A blog relating to Jeepers Shoes for Men in Second Life by Eponymous Trenchmouth.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Coming out of the closet...


Confession is good for the soul, they say. So here goes. I'm not a woman, I just play one in Second Life. Until now. Say goodbye to gorgeous, 30-something, white-haired Epy, and hello to handsome, aging, gray-haired Epo.

Questions arise: why did I use a female AV for so long, and why have I decided to reveal my RL gender. Every day, every minute, everything we do (or don't do) effects our future. Every now and then Fate intervenes and offers us a wild card to play (or not). When I joined SL, I had no idea I would still be here almost two years later. Not because I thought my interest would wane, but because I doubted that Linden Lab would hold up under the pressure of explosive growth. For this reason I never went Premium, preferring to rent rather than purchase land.

But back to the questions. Why did I chose a female AV? Blame it on Lara Croft, heroine of Tomb Raider. This third-person action game was (I believe) the first computer game to have a woman as the principal character. I quickly grew accustomed to watching a female character perform the actions that I controlled. So when I joined SL, and was given the opportunity to select the gender of my AV, I had no hesitation in choosing female. So did a lot of other guys.

And I gotta say, it's been fun. For starters, speaking as a straight guy, I'd rather watch a woman walk ahead of me, than a man. Thank goodness for the sexy walk animation! Suddenly I had a whole new wardrobe to experiment with, and I discovered that I had no difficulty in selecting which lingerie to wear, which shoes went with which outfit, and how I wanted my hair and make-up to look.

But the minute Epy stepped out to explore the world, I experienced male-female relationships from a whole different perspective. Guys would hit on me! "Hey Babe", "Hi Doll". I had become a sex object! So for those early months when she explored SL's most popular activity, she became a lesbian. But all that was before I became consumed with building shoes. But being a woman stuck. Epy made friends as a woman, but when she started exchanging RL information with others, I always felt deceitful. I've confessed my RL identity to a few close friends, but I'm tired of the deception, and that's why I've come out of closet. From now on, Epo will appear as a guy. Get used to it. And all those gorgeous outfits? I've transferred all I could to one of my alts - a gorgeous, white-haired, 30-something woman.

One last thing: I don't want to hear from anyone complaining that I tricked them by appearing as a woman. Get over it. Ain't nobody here looks like their AV; that's the advantage of this place: we can and should be anyone we want.

1 comment:

.::KMADD::. said...

we love you no matter who you are