Thursday, November 1, 2007

The rape of the stepford.


**disclaimer** This post will have little or no structure, probably will make sense to no one (not even me) but sadly my ADHD means that if I try to make it make sense, the post won't get made.

Todays thoughts were started by an article I read recently from the SL Herald. For those of you too lazy to click it's basically the tale of one woman getting 'assaulted' and 'killed' by a random griefer in front of her kids. Sounds terrible, no?

Oh how she must of suffered, the outrageous trauma of being stunned into such fear that she was unable even to click the little X. Hmm...

Anyways, you don't need me to go over thoughts on how utterly retarded this is, you can read the comments in the article. However I was rather intrigued so I set off to the sim in which this 'atrocity' occured in, and oh to my surprise it was the brainwashing camp of the stepford.

I've had a long and interesting relationship with stepfords. They lurk in droves outside the school at 9am. Hair all shiny and perfectly in place. Make up that perfect tone of 'I've spent three hours putting two tonnes of slap on to make me look like a natural beauty'. Their children also have shiny hair and have probably had some delicious breakfast with extra vitamins and been wrapped up snugly in fresh cleanly ironed clothes in order to be able to brave the harsh interior of their bicyclist and environment killing range rover. *takes deep breath*

Then there's me, hair looking like I lick plug sockets for a living, if there is any make up it's a residue of the previous nights activities (thus revealing raging hangover). Obscure stains on clothing, slobbing around and growling at everyone. Children have been fed toast, perhaps with jam. Which is still on their chins.

You can see how we don't get on.

Now I've often worried that I may come across a bit stepford in SL, I mean my hairs nice, unless I'm doing the gritty thing my clothes look clean and I generally look, together. Until I found this place. It's one of those freakish communities where people go dancing, and pop into each others houses. When they know who'll be online and so forth. I bet they even have village hall meetings, and a village hall to meet in. Of course now the herald article all makes sense. I very much doubt any of these people actually leave their sim. They loiter around in there poofy dresses (pink and white with apples on, natch) and their suits and talk about kittens and cystitis. They all wear underwear and think riding crops are for horses.

Maybe they're all stepfords in RL, maybe they came into SL, took one look at all the free sex, nudity, dog fucking, goreans and headed for the hills. If this is the right answer, then they should turn off public access and continue in their lil' bubble.

Or maybe they're all like me? Sat at their pooters scratching the dirt off their monitors and eating noodle sandwiches. Pretending that they're all together and wonderful and upstanding pillars of the community.

I didn't stay that long, so who knows, they might shag each other senseless with jagged prims the minute I left but I doubt it.

My final thought is this. Maybe they're all weird and deranged but they are obviously the best roleplayers in the whole of the metaverse. To take such interaction of a pretty standard scene in rp circles and make it create such an impact is a skill I can't even contemplate pulling off.

Therapy anyone?


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Structure? Sense? Your post is clear as day. It's the one at the Herald that baffles the mind.

Unknown said...

Agreed. I read "the other article" and let's get a few things out. I was FURIOUS when I finished reading "the other article." WTF was that Drama Queen doing actually grabbing her children and holding them there in front of the PC screen to witness her "assault"? She is a RL idiot and, damn, she probably passed on those stupid genes to her helpless kids. Big fat WORD on logging out. The reason it has been written and said so often that SL levels the playing field for women, is that you are physically safe - safe to TP out of any situation, safe to mute any annoying Avatar, no one can harm you physically. The article the Herald wrote was irresponsible and did a HUGE disservice to REAL LIFE rape victims - who can only wish they had been able to TP home.

Anonymous said...

:) Thank you for this wonderfully clear article, Kitty. I laughed the entire way through.

RavenRead said...

I'd have to agree that the post over at the Herald was WAY over the top.

Judging the people who live in the sims where it happened based on the article would also be a way over the top error.

Kitty Lalonde said...

Umm yes, I quite agree that's an awful thing to do. Bloody good job I went to the sim and spoke to the people there before I wrote this. *wipes forehead*. Phew!

Oh and yay and hugs to everybody else

*grins*

Douglas Story said...

A couple weeks ago my wife handed me a copy of British "Elle" because there was an article about SL in it.
The thing started out with (and I'm just quoting from memory here, so don't take this as verbatim) this lurid scene of the writer leaving a nightclub (in SL, of course) in a bad part of town, being seperated from friends, and hearing following footsteps on the dark, deserted street...fearing rape! Eeeeeks!
It went on in this vein for some time, and though the writer made a nod to sanity ( "Linden Labs says no one can really be raped...)
the article kept returning to this theme, even adding that Anshe Chung's partner referred to the infamous giant-flying-penis griefing incident as, "a sexual assault."
Good Lord.

