Quiz time (again...)

It's amazing how these things get started. Actually no, it's a MIRACLE how these things get started but nevermind. This post however has a tale behind it. The rather wonderful (if slightly evil with long held grudges about cats and stuff) Willow Caldera asked me this on twitter today "Should I go for vixen diva or trailer trash ho? Which is more fitting?" and so in my time honoured tradition of taking the piss out of those I love and making them hate me its....



Are you foxier than a bagful of vixens or skankier than a used condom floating in a public urinal?
Are you a tantalising temptress or just turning tricks?

Or perhaps you're just boring? Who knows? Take this quizzy quiz (fiendishly designed by Tie) and find out.

You're all out of snacks again and need to run to the shops, do you...
a) Get driven by Benson the chauffeur
b) Walk, it's healthy
c) Wait for the number 29 bus with the winos

When you come home from a hard day at work do you...
a) Sling off your shoes and sink into your luxurious white leather sofa
b) Tidy your house
c) Go hunting varmints with Bobby Joe

At school were you...
a) Interested in art
b) More inclined towards maths and languages
c) Likely to be found on your knees in the boys toilet

Do you prefer...
a) Persian cats, they're so soft and fluffy
b) Fish, they have so much personality
c) Armadillos, they'm good eatin'

At a bar with your friends, you purchase...
a) A vodka martini with a small dish of pickled quail's eggs
b) Half a pint of shandy with ice and lemon
c) Nothing, your drinks are free as you're sleeping with the barman

Taking a well earned break, your dream holiday destination is...
a) San Tropez, all your friends are there for the season
b) In the Cotswolds with your grandparents
c) Disneyland

A visit to the dentists is necessary, you get...
a) Teeth straightening AND whitening, for that hollywood smile
b) A filling
c) Your toothpick back

While bored at work you mostly use the net to browse...
a) The Vogue website
b) The British Parliament website
c) Myspace

It's your uncle Berty's birthday, do you give him...
a) A case of Cristal and a diamond studded poodle
b) A card and some nose hair clippers
c) Your knickers and a discount coupon for an evening of your time

Answers

Mostly a's

I'd just like to take a moment to thank you on behalf of the Mean Girls for bestowing your radiant presence on our blog. It is, indeed, an honour Your Majesty.

Mostly b's

You really enjoyed this quiz didn't you? The naughty little words gave you a small thrill in your normally boring and unimaginative life. Pfft.

Mostly c's

Welcome to our world, you are the trashiest of all the ho's on the park. You know it's a good day when you wake up with a condom on your face cos at least you remembered to use one. So pull up a pile of bricks and sup your moonshine, you're one of us.


Kitty 'Ten dollar ho with a two dollar haircut' Lalonde
Tiernan 'Gee mister, my daddy's is bigger'n that' Serpentine

Fashion Taboo

The best way to start this post is with a little story. It was a lovely sunny day and the birds were singing, when a friend of mine decided to map me. Nothing wrong with that, they're a friend who had been given the right to use it when they feel to. So they ended up very close by as I was going about my business, I spotted them (yay mystitool) and waved hello. But they tp'd away at the speed of light. Sound rude? Possibly. The thing was I was in a sim called Broceliande and my business was putting Tie, dressed as a ponygirl, through her paces.

It's not just ponygirls either. I'm fully supportive of the "Your world, your imagination" that gets bandied around from time to time. I also see SL as a (sexually) consequence free landscape to try the many multitude of things that aren't possible in RL (or at least they look more glossy and atttractive in SL). Apparently I'm in the minority though. Amongst the fashion community there're a wealth of morals and tabboos that would make the 1940's look like a scene from Caligula. I'm not convinced however, what with the wealth of alts around I'm not surprised if the kajira whose skin you admired in Le Zoo is actually a fashionista getting her secretive rocks off.

