Don't judge a book by it's cover

You know... as a male in SL and in RL... I have definitely noticed the small head thing, and have wondered... since my 1st week in SL... why guys seem to lack the ability to adjust the size of their heads.

I have received a lot of "cyber" invites myself. I am seriously considering making a new shape for my av. Considering making him old, bald, and overweight. I seriously doubt that I would get the same attention if I do. Then again, it might hurt my product sales.

How sad is that? Fact of life? Yes. Pathetic and shallow? Absolutely.

Considering I'm rather fond of someone who's av is young bald and on the heavy side, I'd hit that ((mostly joking))

You'd think being able to make your head as big as you want it would be a male dream, but for some reason they keep them the size of walnuts. (c:

Giant shoulders, 0 hips and butt, tiny heads and arms that only reach their waist seems to be the male Barbie generic shape.

I wonder if it is a matter of lacking the skill to create a "sexy" av... or that most guys look at their av as just that... and av. A set of pixels in the shape of some guy, so who cares?

Dunno

To be fair, the "giant shoulders" thing isn't entierly our fault. The LL male mesh shoulders only go so small. It really sucks to try to make a slender avatar with the male mesh, to be honest.

I had to make a Male Model shape for when I do men's clothes, and it is a lot harder to get a decent shape. I managed to finally tweak it enough that I was happy with it, but I've heard several times from others that it would look better more muscular. Personally, I prefer lean to bulky, but I seem to be in the minority.

I've also overheard several people saying I should use female models with bigger boobs, slimmer hips, tanner skins, bigger or blonder hair.. etc etc. No thanks! My 'models' are my avs, and I have no desire to be a Pamela clone.

lol - glad you like them.

Hello? like... *pops gum* this is sooo about us girls! {insert hair flipping/twirling}

so u guys, like... ummm. {major valley girl voice} go start yer own thread... mmmmk pumpkin?

Girls sooooo rule *pop* boys soooo drool!

buh-bye now [visual of "barbie-girl" stewardess in MadTV/SNL Buh-bye skit]
buh-bye... [also found as an audible in Yahoo!IM]

~

*groan* lol

All of the views I have read are very valid. I personally don't keep the same look every day. One day I am a werewolf..the next a tiny bunny. The fun of SL is you can be whatever you want from one day to the next. As long as you are happy with your avi it shouldn't matter what others think. Sadly I know it does. So just ignore the smarmy comments..enjoy the laughter and live how you want.
Blessed Be

Are these ok?



Starting with my regular avatar (left) I made him thin (right) The following sliders formed the shoulders.

BODY
Body Thickness
Body Fat

TORSO
Torso Muscles
Shoulders

I've found it interesting, since this conversation came up, to observe my own reactions to av's inworld and how much of yourself and your own history/personality you take with you into it.

I know that when I see a gaggle of the... ok I'll say it, Barbies, or their "naughty gurl" equivalent, I feel like I'm back in high school and they are the popular girls I spent most of my time avoiding. Since the popular crowd was so small in comparison to the rest of the general population, I can only imagine that all these people are getting their chance to be their version of the alpha female, when in all likelihood, they were not. That and the obsession with personal appearance and self-worth in our society. I have similar responses to men who look that way. Of course, once you talk to people, then you are interacting with the real person behind the avatar and it's different. I'm just observing superficial reactions in myself. But they are real.

One thing I do find very strange is the excess of tacky, trashy clothes that only a hooker would wear in SL. I understand doing things in sl that you wouldn't in real life, but... It's all over the place. I feel like I'm in a 3d version of Fredricks of Hollywood, lol. But sex, and looking sexy, is obviously a big draw, here. Or the exploded prom dress and hair. (I'm sorry if I offended anyone here, but it looks... over the top to me, ok?) But hey, it's your second life, and you shouldn't care what I think or anyone else thinks. But we will make judgements, fair or not, we don't become blank slates when we fire up SL. It may not be the same as seeing someone dressed like that in RL, but you are saying something with your "virtual self".

And yes, dressing like a ho inworld will get you the same kind of sleazy pick-up attempts in SL as the real world. Which I'm not interested in.

I am interested in unique, creative designers and I will buy their clothes. It's a fantasy for me in that they are far more affordable in SL than RL and the shoes don't hurt my feet! And learning to create my own clothes. In the meantime, I'm wearing jeans, which look good in SL, for the most part. They certainly make my new, improved ass look great!

The one on the right looks much better to me. Well done!

If you don't wanna get hit on, make an odd looking av (mine is a cherub), and post a real ugly first life pic (got mine off of google).

I prefer girls with slender serpentine body and shiny scales

You can get them ok. I've managed. But it tends to cause some really wierd distortions on the shoulder blades if you do it. The other option is to compensate with height - you can make a slender avatar alot easier if he's taller. What are your height sliders?

@Jonquille

Hee hee, sorry though that my default avie is the one on the left. The right one was an exercise in making a thin avatar to see how bad it gets. It's not too bad really.

@All

My thinking on the matter is that most guys don't have a good sense of handling body proportions when it's time to move the sliders. What's lacking is moderation. The sliders can make profound difference with small movements and there is so much interaction among the sliders that at the first sign of frustration they'd give up. End result is Arnold Schwarzenegger's chest with a wrestler's shoulders (+20% width) and Kate Moss' waistline.

What's worse is what you see in the Appearance Editor is NOT what you get. Frequent exits and re-entries to the AEditor are necessary to get all the small touches right.

I'm an artist so I've a good supply of patience to get it right ... and, goodness, it takes quite a bit to get things right.

@Devlin

For me, I'm not one for ugly or strange, so I stop at decently good looking with nothing on the extreme. My first life pic is a rectangle with a huge X on it (in short, none).

At least the attention I get is the good kind. The sleeveless tie-dye and the cyber arm get noticed though.

BODY Height is at 40 but the shoulders (as set below) are fine over the full range.

Try these numbers

BODY
22 Body Thickness
0 Body Fat

TORSO
33 Torso Muscles
44 Shoulders

BTW the 22,33,44 thing is just a coincidence. Nothing to do with the coming of 6/6/06 (which it is here already )

This is what I affectionately like to call "weaseling" out of a hypothetical question.


Ah, finally to the point. So then you must think that others do not judge people on their looks and they do not treat them differently because of it.

LOL

*trying in vain to peel himself off the floor*

Yes and no... lol




I know for a fact that people judge based on looks. I try not to myself, but we all do it in one form or another, whether we know it (or admit it) or not.

It's still pretty sad.

That very well could be. I think this may be a carryover from the tradition in comics and videogames of giving characters superhero proportions. The typical adult has a head height to body height ratio of about 1:7. But superheroes in the comics often have a ratio of 1:8 or even 1:9 to emphasize their physicality and heroic qualities.

Tell me which part you disagree with so I know where you're going.