Burkah Babes of Second Life Protest Unfair Treatment
by Alphaville Herald on 20/09/07 at 11:59 pm
Culture Clash Results in “Broadly Offensive Banning”
[Based on a fragmentary report from a confused noobie and satellite imaging, it appears the press release below is legitimate and the Oriental Express sim does have burkha babe outfits for sale, and is a great place to get a whole new SL look - or get stoned. -- the Editrix]
by Keiko Ketsugo
DATELINE Oriental Express (194, 235, 24) September 20, 2007:
To men (and women) who believe in tolerance and respect, we are a group of god-fearing Afghan women currently living in Tora Bora. We discovered Second Life recently, when the CIA installed wifi for us in our mountains, and immediately loved it because, as you probably suspect, our RL (Real Life) world is rather grim and we welcome those escapes in our world, our imagination.
We, like anybody else, aspire to use virtual universes to live our dreams and fantasies as (we checked) there is no mention of acceptable behaviour in digital worlds in the Koran. However, despite Second Life being “your world, your imagination”, we reckon that the acceptable imagination in SL is essentially derived from Western culture, that is, for us, an unbearable oppression, or even the digital re-creation of the idea of colonization and its “civilizing” principles, truly outrageous and shocking for a company like Linden Lab that boast of the resident-ruled nature of the universe they’ve created.
We are just asking for tolerance, is that too much to ask?
We thought tolerance was something Westerners value but, on Sept. 18th, we went to two different clubs in SL, just for having a little fun between ourselves, and got banned twice. Or, as we call it, “talibanned” because on both occasions cultural clash was clearly to blame.
The fact that we’re obviously not getting out much didn’t make the people around us feel empathy at all. In the first club, a jazz lounge called Blue Fusion, we tried to participate in a trivia event but the questions were all about things rather alien to us and we quickly found ourselves ostracized (“we’re trying to have trivia tonight in a peaceful, respectful environment” said the host to one of us). It turned out that the answer to “What occurred in the Atacama Desert for the first time in 400 years, in 1971?” was not “someone not humping a camel” but how could we know that it was a llama.
And the “Beatles song that advises: ‘One thing I can tell you is you got to be free’” is not, as it happens, Just Kidding, Slut!. But then, did we complain that they were drinking alcohol? No. Clearly the bigotry only went one way because, on the other hand, they got instantly upset when we threw acid at the face of one of us – for revealing her ankle by mistake, which was clearly done in good-spirited humour.
In the second club, Loco, some of us got thrown 2,000,000 metres in the air just because we were saying how we enjoyed dancing, which was causing the itchy burlap of our burkas to chafe against our bodies, arousing us despite our clitorectomies. Now we would like to remind those western culture centred bigots that we enjoy having things thrown at us and not the other way round. Again, is a stoning too much to ask? We would even be glad to help and provide people with our self-designed stone-thrower attachments and HUDs.
We hope that you will make this scandal public. It would be the perfect occasion to raise awareness on the broadly offensive intolerance that is lurking everywhere around Second Life.
For the Burka Babes of Second Life group,
Yung Kakapo, Keiko Ketsugo, Eris Zaoh, Sexysara Panhandle, Cinzia Dinzeo, Irena Potkova
Nacon
Sep 21st, 2007
“We are just asking for tolerance, is that too much to ask?”
Tolerance? What about the tolerance that LL and most of us residents have to put up with trouble you guys make?
Funny how life is fucked up.
Ichi Jaehun
Sep 21st, 2007
Utterly Lame.
anon
Sep 21st, 2007
This “appears legitimate”? Are you on crack? Apparently you’ve forgotten what satire is. Or never had a clue. Thanks for defending griefers. Yay!
Le Blue Dude
Sep 21st, 2007
… I can’t tell if this is a gag or not. Some aspects make it seem rather silly… Cia installing Wi-Fi does not seem, to me at least, probable. On the other hand, what the hell, we Americans are full of ourselves. We deserve to have fun poked at us. I mean, we live in a country where “Well… That’s not how WE do it back home.” Is a code word for “Get the out of my sight you moron” and where being polite is considered rude. (That it to say the more formal and polite one behaves the more rude it’s considered. A polite, vauge smile, and responding to any queries with a simple, but formal, answer is about 500 times more effective then saying “fuck you”. Or at least that’s how things work where I live)
Anyway, good job. You’ve confused me. What was I saying again?
At0m0 Beerbaum
Sep 21st, 2007
oh god
I lol’d. so hard.
Nicholaz Beresford
Sep 21st, 2007
Hehe, that’s just tooo cool!
