Men in Drag

shut your mouth...

Some examples of usage:

Men! Take out those Penii! Hands to the Masts. Attention!

"The common penis is found on many males. Generally, penii are pale and require oiling once every week ..."

Penis, penii, penitum ...

Well, "penii" DOES have the virtue of sounding, if anything, even more ridiculous and pathetic than the singular form . . .

/me squirts milk out of her nose as she bursts out laughing.

I don't think you will find many (I'm tempted to say any) MtF transsexuals that would prefer to look like anything other than a normal female in RL. There is also nothing inconsistent with identifying oneself as a transwoman and as a real woman so I don't think such an avatar will hold much appeal to MtF transsexuals.

I also think (hope) that most intelligent people in SL understand that there is a significant difference between real transwomen who present themselves as females in SL because that presentation corresponds with their gender identity, and many (most?) of the genetic males who use female avatars for virtual sex and whose objectification of a woman evidenced by their choice in avatar form and expression all but confirms that their gender identity is male as well. A particular subculture of this kind of male is the SL "shemale" (a term btw which many of us in the transgendered community consider pejorative and as offensive as the N word is to black people), and I suppose your friends avatar might appeal to that niche market in SL.

I don't think it's necessary to have such an avatar to see how people treat transsexuals. If you want to see how people treat transsexuals just indicate in your profile that you are transsexual and you will, for better of for worse, experience how various people treat transsexuals. Also, my experience of people's reactions in SL when they discover I am transgendered is somewhat different from my experience on the rare occasion I get spooked in RL, if for no other reason than you cannot see the actual physical expressions of discomfort, disgust, fascination or admiration when people in SL discover you are a transwoman.

Yes, I do understand that, and number my closest and truest friends among them. Just a little nod of support.

I'll take your word on this, although my friend (whom, incidentally, you know as well) seemed to think otherwise. I didn't ask him about whether he saw a market for it or not, and I'm also doubtful that he ever actually did anything with the project. He certainly did explicitly say that it was a representation of an RL transsexual, rather than anything more fantastical.


This, I think, DOES almost go without saying, at least among anyone who is in the least bit intelligent.


This I didn't know. Thanks for a useful bit of insight.

That's because it's not the plural of penis. The plural is "penises" or "penes" depending on whether you're using English or Latin plurals.

I'll tell my History tutor that you think he shouldn't have been using it in the sense he did, assuming he's still alive.

Pep (Not about the female characteristics - that would certainly kill him; about the land set-aside meaning.)

Fixed it for ya!

Pep (Superficial people are superficial wherever they are.)

I suspect if he wasn't misusing the term then you're misremembering his exact wording; in a few moments of searching I've found references to government bodies effectively taking back land in the manner you describe by abrogating the treaties or agreements which initially granted use of the land, but nothing that indicates one would ever abrogate the land itself.

Reading some of Dagmar's posts I thought I would come in and say:

I think everyone should visit this place in SL at least once.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Elysium%20Gardens/194/201/22

Found it quite by accident. But it's very poignant.

I am reminded of Emily Bronte's "in-joke" using penis - Penistone Crags in "Wuthering Heights".
And, of course, the "penetralium" in the house itself.
(Dont bother to challenge me, Pep, - )

But we have really changed over history, haven't we? In Rome, every household would have had a statue of Priapus - the little man with the grotesque and hugely erect phallus. He grants fertility and good luck over us al. That is why a man who simply stays erect and who can exhaust his partner is called "priapic".
Notice how many males in sl are actually priapic - huge dongs that project out a foot or so. I like seeing them, I must say. But then, I am earthy and elemental even in real as one of my friends has told me.
I like it when you go in a sl mall and these mediterranean members are strutting around with cocks that would fill a wheelbarrow, hawking their wares. If some of them could sling their flaccid di@k over their shoulder they could go to a fancy dress party as a gas or petrol pump.

As you wrote this in response to part of my post, I'll give you *my* reasons. They probably won't apply to you, nor to every other gender-variant person in SL. They are no less valid.

Many people don't read profiles. Adding that I am TS to my profile won't influence people I meet casually about the grid. I *could* put it on a group tag, but that just feels a bit too blatant for me, like going around with it on a t-shirt in RL.

I was careful to point out that the SL experience was superficial. Yes, I'm very aware that the reaction in SL is very different to the reaction in RL. I've had enough of both to know that first hand.

You might ask why I do it at all? For reasons I don't want to go into, I don't get to present as female iRL as often as I'd like. SL is an incomplete experience, but it's better than nothing. Walking around in SL with an completely female body is a great piece of wish-fulfilment - in fact it is how I usually appear here. But it doesn't let me perceive that 'otherness' of my TS appearance. By using that avatar, I get a reminder of how I look and have to deal with it. I get a tiny taste of how others react to it.

The purpose of words is to communicate. Use them wisely.

Challenge you? On chicklit?

Pep (Not worth my time. )

I remember chuckling when I visited Peniscola, on Spain's Med coast. (I omitted the tilde over the n -- I can never remember how to do those.)

Pep, if my name were "Medusa" instead of "Scylla," you'd be a stylish prop for a garden planter right now.

LOL

He might actually be IN the planter.

I completely agree with you about the many (or even the most) part. I'm just curious want you, or anyone, would think of the male who prefers being female in SL, but not for the objectification of women or the obsession with virtual sex? You know, the rest that don't take up the many or most of men.

I believe that 3Ring has the glaring-at-Pep market cornered.

Of course! It's not my intention to poach at all.

Although . . . is she as effective as I am? I mean, when was the last time today you actually saw Pep posting here, hmmm? Hmmmmmm?

(/me sips and then casually sets her iced tea down atop the head of her brand new garden gnome . . .)

/me drums his fingers and waits for Scylla to revise her profile to say "I don't bite" or "Insult my sister and you'll have to deal with me" or some such other empty threat . . .

Pep ( . . . I think just being Scylla is scary enough, but says nothing for your self-image: "Scylla was a grotesque sea monster, with six long necks equipped with grisly heads, each of which contained three rows of sharp teeth. Her body consisted of twelve tentacle-like legs and a cat's tail and with four to six dog-heads ringing her waist." - Wikipedia)

PS I look on Medusa often in my blog www.fortnightofhell.blogspot.com and so far it hasn't done me any harm.

PPS It's Rio that has glaring rights over me; but she seems to enjoy it.

To me outside the realm of those that do it for sexual reasons, men that use female avatars do not strike me differently than people that are tinies, furries, dragons, cats, dogs, nekos etc. It's an appearance preference that seems harmless to me unless one is going to pursue an intimate relationship with someone in SL, so it generally has no impact on what I think of the person.