Prejudice on Second Life

Ok, I am certainly not a second life veteran (so some of you may completely disagree) but I noticed something today. Something I was very surprised to see. I was on orientation island trying to get some new clothes when my house mate Bill came down and looked at my screen. There were about 25 people in a very close vicinity. Bill is not a member of Second Life but he is educated he has had several conversations about it. And to tell my story I need to tell his story 1st.

Bill told me about a couple that met, built a relationship, romanced, and then married each other all through Second Life (got married in person, not in SL). I don't know how I feel about that but i certainly feel that it is great you can not care about appearance and go solely on personality and connection. These two truly fell in love with each other, not being seduced by security or money or position in life.

He went on to tell me that the guys avatar was this really tan good looking guy and the girl was this statuesque blond. In real life, both were over weight and resembled nothing of their character. I laughed that off and thought what an interesting story that was.

So back to Bill peering at my screen. "No one is unattractive" Bill interjected. "What?" I replied. There were women with mini-skirts and men with muscles but not one normal looking person. Everyone was dressed to the 9's, decked out in the craziest fashion. I will defend this with the fact that there were mythical looking avatars not resembling people, but the next fact completely puts a spin on the whole story.

Even in Second life people are prejudice. Judgment and segregation does not escape you anywhere in this world. I was talking to people asking them questions, and they were answering back, as usual...Then Bill and I embarked on an experiment. I MADE MYSELF FAT. I took my height all the way down, and I made myself as fat as possible. And guess what? Was there a difference in how people treated me? YES! The very 1st person I addressed said "yea, what fatty?" then as I returned to the female in the mini-skirt and the tan man, neither of them responded to me. PREJUDICE ON SECOND LIFE.