Why Women like SL?

Hmm... off-topic point (scroll down to the bold on topic section if you don't want to read off topic ):

I work as a draftsperson, drawing houses. I have the same experience drawing houses in AutoCAD that the guy sitting next to me does. On top of that, I'm the ONLY ONE HERE with ANY experience drawing in softplan, the other (and still main, despite having lost everyone experienced in it but me) drafting program we use. As a result, I end up doing double, triple, quadroople the work, because said guy refuses to learn softplan. Said guy makes almost twice what I do.

Of course, said guy also has a degree, and I don't...

BUT...

Girl on other side of me, with more expeience under her belt than either of us, does more accurate work than the guy, AND has a college degree, makes roughly 3/4ths what the guy makes. (side note: she also refuses to learn softplan)

Said guy doe NOT work overtime, or do any 'specialized' kind of work or anything.

So, take that as you will...

On topic point:

The reason I like SL so much is the sameas many others here: you never really know who or what you're talking to, so there is true equality.

Also, I love learning... and this place is one gigantic place to learn all kinds of stuff... artistic, technical, social... everything! It's great ^.^

Lastly, being able to see everyone else's creations - whether they make me laugh, cry, go *squick*, or wonder how we evolved as far as we have - is... beyond words, really. It's like living in a giant artistic/social experiment.

I'm pretty sure the last two have nothing to do with me being a woman, but who's counting at this point?

Gah! Stop using these acronyms people! Please!!!

One of the most dangerous jobs is convenience store worker. When I go out at night to get something from a convenience store I'm not worried about a random attacker; I'm worried about walking in on a robbery.

Sexual selection, my dear. Male birds have to impress mates.



Fashion changes. Imagine a man going about dressed as George Washington, Issac Newton, or Henry VIII in daily modern life.



lol, that's a myth. Imagine a group of women and one girl sitting around talking about the movie Troy and the various actors. And how sexy they looked.



The Masai of Africa, the men paint their faces and dance for women. Crack open a cultrual anthropology book and you find many examples of men who paint themselves.



LOL, what happens when a woman is not beautiful?

And my bikini line never has to be waxed. It's always perfectly shaped.

I like Second Life for many reasons. I can meet interesting people I wouldn't meet otherwise. I enjoy working on collaborative projects. Second Life is full of possibilities. We can create almost anything we can imagine. Second Life has given me a new, more positive direction.

Some years back a few NASA contractors paid women a small premium over what they paid men. You're mostly right tho.

Women like SL for the same reasons men do, it's not bound by most of the restrictions of life; you can do anything you dream up. And the few rules there are, do an ok job of getting rid of the rifraf.

Try getting a job as a Nurses aide as a man, or as a nurse. Sure, youll'll be able to make a dollar or so more an hour, but you get called a sissy, pansy, etc, and the female aides and nurses consitently call you for favors moving people and covering their asses. When you're rushed and ask for a little help? Oh they are way too busy talking about soap operas to help you, and besides, you're supposed to be able to cover your own ass!

Yeah..sure we get paid a dollar more in most of thoses an hour. But, given all the BS I've seen.. we also earn it and more. If they truly wanted to make it even it would cut in women's gossip time..or menw ould be paid at least 3 dollars more for the extra work...

Oh and this is all FROM EXPERIENCE before anyone calls me sexist.

Elgyfu, I think that's wonderful. I am so glad that you were able to find a place where you were not afraid to just be "you;" and once you found that place, you found new freedom and could blossom.

Whatever you learn here about yourself DOES transfer back to RL.

I know I enjoy the freedom of SL and meeting the essence of who people are without getting distracted by the visuals and superficial details. It's funny how you see "less" of the person here in terms of outer detail, yet you see "more" of the real person underneath.

Creativity comes out, humor comes out, intelligence comes out. People are no longer limited by false constraints, they are only limited by themselves.

I know I have my own share of problems that has always made it easier for me to deal with people through writing, rather than talking. I was always over-anxious; I never asked for it, but I got that in spades.

For some people, time constraints and personality constraints make it hard to deal face-to-face in real time with other people. I sometimes find myself cringing sometimes when I am around people I don't know, feeling embarrassed for no reason I can imagine.

For whatever reason, SL doesn't have the same effect. (Maybe it is because you can be intimate and meaningful without having to be directly in someone else's physical space to do it. There's a little "wall" there that offers a sense of protection, that makes it easier to open up.)

In any case, it's simply a relief to sometimes be able to just be able to talk to people without all of that to worry about.

And I can buy clothes, and regardless how thin or thick I am... they fit!

I am still looking for a skirt that fits my Av.

Two words : Unlimited wardrobe!

My fiances reason she likes SL: She can wear whatever she wants (even go naked) and change complete outfits within minutes.

Grrr SL skirts! I ended up just changing my avatar shape because of that. I also had serious issues with capes and veils, but flexiprims have at least helped with capes.

