that of the year before.

Don't forget to come back next week to see if I've fulfilled that promise. The avatar pictured above, by the way, is actually me, in a male shape I keep on hand for fashion shoots. How hot of a man do you think I am? (Maybe I shouldn't ask!)

Iris Ophelia has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.

Comments

[ColeMarie Soleil]

Daniel for the win

[Leondra]

I so agree, Ophelia.

This post sent me searching from one of the very first blogs I read when I came to Secondlife.

http://angelaathomas.com/2007/02/23/the-avatar-as-a-new-literacy/
"Avatar as literacy", an interesting premise.

Hotness is more than visual. Hotness is skills, and how that is conveyed by originality, design, and intelligence in forever evolving ideas about one's presentation in this visual world. It's art.

[truthseeker]

"If I can compile a list that's so varied, everyone reading it can point to at least one male on it and say "He's hot", I've done what I set out to do."

*looks at the 10 flavors of white, emo, pretty-boy on the list*

...ummm... better luck next year, I guess...

Srsly, nothing against these guys, some of them are hella cute indeed, but I'd submit that they all pretty much appeal to one particular narrow "niche," as you described it, to the exclusion of the very diversity of hotness it seems from the quote above that you're seeking to represent.

In fact, in order to achieve such a list, I'm guessing you'd have to grit your teeth and actually include a beefcake or two, more than one man of color (I honestly can't tell if there's any on the current list that "count" in this regard), and maybe even a couple from the multitude of non-fashionista subcultures in SL, vast numbers of whom are constantly finding each other & hooking up, so clearly someone's 'hotness criteria' are being met :D

[Adric Antfarm]

What I see as hot, another may not, a third person has another idea of beauty altogether.

While I agree the discussion was borderline homophobia bait, it's a good example of how your task is hopeless and honestly - meaningless.

When one dinner guest dislikes beef and another chicken, the solution is not to bake a dish with everything in your kitchen. It's diverse, but hardly tasty to anyone.

If hot could be quantified, we would all get it more, but the world throws us at a suitor who one day wants a macho man and the next a French accent.

Hot is an individual heat setting.

[Nyx]

I have found that looking at inside of an individual tends to show the real beauty of who they are.

[Eddi Haskell]

Iris, I would hate to say it, but I thought the picture above was a chick not a guy. Actually, I am gay but if I did decide the make the switch I would go for a girl who looks just like you in that picture above!

[brandon]

I am sorry to say but as I guy I am offended by this patheitc excue forwhat you call a guy. Its a chick with a dick is all that is. And I use the word "that" becuase IT isnt a guy.
But whats to be expected from a bunch of sissified second life users. blech. I'll take a noob guy over the sissy look anyday.