Second+Life+Sex

=Sex in Second Life=

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//We're smart enough not to buy into the oldest myth running - Love. Fiction created by people to keep them from jumping out of windows.// - Gordon Gecko, Wall Street

Sex seems to be one of the big draws in Second Life. The internet in general has often been criticized for the amount of pornographic content easily accessible by its users. Pornography also seems to be one of the biggest businesses on the internet, and Second Life follows suit. No user is completely immune from being occasionally confronted with graphic content. The prevalence of mature content areas which contain 'sex clubs' in Second Life would seem to suggest a community structure is being built around simulated sexual activities, however, because of the nature of sex culture on Second Life and the mechanics of these acts this isn't the case. What users participate in and observe is at its core an artificial and loveless process.

Automation


Sex in Second Life is not controlled by users, for one thing. There is no room for spontaneity or improvisation, for sex is achieved through the use of pose balls. Pose balls allow the mechanical/physical simulation of sex by users' three dimensional avatars. A variety of positions and motions can be found. Though pose balls generally come in pairs for male and female partners, there are also some that allow for homosexual positions and group sex. Sexual activity on the grid, then, is largely a point-and-click activity requiring little work or participation. Why, then, is it so immensely popular? It was difficult to find answers to that question. Many people seemed unwilling to discuss it. Some had difficulty maintaining a physical relationship in real life, or had never had one, and turned to Second Life to fulfill their carnal needs.



Exaggeration
The automated orientation of sexual activity on the grid might lead one to think that it wouldn't be a big draw - however, it seems to take up a large volume of grid space. There are sex shops, sex clubs, and private sex dens throughout Second Life. The word 'sex' is widely dispersed, often in capital black or red letters, sometimes animated for emphasis, other times with exclamation points to drive the point home. It is a major tool for advertising and an important business sector. Many skin designers also create special anatomically complete skins for sexual activity which are sold along the clothing and accessories in their shops. Notice that the word 'correct' or 'realistic' is avoided when discussing these sex-skins.



The sexual organ skins in Second Life show great variety, however a very large percentage of them unrealistically portray male and female genitalia. Penises which are impossibly large seem to be most popular, jutting out from avatars like missiles. Second Life vaginas, on the other hand, almost always appear disturbingly underdeveloped. This seems an exaggeration of trends in mass pornography started by the likes of John Holmes and Ron Jeremy, two adult film stars of renown for their generous endowments, and Larry Flynt with his Hustler Barely Legal series wherein young women are portrayed, legs open, in poses and settings which give the impression of youth and purity. In the fantasy world of Second Life these idealizations are taken a step farther into the dangerous realm of impossibility. Group sex, age play, and beastiality also abound on Second Life.

By embracing this unrealistic portrayal of male and female bodies and intercourse, users are idealizing an artifice which will never be attained in real life. One common complaint tendered against modern pornography is that it leads to the same idealization of unrealistic activity. Second Life may very well be contributing to the same trend, especially with its idolization of sex as a word and activity and its hyperbolic image of the human body.



Sex is also exaggerated as a tremendous deal, reminiscent of real life strip clubs with thumping dance beats and screaming disc-jockeys announcing the next dancer. These dancers, however, are only real in a digital sense - yet some users find gyrating conglomerations of pixels and bits which resemble a humanoid female enticing enough to spend their Linden Dollars in these places. Second Life strip clubs closely mirror their real life counterparts, even sharing some of the same rules of behavior and commercial exchange. The difference here between Second Life are real life is that this kind of disposition towards sexuality and nudity exists throughout the grid.

Depersonalization


Depersonalized sex is not unique to Second Life. In real life, a culture of cruisers generally seek anonymous sex in two different classes of locations: those associated with sex culture like pornography stores or theaters, and those associated with transient lifestyles like truck stops, rest areas, or airport bathrooms. Thanks to the miracle of the internet an even more depersonalized form of sex came to be: cybersex, or cybering. Through the use of chat or private message windows two or more users would engage in a textual narration of a sex act. These users would be disconnected by unknown distances, ages, and cultures. Until the advent of webcams this was completely anonymous activity. Second Life affords users a simulation to cyber to on screen, but it still lacks the personal intimate contact that occurs in the normal sex act. Indeed, if a user is to feel anything from this activity, they must do it to themselves. Therefore sex on Second Life is more akin to masturbation than to intercourse, an individual act depersonalized and done in the presence of another.

Deprivatization


Not only is masturbation turned into a group activity via the simulated sex Second Life offers, but the acts one's avatar engages in are generally observable by the general public. Most sex clubs are in public view. The taboo of sex in an outdoor public place does not exist in Second Life - while there aren't avatars on Orientation Island engaging in sex acts, one does not have to go far to see cybering in public places. What society once turned into a private, personal act is pulled back into the public by Second Life mechanics. As Mastadon Mornington and others have found, it is difficult to make anything truly private on Second Life no matter what kind of barriers one puts up. So even a set of pose balls or a sex bed in an interior room in a house on a private island has the potential to be a public place, more so than private rooms and residences in real life for Second Life lacks many of the normative and legal constraints that are present in the real world. Furthermore, due to different levels of values projected upon avatars by their users, for many privacy and modesty are no longer a concern when they are on the grid.



Devaluation
Automation, exaggeration, depersonalization, and deprivatization of sex on Second Life has led users to devalue to sex act altogether. In their research, the A-Team has found several avatars who claim that the sex act is 'meaningless' to them and has no bearing on their real life. It is difficult to disagree that sex in Second Life has nothing to do with feelings or relationships between people, but is done largely for entertainment purposes.



However, just as values are transmitted and projected from other forms of media onto segments of the real life population, the new values formed within Second Life can also break the fourth wall and infiltrate real life. What happens when sex is no longer an intimate, personal, private act between people eager to show their love to each other? If the Second Life orientation towards sex as a meaningless act devoid of emotion and relationship is projected upon the real life, what then are the implications for family, procreation, and love?

These are not new concerns. When the X-rating was invented and during the many debates over obscenity and pornography the United States courts were asked many of the same questions, and none were found pressing enough to curb the freedom of speech, expression, and enterprise in this country. What happens, then, if we become so isolated and alienated from each other that casual contact is the closest we are able to come to loving relationships? Family, community, and love cannot solely survive for their own sake, and they are not commodifiable and tradable for L$ or real money.

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