Origin of SL subcultures?

Here's an interesting question: I've noticed a lot of forum posts lately from (apparent) newbies who are awestruck at the representation of different subcultures, alternative lifestyles, etc, here in SL.

I never really thought to explore the reasons for this, or how the various cultures were established, but now I'm curious.

For example, I never knew squat about Goreans in the real world...I watched a terrible movie in the 80s called "Gor" in the hopes it would be a kickass sword and sorcery flick. Needless to say I was disappointed on that matter. And I remember a Salon article about Goreans a few years ago, but thought nothing more on the matter until I arrived in SL. And now my best SL friend is a Gorean.

The Goreans, though, seem to compromise the largest or second largest subculture in SL (I'm not sure if the Furries really take the lead on this or not).

But how did this come to be? Surely the number of Goreans in SL is overrepresentative of their number in the real world. I don't know what kind of community organization Goreans have in the real world, but has there been some sort communication there regarding SL and it's possibilities?

The same questions can be asked of Furries, although the appeal of SL to someone with Furry inclinations is obvious: it is fairly cheap and easy to alter one's appearance to Furry status in SL, much more so than RL. Still, has SL as an outlet spread widely among real world Furry communities?

It is possible, of course, that a nucleus of Furries, Goreans, etc (please forgive me if you are a member of a community that I have slighted here, I'm just trying to paint with the broadest brush possible given limited time) established a nucleus here more representative of real world population percentages, and that the lifestyles/role playing felt so appealing to newbies that SL merely acted as a platform for evangelization/self discovery among these new users. My gut tells me this is correct.

But I don't know. Furries, Goreans, what say you?

Well, it took me more than a year before I 'became' a Gorean. Well, I can remember when I first encountered the Gorean way of life there were only 2-3 Goreans in the world.

I like the "nucleus" idea because that is really how it started. But I would not say that it is representative of the real world.

Briana Dawson

Did you get captured by aliens and taken to their planet on the other side of the sun and forced to become cattle?

Yup that is exactly how it works.

Briana Dawson

I think it's just purely down to the fact that SL gives people the anonymous chance to explore whatever wierd fetishes and fantasies that may be lurking in the back of their mind.

It's only simply because people have found groups that have in some way 'made sense' to them (in the same way that some religious cults manage to explain to you that their beliefs are what you have been searching for all along) and end up getting sucked into living out some strangeness online.

I don't particularly have a problem with groups existing in-world, regardless of how much I may disagree with their particular ideology - until they begin to interfere with my right to enjoy my game my way.

Lewis

Furries have had their corner of the internet for many years. SL has provided an amazing opportunity to modify avatars to express themselves in a way that has never been so easy. It is my understanding from some SL furs I know that people go out and spread the word in (read: SPAM) various furry hangouts online (and maybe in RL too), encouraging people to come to SL. I think a lot of the fur growth might be a result of flooding from established communities.

As for the Goreans, I don't know too much about them as a culture. However, to some extent it makes sense to me to see lots of them here. BDSM tendencies are extremely common in my observation, though people usually keep pretty quiet about them. It would make sense that the kind of people on SL (nerds) would be eager to combine Fantasy with such things. That's a little simplistic, but it makes sense to me.

Also, I bet there is a lot of snowball effect, (especially with the GORs out of these two groups), where people see it and only then realize it is something they want.

I'll have to disagree.

As you said regarding furries, Luciftias,

"...the appeal of SL to someone with Furry inclinations is obvious: it is fairly cheap and easy to alter one's appearance to Furry status in SL, much more so than RL."

Within subcultures that are already networked over internet, a medium that allows easy expression and further networking, an "outlet", of the subculture, would spread fast throughout its members. For example, the owners of the large furry-themed "Furnation" sims regularly project SL on screens during furry conventions.

I believe that, for the most part, the over representation of subcultures experienced in SL's user demographic when compared to RL percentages is the result of networked subcultures that, when moving into a virtual world with 200,000 or so residents, will automatically be a large slice of that virtual world's user pie.

SL is still a very small world. It should be expected that, until SL grows into the millions of users, groups that would have special interest in SL will tilt SL's demographic's proportions.

Bang on. I actively spam a few groups with screenshots and have been responsible for numerous new arrivals. I also actively mentor or orient newbie furries too. All of this with absolutely no hint of shame.

~Kami

I think it's hardly surprising that when something comes along that allows one to more easily explore an interest, and that interest already has an existing social network on the 'net, people with that interest will flood into that thing - namely, Second Life.

You can't literally be "furry" in RL - the fursuiters aside. Driving around a giant robot is unlikely. As recent news events have seen, society tends to frown on walking around with collared slave-women.

Even for the less "weird" interests, SL represents; are not the various creative sorts of people like this? I dunno about you, but before SL, I never had a taco launcher, or imagined I would desire one. Even Lewis Nerd would have difficulties actively getting his disco on in many places.

I don't think the Goreans are that large of a percentage of the SL population. To me, it seems there are far more furries.

But then again, I remember something that was once said in a Hollywood interview of a famous and very gay celebrity. He observed that, as part of that subgroup, it seemed everyone he knew was gay.

If you hang out with Goreans, or Furries, or Star Wars enthusiasts, or any other subgroup, you'll feel after a while as if they are all over the place.

In the case of both Furries and Goreans, the outward signs of being part of the group - fur and tails, or collars and chains - are pretty hard for someone who is not in the group to miss. And since tolerance of others is a key part of the SL community standards, it's a place where we can be what we wish, openly, with little fear of being treated badly for it.

