Silence…

I am known to talk a lot, and especially to interject rather pointless remarks everywhere, but I fear that from now on I’ll grow ever more quiet. Real life is increasingly busy - that’s what you get when you want to move to another country - and I may not even be able to re-emerge very soon after the move. You do need a good connection to run SL and as of now we - my real life girl and me - have no idea how long it will take us to get that up and running in our new home.

Between work, packing, planning and trying to run my SL shops and introduce new items, I may not be able to blog as much as I would like to, or even be in-world as much as I need to in order to get my fix. Bear with me please - I am not done with SL yet.

In the meantime I’d like to hear from people whose main avatar is not of the same sex as themselves (like me), and who are prepared to talk about it in public. I want to get into the prejudices about gender bending avatars and see if all the guys really make big titted, semi nude porn star avatars to ‘play’ with, and all the women really have ‘pretty boy’ avatars. I’ll contact you people at a later date with some questions and I’d love to include a picture of your avis as well.

Coming Out - The Truth Behind Laetizia

A couple of weeks ago, Wagner James Au of New World Notes blogged about Robbie Cooper’s photo exhibit in Varnish. I immediately beamed on over and saw the people behind some great looking avatars. And James was there, too (that is, Hamlet was). In his words: ‘Shortly after blogging this, a hot blonde happened by‘. Well that blonde, my friends, was me (which, incidentally, is unusual because I usually have red hair. No, I didn’t change appearance for the photo!).

That event and the unstoppable introduction of voice has made me think about, well, coming out. It feels as if I have been lying to all my friends, it feels like I owe them an explanation or at least the truth. And so I beamed over to Real Life to meet the man behind my every move and my every word.

Me and my creator at Kinderdijk - RL picture courtesy of his charming Italian girlfriend

So what’s up with this? Am I a compulsive liar? Am I a gender bender, or gay, or a perv? I don’t think so. As I explained to Hamlet, I entered Second Life in November of 2006 as a joke or, better put, out of curiosity. I chose to be a girl without giving it too much thought and named myself Laetizia - and with a name like that there’s no changing your gender. And I am not sure if I would have.

I found friends in Second Life, I opened a shop, I got involved in many social activities and I am still enjoying it. As for the lies - well I am girl and a lesbian, but aside from that my story isn’t in any way different from that of the man behind the keyboard. And since he is very happy with his real life love, I never had a relationship in Second Life. No hearts are stepped on - I hope.

I am interested in your take on this. Are you controlling an avatar of the opposite sex? Are you against it, do you mind at all, do you have some deeper insights to share or questions to ask? Please visit MS Parkkade tomorrow, June 26th, at 12:00 SLT (that’s 21:00 Central European Time). I’ll be there and that unshaven fellow in the picture will be at the controls.