How many get insulted when playing an alt of a different gender?

There is a different word for that, "racialist". Most times when people use "racist" they really mean "racialist", but the erosion of the distinction is unhelpful. Underlying racialism (doctrine that one race is superior) is the notion of racism (that race is a meaningful term in the first place). But if we lose the word for "doctrine that races exist" we can't discuss it or refute it. So sometimes it is worthwhile being pedantic on these issues.

What a lot of terrible guff!

I really don't want to come in and argue with someone's post, and I know it's off topic, but I cannot let this stand.

You are blaming apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany on the intellectual elite deserting the working man? And the working class then in some way goes racist because it is stupid? How supercilious is that!? How arrogantly classist! And you are blaming the eastern europeans who have come over for importing racist attitudes (when in fact they are the target of a resurgent tide of racism in the UK).

As for the topic - it is easier in SL to ignore sexist or sexual rudeness so it doesn't bother or upset one. And women do have libidos and do explore them in SL. And it is up to you if you want to role play, cyber, be like your RL self, be a nun, a furry, a polymorphically perverse tree stump, a cross dressing orangutan or a unit of shelving if you want to. One thing that is for sure is that people do enjoy doing things in SL that they wouldn't normally consider doing in RL, or are for one reason or another impossible for them to explore in RL, and I consider that - despite the fact that fantasies are not always harmless diversions - largely to be a good thing.

(Daisy - I see where you're coming from but check your dictionary! )

I did. That's how I know these things. Maybe you should get a better one ...

What has happened, of course, is that the meaning has shifted because so many people are such ingrained racists (in the original sense) that they cannot conceive that "race" is not a self-evident truth. Therefore the no longer see the need for a word "races exist" and adopt the shorter word to mean the longer one.

But now there's a need to reclaim the original meanings, because without racism there can be no racialism - in other words, we should attack racialism at its roots.

Well, not really. But yes, racism has come to mean racialism. Language changes. Never mind!

Daisy, I'd like to think I do not believe in one subtype of the human species being superior or inferior to others. However, I do think many meaningful divisions of humans into subtypes do exist, and that in some cases it is important to recognize them. I do also believe that some of those subtypes can maybe called "races", in the same sense, e.g., that breeds of cats can, though I have no idea of the relative genetic similarity of breeds of cats and racial subtypes of humans. Human subpopulations are different in many characteristics and also differ from each other genetically - as far as I know, you can make pretty good guesses about someone's ancestry based on a blood sample, for example.

You cannot attack racism (or racialism, in the terms you used) by attacking that belief of mine, as it has nothing to do with my beliefs about the relative value of people. I probably have subconscious prejudies, of course - everyone has - but denying that differences between people exist is not going to help me get rid of those, but exactly quite the opposite.

(For the record, what I know does not support the idea upper classes are immune to racism.)

Janka, you may hold the view that races exist without believing that one is superior to another. Clearly, someone who does believe that one race is better than another could not believe this without the idea of race in the first place.

Therefore, attacking "race exists belief" does away with any case for "superior race belief".

That would not be sufficient reason if in fact races DID exist, but my understanding is that the view of most leading anthropologists these days is that race is an outmoded concept.

I agree

Ah yes, this would be the politeness thread, or the racism thread?

You need to check carefully before you fire off your unresearched insluts, who's posting them and where they are posting from. But anyway: I'm just IN the situation, I'd never know anything about it... that's breaking forum rules which are a lot wider and more pervasive than the SL ones.

Personally, i find very little more supercilious than someone who presumes to tell a person what's going on in their own country...

The Lindens also say we have 1.8 million residents that's their bait for business customers, other bait is used to catch "players".

The publisher of Sociolotron (a MMOG solely about sex and extreme violence) played the same card - he even announced that actually more than 60% of the server population were of female gender, according to signup (cc) data. It's a great form of advertisement. Nothing will attract the no.1 target group of every virtual world containing red light districts (or bars to chat and flirt, hoping to find the female partner of one's dreams, for those who aren't after some quick and healthy relief only) more efficiently than such an announcement.

Shopping and pretty female clothing attracts most males that play a female role, like me. In RL I own 4 pair of shoes, in SL it's rather 40 it's typical behaviour, perhaps really a repressed wish.

Very well written. And with your last sentence, you make a very good point: someone who has experienced harrassment and aggression because of her or his sexuality becomes very tolerant toward other people's sexual preferences.

Ah no, you see- I was disagreeing with you. Plain and simple. A difference of opinion. All good and human.

I don't need to do research to know you're posting from the UK, because you've said as much. I am also pleased to meet you. I simply disagreed with what you said. Such is the stuff of life.

I also thinik your musings about sexuality on here are rather dogmatic and misguided, while also being funny and thoughtful. There, another disagreement.
It is all good.

And most people don't. Whats your point?

Indeed. That does not make it untrue though.

If you want to get philosophical about it, it means that the probability of it being true, given the evidence, is small.

I suspect a lot of "male" av's in SL are really females taking on a masculine gender to avoid being hit on by guys all the time.

How to handle insults? why bother, its a computer GAME, we are all nothing but scripted pixels in here, you cant physically get injured, burned, crushed, killed, starve to death orthirst to death, just ignore the idiots, put them on ignore/mute, use report griefer if you have to and move on!
It's a big place in SL.

I have AV's that are animal, as well as human male and female, when all the cards are laid on the table gender in SL is meaningless.

Holy necropost Batman.

are you really saying we have no place for discussion of any topic???

We have the whole of SL, sims, plots of land, builds, groups, im's, voice chat, text chat, etc for places to discuss just about anything with anyone...

We do NOT have to discuss things on the forums... sheesh...
one would think that we can not talk to other people in world or something


as for the OP, you will get rude crude people everywhere, you will also get nice people who accept others for who they are

good luck finding the latter, seems to be more of the former

OH GOD I did not realize this was a necro thread LOL

oh well, just in case anyone else thinks we have no where to discuss things I will leave this post... (and walk away with my head down to hide the flush of embarrassment)

IBTNN!!! In before the next necro! XD

/me gets her time capsule ready. =^-^=

brainz

Oh hell, it is only a tad over 2 years old.......

I -thought- lag was getting worse.

--
Aes

You can't compare that. There *are* no biped talking animals in RL, so you *know* I can't be one in RL. But there *are* women in RL, and people usually think a female avatar is also a female in RL (at least the noobs do. After 2 years I can tell a fake woman from 50 meters away).



I laugh about it *unless* you are a male avatar I hold a sexual interest in (which you most likely are not) *and* you are a RL female trying to trick me into cybering you. That never happened to me though, so that is purely theoretical.

I can't play just a male character. Or just a female one. I have to use both. My feelings vary a lot.

Of course this is no different then me in RL.