As a furry, I like it here because, as someone noted, I can have an appearance as a furred anthro with a tail, with very little effort. I don't have to sweat inside a stinky mascot costume to look like I'm a vixen. I can have digigrade legs without resorting to dangerous stilt-like contraptions in a costume. I can have a tail that swishes elegantly behind me as I walk about...

SL lets me enjoy roleplay in a form I simply can't have in real life. It's fun.

Incidentally, the "Gor" novels have been around since way back in the early 1970's. It's based on a series of books by John Norman. I blush to admit that I read several of those books once, long ago. But I never considered that I would want to be like the people in those books. No more so than that I would ever really want to be a pirate, or an outlaw in the woods like a member of Robin Hood's band of merry men, or a princess to be rescued, or a dashing spy like James Bond, or an adventure heroine like those in Japanese Anime. To me, it was just fiction - light entertainment. I didn't encounter anyone doing Gorean roleplay till I came to SL. Gorean roleplay doesn't interest me, though I know its roots.

D/s behavior goes way back. At least a 100 to 200 years, and likely far more than that. Same with bondage. People have long had subgroups that liked exercising power over others, or relinquishing power over themselves to others.

There is nothing new about any kink or sex act under the sun.

Just how much the society it was in covered it up.

When I first came into SL two years ago it seemed that the Vampyre/Goths were the biggest recognisable group in world. Through the course of that first year I became aware of the furries, and then that there was a RL subculture behind the cuteness, which came as a surprise to some people who had chosen a furry persona in SL.

In every case there seems to be a PG to XXXX spectrum, with resolutely asexual people at one end, and the frankly kinky at the other. (Not that I have any prejudices against kinkiness as long as it hurts no-one and involves consenting adults.)

BDSM groups initially were more of a shared-interest-group loose collection of people who could only be identified by their membership of the BDSM groups, until Gor started to move out of the private islands and into the mainstream. I have already speculated as to why Gor is popular in another thread, but I think that like the furries, there is a wide range of people and immersion involved. From people who may role-play slave girl for a couple of days, to people who are living it out in RL (possibly in Darlington).

The family groupings, and people pursuing infantilism are different again, and very diverse.

Other groups I would identify would be the Elves, Aliens, Trekkies, WW2 people, although as far as I am aware there isn't a specifically sexual subculture associated with them. As far as I am aware, the Elves as a group (not individually) are almost an anti-sexual subculture.

People have to find their own persona in SL and their own way of being in world, and it is helpful to many to group and be identified with a particular set of people. For others, it is a deeply-felt way of life that stretches far beyond SL. For many, SL has opened up possibilities that they weren't aware of before they joined.

I'm interested to know how this changes over time, too.

Cali

Like Disco, ne, Lewis?

Perhaps the prevasivness of the Furry and Gor subcultures in SL has more to do with the fact that, for these groups, SL offers the best online experience and has much less to do with any of the seedier sides of their fandom.

If I wanted to roleplay Elves, Aliens, or a WW2 soldier, there are other online experiences that much better cater to those genres such as WOW, EVE Online and Battlefield 1942 respectivly.

As far as the roots of D/s go, I'll use one of Mistress's favorite lines:

"There have always been Owner and Owned."

The notion of dispensing with that as a reality in all societies is a relatively recent and radical one, and it's only a notion -- it never actually did happen, except in name (kind of like "democracy".

A tangent, but...

Sez you.

Call me a radical then. F*ck slavery.

-Ghoti

eh, in spite of what people say, I don't think there's much "furry evangelism" going on in SL. I've been on the mucks (such as FurryMuck, SPR, Tapestries) since 1992, and we started with Luskwood here in 2003; (I believe I was furry #5 on SL.)

It was more of just a natural progression of things. You had a community who was used to text-based worlds, as most of the communications happened on the MUCKs (a text based virtual world, for those who dont know...) Moving to a 3d environment wasn't that much of a jump.

In a way, it was just the next logical step, and we were used to most of the dynamics of it. Now we can just see our avatars instead of describing them with a /lookat/ @description tag in text.

I haven't seen many converts.

Yes, I do.

Thing is, it's not "pretending to be something I'm not"; that's what makes it very different from Gor or... erm.... is furryism a word?

Lewis

So, Lewis. In a virtual world, you think that everyone ought to just be digital representations of their RL selves? Otherwise they're sick and twisted?

Don't know... Being in SL hasn't allowed me to act out any new sick fantasies, except for that one where I get insulted by teams of people day in and day out because being an asshole embiggens them.

Seems like anonymity is allowing you to act out in your own way, too.

No one "recruited" me to join SL. I was a text RP player in other internet based forums. I found out that one of my best friends in the text RP realms had started spending virtually all their RP time here. I missed them in the old RP Forums, and after determining that my computer could, barely, allow me entry here, I joined Sl to RP with them here. I did discuss it with them before I made the leap into this realm, and they were very enthusiastic at the idea that I would be here. But no one came to me and said "Hey! If you're Furry, you gotta go play in SL!". And I was fairly well connected with the RL Furry community at the time.

O RLY???

Kay.

Gorean chatrooms have been around for over a decade in IRC, then Yahoo/MSN and probably BBSs before even that. SL gave them the added dimension of seeing that mug of paga being served before their very eyes. Over. And over. And over. And over. And over...

I would have thought that adding a visual dimension would have encouraged the community to break out of some of that tried and true, and yes, it has done that. But it hung onto the same text-based traditions that made Gor so tedious in the first place.