Alazarin
Sep 21st, 2007
Hilarious and tragically sad at the same time. No doubt the stone throwing feature will eventually get the full ‘Life of Brian’ stone-throwing scene upgrade.
Otenth
Sep 21st, 2007
Griefers. SexySara Panhandle was amusing herself by disrupting a religious service last night.
Nicholaz Beresford
Sep 21st, 2007
I like the bit about the Quran being “no modify” … priceless
shockwave yareach
Sep 21st, 2007
This was hillarious!
And sadly, even though this was all in fun, it does point to a bias. Not the obvious pro-western thing the article bashes us with, but a more subtle one where some folks cannot stand any AV that isn’t a plain old boring VR representation of the plain old boring RL you. “Your world, your imagination,” remember? And I found the Burka-clad party girl bit very imaginative indeed. Would love to see some Burkas dancing at Club Cutlass next night I DJ – I’ll try to arrange a “back in Black” contest with the owner.
Coincidental Avatar
Sep 21st, 2007
The American fundie woman outlook makes me horny too.
You might know me.
Sep 21st, 2007
Last night, at my religion discussion group that meets regularly, one of these griefers appeared at our parcel. Usually when griefers appear we actually try to talk calmly to them, and a few times they’ve ended up hanging around (rare, but it happens, and I’m happy when it does).
It appears the HUD that controls the burka has a “chat 20 lines of pseudo-Islam crap” button because that’s all the griefer would do. After the third outburst, we banned it.
So my experience is that it’s another obnoxious script-kiddie griefer tool. Fortunately, it comes with an easy-to-identify costume. Not a legitimate Islam tool at all, but a pathetic joke that serves to further stereotype a group of people who for the most part would like to live in as peaceful a society as we do.
Please don’t let a small group of religious extremists cloud your views: extremists like James Dobson, Tim McVeigh, Pat Robertson, and Jim Jones.
d3adlyc0d3c
Sep 21st, 2007
I am d3adlyc0d3c and this is WIN
Alyx Stoklitsky
Sep 21st, 2007
Oh, how I laughed.
Not only at the whole burka babes thing, but at the people in the comments screaming “GRIEFER!” – as if simply wearing a funny outfit makes you a griefer.
Lighten up people, get a fucking sense of humour.
Artemis Fate
Sep 21st, 2007
Ahahaha that’s really fucking hilarious. I love the whole ad for the naughty actions like “having an opinion on something”.
DaveOner
Sep 21st, 2007
As much as the point of this was trying to be funny (I’m filing this under “had to be there I guess”) It totally could have been a legitimate article that explored both the concept of satire of a culture that doesn’t tolerate much satire of itself as well as the stereotypes and blanket intolerance of many of us westerners when it comes to Islamic culture.
The article wasn’t written well enough to be able to tell what ACTUALLY happened, but it seemed like they went to clubs and did things to disrupt the proceedings (throwing acid in someone’s face? Is that a particle deal or something?).
Now if they had just gone to these places WITHOUT trying to disrupt I wonder how they would have been treated then?
Coincidentally I’ve been checking out some of the Muslim-themed sims as well as reading about Islam’s RL history just to try to better understand what is going on in the world these days. Some of these sims are beautiful if not paradoxical (trying to be a TRULY Islamic establishment on a game that runs on commercialism and lust??) and I think we could actually learn things about each other we couldn’t learn IRL even when meeting on neutral ground. This article could have been so much more than trying to be funny to a bunch of consumers. Oh well, back to our boxes…
The Quaran (no modify) thing was actually really funny, though!
Tenshi Vielle
Sep 21st, 2007
Hrm… this isn’t so funny if you’re actually Islamic…
Shiraz
Sep 21st, 2007
Pretty pathetic attempt to raise hits on a website. Hey, I’m as tolerant as most, and I think most humor poking fun of religion or cultures is fair game. But you have taken it past the point of funny here.
So yeah, let’s be as nasty as possible and try to use every stereotype we have in our wee little heads about what Muslims are so that we can get a rise out of people.
Truly, utterly pathetic attempt at satire. Sad that the Herald found this fit to publish.
Nacon
Sep 21st, 2007
Alyx said: “Not only at the whole burka babes thing, but at the people in the comments screaming “GRIEFER!” – as if simply wearing a funny outfit makes you a griefer.”
I’m guessing you like “South Park”? It’s only a matter of what is a joke and what is a button-pressing joke. Simply anyone laugh at some lame button-pressing-culture joke would been fucked in the head. Or better yet, you might be a minor, whom can’t understand anything at your age.
Read this part again.
