I Have a Furry Avatar to Avoid Passing As Something I'm Not -- Comment of the Week

Some people may roleplay as furries in Second Life because they feel a spiritual connection to the real animal, or as a response to their real life appearance, but others have their own reasons for choosing a furry avatar. A longtime SLer took time away from creating Portal-esque hacks and other virtual world coolness to talk about his own foxtail-rocking avatar:

I've been in SL for over 10 years, and I've used a furry avatar for 100% of it. But I've never once roleplayed, and I don't consider myself 'roleplaying' when I use a furry avatar either, either.

(In fact, and this is an aside, I have a phobia of roleplay, I stay far away from it in SL. Performance anxiety.)

But as far as the furry avatar goes...

I'm still waiting on a good, moddable, male mesh human avie that I can identify with.

I don't really want to be a sex idol / male fashion model / beefcake / stud.

I just want to look normal. Not like the real me, just normal enough to identify with.

The current selection of human male avies, I just can't with any of them, and I'd identify with a female avie even less. Furry avie fits me better because they don't really exist. It's obvious I am not like my avie, so I don't feel like I'm trying to pass as something I'm not.

Love that twist on typical expectations. Many people make pretty questionable assumptions about users who have furry avatars, but are much less likely to wonder why someone chose to look like a (human) fashion model.

Comments

[Pulsar]

The key sentences seem to be: "The current selection of human male avies", "I don't really want to be a sex idol / male fashion model / beefcake / stud", " just want to look normal." (Perhaps someone is thinking: "normal... with a tail and a non-human head", but the general body shape can be).

I know a guy that has a male human avatar, but based on a female shape and a (not too muscular) male skin, for similar reasons. He was unsatisfied with the SL male avatars, too much stereotypically stud, beefcake etc. He didn't like the head too (of the standard SL avatar). He played with the sliders until he gave up, then he felt better in that other way.
Like-wise, not everyone likes to show as a Barbie woman, with large breasts, deep cleavages, protruding bum, wearing high heels always. There were times that I felt the selection of normal shoes for women quite lacking.

There is a lot of these stereotypes in SL. Maybe someone dreams to be like that, maybe someone is into flirts and/or sex and believes to be more attractive, maybe someone is conditioned by stereotypes and models and even if they see every day how people are in real life, when they think of the appearance of their avatars, they end up with a stereotyped model (often with unnatural proportions too, like too long legs and too short arms).
I can understand when a person feels uncomfortable with those and not fitting with the selection, opting for something else eventually, just wanting to look "normal" (in a way or another).

[PyKat]

This is more common than people realize! Same with non-human races in video games.