Second Life allows people to have the option of completely creating a new appearance. My first appearance was a tan attractive male, and when I switched genders I decided to make myself a disfigured white female. I noticed a world of difference when I changed the appearance of my avatar. I was once a handsome tan boy that enjoyed walking around shirtless. Now, I am a very “different” looking girl, stuck in a lonely world.

I wanted to go with the “blonde bombshell” idea, but I also wanted to make my avatar appear as kind of a joke. So what did I do? I gave her abnormally large breasts, a very tight white outfit, and male basketball shoes. My theory was that there are all different kinds of people in Second Life, from furrys to a banana. With this in mind, I really did not think people would treat me differently because of my appearance. But I was wrong, and this new appearance helped me draw two conclusions. First, the people who try to make themselves beautiful had no time for little miss Ihavebad Frostbite. Second, the distorted, bizarre looking avatars in fact gave me no problems when I asked them questions, but based there judgements of avatars off of their experience in SL. Because I did this project, I now believe Second Life has two different major culture classes – the beautiful and the ugly. 

I started by going to the welcome area on mainland. Immediately I noticed that there were a lot of people there. My main objective was just to have conversations with people and eventually ask them what they think about my appearance – or at least allude to it. My first attempt at conversation was with Ned Brick, in a courtyard of the welcome area. I asked him what does he think avatars should look like. He said “not like you”. Then I asked well why not, and he responded with “I am uncharming and I should have a good life”, and with that being said, he casually walked away. As he walked away, I decided to make it seem as a soap opera by saying “don’t act like we had nothing, you were in love with me!”.

After my amusing first encounter, I shyly walked up to a group of four normal looking people sitting on a ledge. I said Hi and addressed each of them, but only one responded. After I said how are you, one man just directly said “go away frostbite.” I asked him what is wrong with me and what can I do to resolve his problem with me, and he responded sarcastically with “you can start by looking at yourself.” One lady named Stella Pawnsen helped my cause by saying “Frosty only men wear such ugly shoes and if your asking me I would get your money back for your appearance and style.” After she insulted my large male-like hands, I decided it was time to walk away from that new group of friends. I walked up to an attractive male named John Artful, said Hi, and he then teleported away. My confidence was at this point very low. I was treated very poorly by these people; directly because of my appearance. The way I looked made me the laughingstock of their conversation. I felt a like a complete outcast, and moreover I thought this was very immature of these people in Second Life not to accept my appearance sincerely. It makes them seem as a group of elementary school boys poking fun at a girl for being different. This surprised me, especially because Second Life is a place where anyone has the ability to be different. These people viewed me as a failure in an attempt to look attractive. The way these people judged me led me to my first conclusion: that attractive people condescend the outcasts and their perception of ugly.  My second conclusion showed people being much more accepting of my appearance, but only because they knew themselves as also being outcasts in Second Life. 

I found the next set of people much more concerned with me being a “noob” in Second Life than the way I actually looked. In Second Life, these people take advantages of the opportunity that you can be anyone you want (even if it looks ridiculous). They feel the class distinction is between who is an experienced user on SL and who is not. For instance, the first woman I im’d was a short gray haired and pale scary faced woman named Moppie Kipling. The first question I asked Moppie is if she knows where to get good free items in SL. She responded bluntly with “I guess just search for them.”  Then I asked her if the way I looked affected the way people talk to me in Second Life. She said “ofcourse.” When I asked why and what does she think of me, she said she didn’t even see me until halfway through our conversation, and when she saw me, I was what she expected. I finally understood the reason for her blunt condescending responses, because when I asked what did she expect to see, she said “a noob”. Now I thought I did a good job of covering up my “noob” appearance, so when I asked why she told me it was because I asked about “freebies”. 

My last conversation clearly proved my second theory. I had a conversation with a gothic man dressed in black and chains named Chris Skism. I asked him if the way I looked effects the way people talk to me in SL. He said “it depends where you are, here no one really cares what you look like, as long as you don’t look like a noob.” Obviously based from my previous conversations it did matter what I looked like, but Polar was more concerned with looking like a “noob” than anything else. I then decided to ask the most forward question I could think of, so I asked “do you think I’m pretty?” He said “I think you need a lot of work, you can change your shapes when you find different freebies. So he admitted that I should change my shape, but that did not stop him from talking to me. The only way he would treat me differently is if  my appearance alluded to the fact that I am a “noob”.

In conclusion, my gender switch in SL showed me that there are two types of people. The first are those who try to make themselves very attractive and condescend those who fail to make their standards. The second group of people are those who we would look at as outcasts in real life – anything viewed as bizarre, not human, or not socially accepted. These people judge others based off of their experience with SL rather than their appearance. My experience in this project helped me develop these theories, which I would have never been able to think of with my old avatar.