“So my experience is that it’s another obnoxious script-kiddie griefer tool. Fortunately, it comes with an easy-to-identify costume. Not a legitimate Islam tool at all, but a pathetic joke that serves to further stereotype a group of people who for the most part would like to live in as peaceful a society as we do.”
Simple as that.
Benjamin Duranske
Sep 21st, 2007
This, for better or worse, is social commentary — as is a fair bit of what gets tagged “griefing.” Mad Magazine level commentary, to be sure, but definitely commentary. I think that’s why I can’t stand the “ban groups X, Y, and Z” song; I like the idea that people have a fundamental right to be jackasses, and landowners have the fundamental right to bounce them. It keeps stuff like this from getting swept up with overplayed sim crashing stunts. I mean… an xCite compatible “Husband HUD Control Panel?” A menu with “Sing Satanic American Pop Songs” and “Have An Opinion on Something?” Somebody clearly put some thought into this.
Second Lulz Vigilnate
Sep 21st, 2007
This is easily the the best damn trolling I have ever seen on Second Life.
@Alyx Stoklitsky
I’ll have to agree with you for once, Alyx. This is performance art, not griefing.
Nicholaz Beresford
Sep 21st, 2007
I have to agree with Alyx and Lulz too. This is so well thought out it’s art … or if this is griefing, I’ll be joining a griefing group any time.
(Btw, going to that sim is as much fun as the article itself, these are pretty creative people, it’s been a long time since I went to place with a broad grin on my face wherever I looked
)
joe
Sep 21st, 2007
Well I guess we know what kind of ppl run Xcite now… lol
Second Lulz Vigilante
Sep 21st, 2007
@ Tenshi Vielle
True. They have a much different sense of humor than us Westerners. To them random terrorist bombings or setting embassies on fire are much more lulzworthy pasttimes. We need to have more respect and understanding for their customs.
Tenshi Vielle
Sep 21st, 2007
Someone might want to think about doing a roundabout piece on all the other religions as well. We wouldn’t want to look racist or biased, now would we?
SL LIBERALS LOEV ISLAMISTS
Sep 21st, 2007
Why is it that islam the only religion that is un-PC to defame?
Cocoanut Koala
Sep 21st, 2007
Lame.
The reason this fits into the “griefers” category, Benjamin, is unlike Mad Magazine (which I love), the others aren’t given the choice to read it.
Their events are disrupted by someone DEMANDING they stop and read it.
I’ve always defined a griefer as someone who is playing a game of his/her own, and demands that you drop everything and play it, too, whether you want to or not.
coco
Second Lulz Vigilante
Sep 21st, 2007
@Tenshi Vielle
“Someone might want to think about doing a roundabout piece on all the other religions as well. We wouldn’t want to look racist or biased, now would we?”
Ah come on, Tenshi. Mocking religions on the internet is nothing new. It’s happened to every religion several times over. There is a difference with Islam and the other religions though: Muslims are the most likely to blow things up and set shit on fire when it happens to them. Remember what happened with those cartoons in Denmark?
On the other hand, it is kind of old. And secular humanism needs to have it’s share of mockery too. They’re overdue for it and just as deserving.
DaveOner
Sep 21st, 2007
“SL LIBERALS LOEV ISLAMISTS” brings up a really good point. A lot of the same people that would criticize the writer of this article for anti-muslim sentiment would also just as quickly criticize Christianity.
It comes down to what’s hip, I guess.
Their same arguments could be applied to Christianity: extremists that don’t represent the majority of believers are focused on by various media, giving the impression that Christianity is monolithic in it’s tenets and that this prepetuates negative stereotypes of an entire group.
The people who will point to the Crusades as an example of Christianity’s deserving of such treatment also ignore the fact that Islam was forged in war and that their Mohammed ordered the beheading of hundreds of people en masse at one point. There’s also the fact that while the Bible was used to justify slavery Jesus never actually owned slaves (or anything for that matter) whereas Mohammed did.
Some will bring up the idea of not poking fun at Islam because of the current conflict. Well that’s probably only because Catholics don’t generally burn down government buildings or do suicide bombings when Jesus is protrayed in a blasphemous or otherwise offensive manner. They just drink and beat their kids!
I’m not trying to defend Christianity and insult Islam here, I’m just trying to show that both deserve equal consideration. In fact, you can find plenty to make fun of in EVERY culture without trying very hard. People are funny that way!
Second Lulz Vigilante
Sep 21st, 2007
@DaveOner
“The people who will point to the Crusades as an example of Christianity’s deserving of such treatment also ignore the fact that Islam was forged in war and that their Mohammed ordered the beheading of hundreds of people en masse at one point.”
