A Modest Proposal - Concerning "The Pornfield"

SL will always have a constant sexual element unless either a) extra mechanics are added to make it become a game, or b) sex is banned.

People in a virtual world want some kind of way in which they can make things better for themselves. In MMORPGs that's by killing monsters, and that's one of the things that makes MMORPGs so addictive. Every day, every hour, you know you can log in and there will be a monster to kill and you will be able to kill it and your score will go up. In "old-style" SL it was by earning L$, but this had much less certainty. In "New Economy SL", it's... well, by attracting social interest, which in many cases means, having sex as a "symbol" of the highest social interest. Making an attractive avatar and having an attractive house aren't going to be stand-alone goals for most people, but being able to impress a guy/gal by doing so? Perhaps.

So if sex were banned SL would be a lot less popular. But if it's going to be used for art and education, though, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Art is fairly exclusive: intrinsic to the whole art community is the idea that art is a "talent" which only relatively few people can do. Education isn't quite exclusive but isn't always universal: running a class which just anyone from the street can walk into is common in SL volunteer organisations but unusual for real education, and you wouldn't expect that many people to walk in even if you did.

They also said the same thing when books got mass produced because reading was a solitary activity and allowed people to access thoughts that weren't local.
As well, horrors, women might read!

I'm waiting for SL to have a major cultural impact on FL I figure the 100th monkey might actually be the 100K involved resident.

I would ask, why the obsession with the depiction of sexuality?

The most popular games today involve the depiction of horrid acts of violence against others. Blood, death, gore, dismemberment, taunting of victims, and celebrating over the broken and mangled bodies of the vanquished. Even the looting of the dead. I'm thinking of WoW, Halo, GTA, and other similar games.

And yet, society as a whole, turns a blind eye to engaging in that activity. It is entertainment.

But heaven forbid there be a bewbie! A man and woman in scanty chain armor with giant swords, knocking each other senseless? That is good clean fun (if you ignore the blood spatters flying). The crowds clamor for more! But let them engage in anything resembling intercourse and the creators will be pilloried.

That...dear readers...is the real commentary on modern popular culture.

Human sexuality is an embarrassing "dark underbelly". Human violence is celebrated.

I haz sadz every time I think of it.

I do. And I do it really well too. Or so I've told
Actually I told true but I like "teh" now. Its like me. And look at how it pisses people off. Its liek tearing pages out of nootebooks given to you in school. The teachers just get totally ballistic. Great fun. Or fiddling with your tongue piercing. Cant do that here unfortunately.

I disappeared coz I was in another country and then working at what I do. Never said I left. Just said you were tragically UNhip. My God, I love to waste YOUR time while I listen to music. You like shooting figs in a barrel or apples? Pigs? what is teh expression oh wise one of Oxbridge.
And lets get some info/ideas from you about porn and sl. Make a stand about somethign instead of being a piss artist.

Doesn't piss me off at all. You would have to actually matter to me to piss me off. It just makes you look completely ignorant and childish IMO. And like I said all along, I knew you were doing it intentionally.

The thing is Jig, that when you leave "teh" and "liek" and such in your posts, the point you are making is overshadowed by how you make it.

I don't criticize grammar as a matter of course. But I do make assumptions about the poster, and the poster's message, based on how that message is presented.

To me, sloppy presentation indicates a sloppy argument, and many times will skip over those posts in favor of others better written.

Something to think about.

Thanks Lindal. I really mean that coz I really did post sincerely. Its important to define ourselves. Its necessary to re-evaluate what is happenign here.

"And I have miles to go before I sleep" so I see you all later deary-ones.

I'm enjoying this thread very much.

I don't understand the point of the personal attacks. It's just rude. There's been virtually zero content so far but plenty of abuse.

I agree. I think what a lot of people seek is 'grid-cred' through knowledge, through having made things and just through the length of time since 'born'. I amit that I do, to some extent, but I also want to be famous for being famous and I want to be adored by my public!!!

QFT.


I don't take seriously people who don't appear to want to be taken seriously.

Pep (My son thinks you are at least ten years too old to be hip by the way)

It's not that great Conifer, really!

Pep (Sorry, no more autographs; peace and love)

Actually, the unofficial rule on Usenet was that ANY speling flame MUST have at least one typo.

It kind of hurts to write "was" in that sentence.

Edit: people who abuse apostrophe's non-ironically are still evil and rude.

I think it is all in the eye of the beholder..

I figured i would go ahead and just look up the word and see what happens..
Really the only thing i can see as porn would be what someone gets aroused from in a picture or video..
that could be a lot of levels depending on the church..

