I had the most thrilling time on Second Life early this morning. I woke up in the middle of the night after I got a random phone call from one of my friend’s that is in town for Memorial Day Weekend.
I logged on to SL to see if any of my sources had contacted me and I got an IM from a person I met randomly one day.
As we chatted about SL and my experiences we began to reveal details about our real lives. When he asked about the meaning of my real name I told him that my name meant Powerful ruler. I asked him what his real name was and he said, “When I tell you my name you’re going to be shocked.”
“How so?” I asked.
“My name is Sharlene.”
It turns out that this ‘man’ is actually a Black woman. She plays on SL as a white man because she says, “People seem to take me more seriously as a male.”
There’s a lot of this going on in SL. After all, you can be whatever you want to be. I’ve interviewed a white man who says that he wishes he was born Black and plays a Black avatar on SL. I’ve also learned that one of the most successful publications on SL has a Black publisher and she is really a white man in real life. I’m about to publish these interviews on my SL blog as a series on people who change races in SL.
As a researcher and social studies junky, the most intriguing aspect of being on SL for me is finding out why people choose to play and how they spend their time on SL.
I used to spend time with a man who was married in real life. After talking with him I found that he has had several romantic relationships on SL and doesn’t feel bad about them.
I’ve met a man who is disabled in real life and his spirit is so bright. He plays a cat on SL and when I asked him why he said, “It’s just a body. A way to get around.” That made me think of our bodies and appearance in a new light. If the person we are isn’t defined by the ‘carrier’ of our souls, then it shouldn’t matter what we look like.
But it does….