The problem is that SL is, has been and always will be a sex playground, but nowadays it seems that people on the blogging circuits and the socialites are becoming more and more prissy about it. It's as if even mentioning the 'darker underbelly' of Second Life might burst the cocoon of self-importance and remind us that SL is after all just an online game and not some sort of Milanese fashion show extravaganza. Maybe the sex is more hidden now, kept away from all the boardwalks, boulevards and high class shopping districts, and if you don't dwell too long on it you might just forget it even exists. And maybe the the leading fashion designer who never used to wear underwear with her skirts now does, or the top SL business person who used to bestow their presence on the bdsm community no longer does, but their alts probably do.

I write here today as a person who refuses to alt. If I want to spank my pony I will, if I want to crawl around Armidi on all fours carrying a dog bone. I will. However I will not hide things that I happen to find fun because a small part of our society deems it wrong. It is a part of who I am, and always will be, and I am not ashamed of myself.

Anyone want to be my pony?

A question of priorities

Yesterday I spied on the forums an outfit called Jihad Joe. Made by Fedor Mcnally, and advertised as

"So Gi-Joe has been getting too comfortable with Barbie and has no competition, so He has began to pimp Barbie out. Gi-Joe's technology and weapons is too great for ken, because Ken is a hippy and vegan.

BUT NOW OUT IS JIHAD-JOE. Jihad-Joe comes with a shemagh (head rag), in 2 colors, but is modifiable if you wish to customize your shemagh. it also comes with a pipe bomb vest that explodes via a grille igniter that is located on the HUD, the explosion both pushes, and kills.

4 gestures are included to shout at gi-joe to encourage him to repent and take into consideration what he is doing to Barbie is WRONG.

But don't worry, this isn't only for men, there is also a jihad-jane for Barbies who wish to convert and rebel against their rulers."



Obviously I decided that would be a riot and scampered off to purchase it. The problem comes when I have a few friends who have decided that 'jihad joe' is wrong. They didn't necessarily say it was sick and wrong. But wrong nevertheless. This got me thinking.

Yes. It's symbolic of murder and destruction. But so is a gun, which I've previously blogged as fashion accessories on the grid and no one batted an eyelid.

So why do we have different priorities? Second Life is all about dressing up in costumes and outfits, body shapes, genders, races and species that are different from the real life ones sitting at the computer. And just about everyone has opinions on which guises are tasteful and which are at the other end of the scale descending from mildly annoying to downright offensive. Dressing up like a pirate or viking is fine, humourous even, despite the fact that historically both these groups spent much of their time raping and pillaging and generally being bastardy. But dressing up like a nazi is 'in bad taste'. When does something stop being a 'sacred cow'?


Time is definitely a big factor in making distasteful subjects more acceptable - not many people cringe when the Spanish Inquisition is mentioned, but moving forward into the 20th century, into living memory, Naziism is still a highly emotive topic. Humour is a good measure of when past events become socially acceptable. It's okay to mock and laugh at the Nazis, but to do the same with the Holocaust would undoubtedly be considered in deeply bad taste. There's also a good helping of historical manipulation when it comes to uncomfortable events from the past. I doubt many people would recoil in horror at seeing an avatar dressed up as Columbus, despite his extermination policies that saw the death of millions of Native Americans, ranking as one of the worst genocides in human history.

In 2001 a british satirical show, Brass Eye, aired an hour long special regarding paedophilia and the moral panic drummed up by various media outlets at the time, leading to a witch hunt in which many innocent members of the public had their lives upended. The show inevitably recieved a slew of complaints. Despite the absurdity of the jokes (internet paedophiles can make computer keyboards emit noxious fumes in order to subdue children), many of these complaints were from politicians who later admitted that they hadn't actually seen the show. Many people were left questioning why it was wrong to take the piss out of paedophiles.

Maybe it's just human nature. People feel normal and accepted when they have something definite to fear, a shared enemy to loathe. And maybe that's a good thing.