They also ignore the fact that Islam actually started the whole deal. Islam was trying to pwn the entire known world at the time.
But to be fair, the Pope made a shortsighted greedy mistake when he ordered the Fourth Crusade against Constantinople.
Tenshi Vielle
Sep 21st, 2007
@ Second Lulz: How on earth do you make fun of a secular (human? body? person?) without sounding like a beefed up Goddie type? (omg I heart teh biblez)
Fat Prix
Sep 22nd, 2007
Who the fuck is this assclown seccond lulz vigilane anyway? never herd if him but he sound like he thinks he did something really great. Wish I knew what it was so I could laugh at him.
lulzedtosleep
Sep 22nd, 2007
Look what i can do!
And get away with it too!
I showed you!
You can’t control ME, status quo!
I…I…I’ve been out in the real world for a year or two, going to college paid for by mum and dad. I obviously know all there is to know already and I am entitled to everything! I WAS BORN! GOD I’M SO COOL I CANNOT STAND MYSELF!PHEAR ME!
A hard rain is gonna fall.
Tards.
Okkkkk Stewart, calm down son.
Mytwo Cents
Sep 22nd, 2007
Benjamin you infidel, I know you think this is all a great satire that not only mocks Islam in the most intelligent and hilarious way that we have seen lately, but also tells us about the actual tolerance of an environment where – a lot of people seem to be OK with slaves being walked around in collars and child avatars having sexual intercourse – but that bans residents looking different and making a bit of fun.
But it is not; what we see are liberal market forces in action. The recently launched Al-Andalus sim was clearly threatening to dominate the so far spread and nascent Islamic fundamentalist market sector in SL on a scale that can only by compared to Anshe Chung’s 10L furniture line. With the emergence of the Burkha Babes the whole spectrum from fundamentalist (kill all infidels painfully) to mainstream conservative (kill some infidels less painfully) Muslims now have virtually a real choice:
(a) Life under law of the sharia in Al-Andalus (“Illegal rezzing: 10 whippings”), or
(b) Best-in-black competitions with the dancing Burkha Babes in that pink mosque club with the dildo shaped minarets (“200L and that eye grid falls, honey”)
A welcomed, but tough choice; and I’m happy that I don’t have to make it. But I do agree with a comment of one of my Dutch friends on this: We all should get stoned once in a while. – Just I like was when I was writing this post. Peace.
Chav Paderborn
Sep 22nd, 2007
It’s not mocking Islam, it’s mocking *some* Muslims using Islam to treat women like dirt. So as a Miltant Socialist Atheist I have to confess to getting great lolz from the HUD idea. Anyone want to run with the link between an “Xcite-compatible” HUD that oppresses women by denying them a sexuality and the more usual HUDs that may explemplify Western oppression of women by demanding that they be *nothing but* a sexuality?
I look forward to the compatible Fundy Christian Homoerotic Longings HUD.
Second Lulz Vigilante
Sep 22nd, 2007
@Tenshi Vielle
“How on earth do you make fun of a secular (human? body? person?) without sounding like a beefed up Goddie type? (omg I heart teh biblez)”
Simple. Secular humanists and theists alike both believe in something that cannot be proven to empirically exist.
Theists believe in a deity.
Secular humanists believe in something called natural rights, aka human rights.
Neither one can be shown to exist outside of a piece of paper, so both groups have faith. Faith needs no proof.
Marshal Cahill
Sep 22nd, 2007
too funny
sara
Sep 24th, 2007
you just cant find the art in humour..you shallow shallow office monkeys….
hope antonelli
Sep 25th, 2007
OMG..I think this is the first time ever I’ve seen James Dobson listed with religious extremists like Jim Jones and the like. NOT!!!
911LOL
Sep 25th, 2007
The art of humour?
I found 9/11 quite funny.
Cat Collins
Sep 30th, 2007
As a woman who has had to wear one of these things in rl…keep that in mind as you read my opinion.
The way I see it this is marginalizing why the women in rl wear them. In fact I would go so far as to say it’s damn close to insulting. Oh what the hell; it is insulting. Then again some of the population isn’t interested in what is right or wrong they are interested in fads and making a quick buck “any way they can”. This gadget has nothing to do with it’s rl counter part. However it’s easy to see why hatred is alive and well in this world.
Shame on the creator of this item.
Cat Collins
Sep 30th, 2007
“control your toy-whore remotely”
Yeah that just screams “funny”. It’s funny why? Because women are once again called toy-whores? Gee I wonder if a rl guy made this product.
/end sarcasm