I don't think I saw this thread when it was active, so very briefly:
- You can meet people from all over the world with interests similar to your own.
- Shopping is much less expensive than in RL and (almost) everything fits.
- You never have to shave or do your hair.
- It's a fun way to keep in touch with friends who live far away. I got my RL friend who lives across the country to sign up a couple weeks ago and we can hang out in SL on the weekends now!
- Everyone is (or can be) beautiful.
- Owning land and setting up your virtual homestead is fun and addictive.
- You can indulge in activities you couldn't or wouldn't be able to in real life, for whatever reason. Interestingly, my second life has been influencing my first life in a rather profound and positive manner as a result of the freedom I've experienced here.
- If you don't like somebody you can launch them millions of meters into space.

Jen,

Thanks for an engaging thread! The compare and contrast thing with RL not withstanding, even tho I am RL male and in fact was singularily unimaginative in making my Avatar look like myself I recently built a female version (actually patterned after a former girlfriend frankly) to use to explore SL from that perspective. And for that matter have several avatar sets to be able to adjust to go native among Furrys and others as well. What attracted me to SL was the very thing mentioned so often in here - the imcredible variety of experience available. I can build, dance, gamble, get intimate, party, blow things up, create an impossible and highly improbable piece of architecture or whatever suits my fancy!

In fact, it seems mostly my women friends in world that have trouble with my feminine avatar than the male friends. Odd that! I do like role playing to the feminine to observe and interact in that way. I also make clear to those who want to develop a closer relationship that I am male in RL, (and a flaming hetro to boot!) just to keep things honest.

Oh boy, every time someone whines about affirmative action, I know their race, their income level, and their hobbies -- white, working class/lower-middle class with a "not-the-best-colleges" education (if they got any college-level educatin), they collect GUNS, and have an aggrieved attitude about anyone not a white male who has gotten a job/raise/promotion that he didn't get. I've got a brother like that; it's a tossup whether he dies of a heart attack/stroke or goes postal and commits suicide-by-cop in the next 5 years.

That's a pretty good analysis -- considering that 1 out of 3 women are raped in the US during their life, security among the male of the species is an excellent drawing point for SL.

The other point is that we have reasonable anonymity -- we can flirt and play but don't have to worry about being PHYSICALLY stalked. There are stalkers in wanna-be stalkers in SL, but they have really limited capability, unless they are somehow able to link data gathered about a person in SL with RL data.

Also, women can be men and men can be women, either because they were born with a physical gender dysfunction or they just want to see what it's like from the other side. MOre men ought to try being female for awhile in SL, just to see what it's like, I think. They might learn something about how NOT to treat women in RL.

I like SL better than other MMORG's because I am free to do whatever I want and I am not constrained by any rules. I can build anything that is in my mind to build or create. I absolutely LOVE that. From the moment I stepped into SL it captured me.

Also, I can come into and out of SL as I please from a time perspective (which is sometimes limited for me). Sometimes I'll play for hours, sometimes I won't log in for weeks.

The reason that I stay is as Elspeth says

I love wandering around and seeing people create, what comes from inside their heads.

You can't get that from SIMS, or There or WOW.

Defense Games as such - getting from Level 1 to Level whatever are kind of boring to me. Once you reach level whatever, your done. Sometimes you get stuck at a level and just decide it's not worth it anyway - same old, same old.

SL has never become that way for me. It's never quite the same, it's dynamic - so much so that at times it's painful. People come and go, builds come and go, sims come and go, rules come and go. Amazing stuff.

.

I don't like guns, and in my case they hired someone who could barely do the job whereas at the time I typed 90 wpm. You know why he got the job? Skin color. Apparently that made up for 60 wpm difference.

Equality means equality - not setting any race or any sex above another. For any reason.

That is great to hear.

That wasn't how it was supposed to work when it was set up -- AA was to provide guidelines fostering the promotion of minorities when qualifications for the position were equitable (or very nearly so), given the known preference of upper-level managers to promote their own race when all other qualifications were equal. The original idea was good... why trash the entire program when it's abused by idiots? Do you think the speed laws should be trashed just because *ssh*les drive drunk and kill other people?

These are the very reasons that I too have joined SL... Man or Woman.. .We are all free to choose how we want to be perceived. Strong or Weak, Bold or Shy! Its an escape from the RL world... So why bring the sexist values of RL in to SL! As far as I'm concerned... I have seen a fairly equal balance of talent here... I'm a man... but I certainly dont see any woman less then my equal...and besides women can bring much to the table! Their insights into various matters have been very enlightening!

I am assuming that you mean by "male posers" men who pose as women. I agree with you that there are many male posers, more than you and I probably would imagine. LOL

I like SL; because for me..it is a great escape for awhile from RL without having to leave the security of home, ( even though the ppl here are the ones I TRY to escape from! LOL )

Not to mention... I have met some great people in SL. I l ook forward to seeing them almost everyday to chat, giggle, whatever.... and then there is the shopping.... I am a female that LOVES to shop in RL, but as I am not rich, I can't go crazy like I want to..so.. I shop like a crzy woman in SL.. *shrug*

Seriously though.. the main reason for me is the people in SL... just like in RL there is the occasional ass, but all in all the people of SL are awesome. ( At least in my experience)