Another wish I have is that we get more people of color not just with avatars of color, but that we excape this whole gangsta thing. I really get annoyed with what I can only imagine are non-blacks using the lowest form of street language and appetities as somehow a way of participating in ‘black culture’. Any more strong, smart, cultured brtohers and sisters out there that would like to try something fresh, bright and hot? Drop me a IM, let’s talk and plan and do something grand?

Just to be clear, none of what I have said here is directed against you, Nuts. I very much like the look of your avatar, and I wish you well. As for your involvement in Gor, I only have your own words to go by: “I got into Gor early, went panther and never really looked back. Had some great friends and great times.” That said, what I stated in, I think, my second comment here still applies: I very much believe that you are “entitled to engage in whatever kind of roleplay” that you wish.

I’m not sure that I see ponygirls as a huge leap forward, here; it’s really just another variant on the “let’s tie the girl up and have fun humiliating her,” isn’t it? (And yes, of course it’s consensual, but the “humiliation” is part of the erotic thrill.) It seems to me that this kind of thing very much falls into the “been there, done that” category: exchanging a bridle for a ballgag or silks doesn’t really meet the criteria of being “something new and fun and fresh.”

On the other hand, a feature on being black . . . or representing as black, in SL, is a brilliant idea.

Heck, how about some posts about being black in SL? How about some posts about ponygirls? How about something new and fun and fresh?

With respect, I did not miss Sec’s point. Among other things, he/she was accusing me of tampering with the data, by excluding the Xmas posts, and including Marilyn and Celebrity as RPers. Neither is true.

As regards the possibility that Daeynaries’ tenure as photographer for Post 6 represents a temporary “blip,” I can only hope that you are right. No one would be more pleased than I if March features a much diminished dollop of sexually violent RP in the Herald. In fact, it is in hope of this that I have been posting about this in the first place.

However, my point in also making note of the series of Hard Alley stories and Stroker’s “award” as “Avatar of the Year,” none of which had anything to do with Daeynaries, was to suggest the worrisome possibility that the Herald as a whole is focussing more and more upon this kind of RP.

Again, no one will be happier than I if this proves not to be the case.

I think you missed Just a Sec’s point about your data. Your sample doesn’t adequately reflect a normal cycle of Post 6 because it’s not normal for a whole month or five weeks or whatever of models to come from the same sim. It’s like spending a summer in Alaska and concluding it’s always warm and sunny there.

I neither know nor particularly care where Debi “hangs out” in SL, and you are being more than a little literal-minded to imagine that I do. My suggestion that she get out of Zindra for a while was a sarcastic aside reflecting upon her absurd allegation that 75% of the women in SL engage in things like CaRP or rape RP.

Neither is there anything “flawed” about my data: it includes the “Xmas Special” Post 6 Grrrrls (which included Daeynaries Lane herself). I invite you to take the time to go over the numbers yourself.

I have not forgotten about either Marilyn or Celebrity, both of whom appeared in December, and neither of whom were in any case included in my reckoning of those engaged in the RP of sexual violence. I have also stated above that “There HAVE been some very worthwhile profiles featured here”: I would include both of these women in THAT number, and pretty well said as much in my comment on Marilyn’s post.

In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter whether these women have been chosen by Timothy or Daeynaries. What does matter is that, in addition to an inundation of Midian City, Gorean, and rape RP players here in the past two months, the Herald has also featured a series of “humorous” stories on Hard Alley, and on the Kingdom of Sand (another slavery and CaRP game), as well as choosing as one of its “Avatars of the Year” a pornographer who is currently busily distributing a freebie scripted dummy representing a very identifiable person whom one can anally rape at will.

There have been a few bright lights: I salute Meleth Oakleaf for at least trying to cover something different. But, sorry, the overall impression is that the Herald is becoming Sexual Violence Central for SL.

