While trolls recently griefing a Second Life flag with a trans flag may have the new-ish twist of adding pro-Russia propaganda, reader "yup" notes that antit-trans trolling is a constantly occurring issue in the virtual world:
Sadly these anti-trans trolls infiltrate everywhere in Second Life too and they target trans places since awhile. They are also joined by US conservative activists and trolls, who pretend to be moderate or have common sense, but in fact they parrot unhinged far-right slogans. Interaction is often more subtle than rezzing prims. LGBT+ dating boards are targeted too, there is at least a known case.
Often, though, it begins by private messages, starting slow, but in a manipulative way. The victims then let their guard down, then the trolls or "concerned trolls" do what they do. What at first may seem like a normal chat, then becomes something else. Depending on their target, the victim - even worse who was intending to just enjoy a safe space with like-minded people and feel understood - may end up with doubts or attacked and hurt.
I've definitely seen this kind of behavior in SL-oriented sites and on Reddit. Writing about Second Life's large trans community, Cajsa Lilliehook recently noted that it often pops up on a popular avatar gossip site:
For trans SL residents, their most authentic reality is their true gender, not the biological sex they often feel trapped in. When their Second Life avatar is a woman, it is because they are a woman at the most essential level. When their avatar is a man, it is because they are essentially a man. They do not feel like a man, they are a man. It is not catfishing; it is not deception.
This distinction is often lost on readers of Virtual Secrets, a popular but divisive site where Second Life users share anonymous gossip about each other. Nearly every week, someone submits a transphobic Secret denouncing this, that, or another SL resident as secretly of the opposite sex than their avatar. It’s as if there’s an active campaign to force Second Life’s trans community back into the closet.
James has a question for them: “How would playing as who you feel is right, be catfishing?”
Much more here in Cajsa's great profile on the large trans community in Second Life. Transphobic behavior of course is common across the entire Internet, but becomes even more of a grave concern when so much of the SL community relies on the virtual world as an anonymous free space to express their true self through their avatar.
Thank you for covering these topics and well said! You and Cajsa expressed it perfectly.
Posted by: Nadeja | Tuesday, August 08, 2023 at 04:50 AM