Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
Last week I covered a great blog post from Canary Beck about the Dos and Don'ts of approaching women in Second Life. Although there's a lot of practical advice in both posts, it does only cover one shade of the Second Life dating spectrum. As NWN commenter Merc put it:
I can assure you, men avatars in SL have also the very same creepy approaches by women avatars, no difference. For example, as the reverse of the blogger's statement, me, as a male avatar, the unsolicited IMs I receive typically come from females. And trust me, with the same type of eyebrow-raising communication. As the blogger writes about how men don't believe that you don't feel lonely when sitting on the beach alone, women avatars, just like that, don't believe that a man avatar doesn't want to be seduced every time they are addressed.
It's true, especially if you take even an ounce of care with customizing your avatar. Even in the brief time I've spent with a male avatar on I remember receiving proposals and propositions completely out of nowhere, with almost as much frequency as I received them while wearing my everyday female avatar. But of course I've never spent a significant amount of time presenting as a man in Second Life. Even when I wore that male avatar, my account name and profile were unchanged, so I'm far from qualified to speak to the experiences of those who spend all their time in SL as a member of the sometimes-scruffier sex.
That's why I want to hear from those of you proudly sporting male avs in SL: What are the best and worst ways that someone could approach (or has approached) you in the virtual world? And if you have a non-binary (or even non-human) avatar, I want to hear from you too! As I said, there's a very broad spectrum of possibilities in SL, and mine and Canary's experiences only cover a sliver of it.
As ever, share your thoughts in the comments below!