Um, hold the phone- how do you know where Nuts or Timothy or Debi or anyone else spends their Second Life? Are you assuming things about their behavior based on limited knowledge of the topic, or do you actually hang out with these people to find out what they do? Isn’t this just an example of lobbing categorizations and stereotypes at people Scylla? The perception that all housewives sit on the couch all day eating candy and watching Oprah, or that female workers cause more problems in an office than male workers, or that all feminists are really just lesbians with daddy issues would be three other examples of the types of blankets that get tossed on people by other people looking to “hate” but hiding their prejudice in couched argument.

For my bit, I assume that Nuts, Timothy and Debi and any and all of the sorts of people who post have a varied Second Life, just as you do, and just as I do. To simply assume that their behavior is one thing because it fits your worldview for them is naive and shows a lack of depth to your argument, Scylla. You’re actually hurting the feminist movement by coming here to argue about it because you’re not very good at it. Your logic is flawed and contradictory much of the time. The world, especially the virtual one, is not black and white in its behaviors and yet you seek to make them such.

Maybe you should stop trying to get this leopard to change its spots and launch a new article on the Herald about this richness and variety of which you speak, or become a Post 6 Grrrl yourself. As is, you’re really just becoming a joke here, and by extension, so is your cause.

The fact that you did research on the past X number of articles proves the point of whoever it was that said you’d gone off the rails. The fact that you included in your research some flawed data, proves that you’re not really a suitable candidate to come here and argue anything that requires depth of thought. (The flaw is that several of those posts you included were by the guest photographer, who it seems made all of her friends from Midian City and made the Post 6 grrls. Doing such a small sample, using data that is not “the norm,” and then reporting that data as representing “the norm” is bad research. How about the 12 models from Christmas? Were they included? I remember Celebrity Trollop and Marylyn Murphy were in there, surely you’re not counting them as Gor players are you? Did you count them at all?

Please. Think, then speak.

I don’t recall saying that I thought that any of these women were “evil.” In fact, let me go further: I have never said anything of the sort. As I HAVE said in previous comments on Post 6, I have no interest whatsoever in attacking women for their individual choices; it is only when they take up advocacy for Gor or whatever that I will respond.

Nor, although I’d naturally prefer that such objectionable and harmful displays of misogyny and violence against women not be given prime time exposure, do I recall ever saying that they shouldn’t be here. What I HAVE said, over and over again, is that the over-representation of such women here is a distortion of the actual prevalence of such role play in SL. It is also monotonous, dull, and vacuous. And, frankly, it contributes to misogynist myths about women by playing to the crowd who really want to believe that women are “naturally” submissive, and that they “really” find rape and forced sex a turn-on.

As to your contention that 75% of women role playing sexual violence in SL “is representative of most of SL,” I can only respond that you, like Timothy, need to get out of Zindra or the Crack Den more often. All of the figures I have ever seen put the percentage of SL land designated as “Adult” at well under 10%, and much nearer to 5%. There’s a whole wide virtual world out there that you seem to be missing, and a richness of content and experience that extends far beyond what can be imagined on a Gorean sex bed. Open your eyes a bit, and you just might see it.

LOL. Well, when the “negative” is so very obtrusive, yeah … we “militant feminists” notice. Actually, I have lauded those Post 6 Grrrrl whom I thought interesting, articulate, or worthy of praise. It’s just that they have been somewhat rare of late.

Out of interest, I’ve done a quick tabulation. Since the beginning of September, Post 6 has featured 11 women who self-identify as into Gor, CaRP, or some form of violent sexual RP. That’s about 2 a month. Since the beginning of January, 75%, or 6 of 8 Post 6 Grrrrls have been Midian City or Gor RPers (the two who were exceptions both appear to be strippers, I think). I also, out of curiosity, checked out the profiles of a few featured women who didn’t identify any of these things in their bios, and discovered another 3 who do CaRP, Rape RP, or Midian City (2 more of those: my goodness that sim is well-represented, eh?).

There HAVE been some very worthwhile profiles featured here. But of late, we are getting snowed under by women who engage in this kind of RP. Sorry, but 75% in the past two months seems to me to point to a lack of diversity. And yeah, to “militant feminists” like myself, it’s kind of glaring.