I will add that when I once teased a Caledon resident about their goody-goodiness, she informed me that they all have well-equipped dungeons under their Victorian manses. Tee-fucking-hee!

Anonymous said...

i wanted to share my story of rape. i was at work Second Lifing when i was not supposed to. my boss came up and started talking to me. I clicked off the screen , and SL was hidden behind some of my other open windows. He kept talking and talking and i noiced something wierd going on on, from the little part of the SL viewer i could see thru the cracks in the other windows. When the boss finally stopped talking, i clicked onto the window and witnessed the horrific scene: a naked man with a n00b cock was bumping into my poor clothed avatar repeatedly. I HAVE NEVER FELT SO DISGUSTED OR VIOLATED.

actually just kidding.!~ i hit the x and signed off. then i laughed. come on people. the person who wrte that article for the herald is an absolute idiot.

Anonymous said...

Noodle sandwiches...?

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to offer another perspective on this issue. I do agree that the original Herald poster might need a bit of perspective. No, what happened to her wasn't rape, and she was free to leave (or kick the guy out) at any time. Having said that, as a former member of the "whore corps" I've had some experiences that left me feeling rather.. violated. From the guys who used their paid time to twist me into every position on my Sexgen bed, to the client who thought that peeing on me would be a "sexy surprise" after I'd previously told him I didn't like watersports, to the guy who insisted on using a Dolcett play place for our session, I've seen some things that made my RL hair stand on end. Did I consent? Yes. Could I have tp'd out at any time? Sure. Am I scarred for life? Not at all. But I also had a reputation at stake, so I did these things grudingly. No, I would not go so far as to call these things rape, but these experiences did leave me feeling violated.

Oh yes, for another perspective on SL rape, check out Lillie's blog:

http://sexsecond.blogspot.com/2007/08/dwayne-babenco-is-rapist.html

Kitten Martynov said...

What happened to your post about the quad?

Anonymous said...

I was wondering the same thing about the quad. why is no one talking about this?

Unknown said...

Yea - it just seems so suspicious on the "quad". 4 people all having RL issues that severe all at once ...To shut the stores completely I do not get (especially since I had planned to go buy the nurse's costume and couldn't).

While SL media is mum about this - the update groups have not been - in fact, I had to quit a couple of them because the constant IMing about the issue was killing me.

As all good PR people will tell the Quad vendors: in the absence of information, people will supply their own - in the form of rumor and innuendo. And that is exactly what is happening.

Kitten Martynov said...

I actually wasn't wondering about the quad.

I was wondering what happened to the now-deleted Mean Girls post about them, and the post that Tenshi made prompting it.

Your original question about why there hasn't been press isn't nearly so interesting as why the few bits of press that there WERE have since been erased.

So why is that, Jelly?

♥ JellyBean Madison ♥ said...

I was asked to remove it by Elika, Tenshi & a few others. I don't feel that anything I said was "off" or "devastating", but removed it because I was asked to. I'm unsure of what is going on but I guess it's not our place to question it. Regardless of it being blogged or not blogged as the case may be, it is being spoken about & no one can stop that.

Anonymous said...

So Tenshi runs what this blog says now too?

I'm disappointed. I'm sure other blogs wouldn't wuss out and pull the post. Granted, that blog's been pretty quiet lately as well....

Anonymous said...

I have to say, I'm disappointed as well. Not in this blog in particular, but in the SL fashion blogverse in general for their handling of this whole mysterious thing. Are the Big Four truly so mighty that they get to edit *other people's* blogs?

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why the post regarding the Quad was removed from this blog, or Shopping Cart Disco, either. It was curiosity, completely without malice, which every single fan of the designers in the Quad is experiencing right now. It's all well and good to tell everyone you're closing, without much notice at all, and I totally respect their rights to do as they like with their goods, their sims, and their selves, but you can't reasonably expect the people who shop with you not to wonder what happened.

They say "Please respect this decision" and what it seems to be equating to around the SL fashion blogs is "You are not allowed to wonder what's going on, not even blogs which you're the owner of."

As a fan of the designers of the Quad myself, I can only say that I do wonder what caused such a sudden closing of shop. Respecting their collective decision to do as they wish, which I do, doesn't keep me from wondering what in the world happened, and hoping that it isn't something tragic.

Just my L$2.

Nohae said...

Where is that place you mentionned going to that the offense took place in ? I see no slurl or SIM name. Not sick! But your post makes it sound interesting to say the least...

Kitty Lalonde said...

Oh yes, sorry, the place was Caledon Stormhold I think, as mentioned in the SL Herald article

Unknown said...

c"and it occurred to me as I teleported out that he had no balls"

LMFAO. It occurred to me...he had no balls!

Sir! This man has no balls!

Ahhh god...my ribs are hurting. Thanks for that. I ranted at my place on the article but that line is a keeper.