I mean two people in a free sex club that are having sex in front of everyone..Is that pornographic or is it two people having sex??
Is their intent to arouse everyone around them or is it for them to be aroused?

Well i looked it up and pulled out the leading quotes that were in there to help make up someones mind..Mainly so i could see the actual definition and not what someone wants me to see..Really once the leading parts were taken out it really looks like it falls under a lot of areas..
===============================================
por·nog·ra·phy

1 : the depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement

2 : material that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement

3 : the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction
================================================
So really anything intended for me to see to turn me on would be porn?
Or is it anything i see that turns me on is porn?
I get turned on from things i make in photoshop sometimes..
Am i making my own porn or does my art turn me on?

My personal opinion is this word is what i call a guilt word..A word to make someone else feel guilty at what they may look at as art..

I'm not saying a video of 10 men and a woman having sex is art..But there have been all kinds of art on displays in galleries that have shown orgies and threesomes and foursomes and 10somes from ancient civilizations that people don't call porn but do call art..

so who is to say??
i guess t comes down to this..is pornography intended to be a style or is it a word used by an offended person or persons or groups that may look at something i see as art and they see as sick?

where i live a lot of people would look at some of the art i make as porn but up north it would be looked at as different..heck even to the first big city north of me it would be looked as more art than porn..

i guess i'm gun shy about certain labels now and which have been influenced by a church or religion and which have not..

what do i consider to be porn in second life??

i'll say SOME pictures of rl people having sex that are hung on walls in clubs and stores and prims and links to videos of the same thing..

Am I the only one who remembered that "A Modest Proposal" was a satire by J. Swift about cannibalism of kids?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

Hey guys, better stop talking about pornography, there's a minor listening.

Pep (and it *is* a PG forum)

Sigh. I was trying to remain uneducated, Mari. Now I'll have to go borrow the dang thing from the library. Kids today.

H. R. Giger got his start drawing porn for his friends. I think it's worked out pretty well for him, and if anyone gets sexually excited by the movie "Alien" I don't want to know about it.

I love children ... roasting on a grill on a Sunday morning ...

I'd be more likely to believe the Slippery Finger Theory if it weren't for the fact that you're so consistent with your mistakes. That's the dead giveaway.

And you don't really suck. I'm just sorry you didn't tell the grammar police to stuff it in their vowels.

Anyway, thanks for trying to liven the forum up with a thoughtful topic. Maybe now I can even comment on it.

Hello! This post is in reference to all of the comments/posts about spelling/grammatical errors. When I lost my hearing, well into adulthood, I had already learned to speak. As my hearing loss progressed, over time, I've become an advocate for Deaf (Cultural), deaf, (hard of hearing) and late deafened people.

Mostly in culturally Deaf society, you find people who never learned to speak english as you, the listener, expect to hear it. These people think in American Sign language syntax, sentence structure, etc, which is, essentially, backwards to english sentence structure. Therefore, that is how they type, in that same structure. Being fluent in both english and american sign language, I am often called on, in SL, to interpret for some Deaf person who is somewhere trying desperately to make themselves understood, to an english speaker, who thinks they are either foreign, or stupid. I quickly make it clear that we are not stupid. One man on SL that I regularly 'terp' for, is a Gallaudet graduate with an engineering degree; however, he has never heard english the way a listener expects to receive it. American sign language is english, somewhat abbreviated, somewhat turned around as far as where nouns and verbs appear, etc, within the sentence.

I will admit that the frustration is huge for the Deaf person trying to communicate with someone who thinks he is an idiot. I will also say that, I am very glad, that I have not summarily dismissed someone who isn't speaking english on the level that I feel is up to my particular standards. I would have missed out on some very worthy friends, had I walked away. I am eloquent, you (the royal 'you', not you in particular) may not be. Luckily, I will not count that as criteria in deciding whether you are worth my while, or to discount your opinions, because your english is not as clearly understood as mine. Because, I am not walking in your shoes, nor do I know what devils may be beleaguering you as you walk your journey. Therefore, my only charge is to be kind, because everyone you meet, has just gone through something, or is going through something, or is about to go through something. I know this is long. Thanks if you read this far.

Oh, this is supposed to be about Porn. Ok, next post........ Just wanted to speak to this because this type of thing shows up on so many RA forum threads.

I support freedom of artistic expression in all mediums, whether or not some government bureaucrat or self-appointed busybody considers the work to promote "hate or defilement or prejudice".

Oh--sorry--I didn't read the thread before replying. I thought it was about free expression, but it appears to be about spelling and grammer.

Just wanted to say that this was a lovely post.