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The uneasy tension of being Barbie
By Celebrity Trollop | September 6, 2006
Via Second Life Insider, I came across the brand new SLATE (Second Life Arts & Total Entertainment) magazine. One of the articles in the inaugural issue is Fantasies of Femininity. The article deals with — what is for some — an uneasy tension between “a beauty ideal in pixels” and how it relates to feminist thoughts about beauty ideals, portrayals of women in popular culture, media, etc.
I’ll admit, this is a topic I’ve long wanted to write about, but never really found the time to put all of my thoughts into words. Anya writes about her thoughts like this:
I have discovered that despite the fact that I am a feminist, it makes me feel gorgeous and sexy and desirable to look a certain way. I enjoy feeling beautiful to myself. I enjoy gazing at myself and thinking: yes, that reflects many aspects about me: my softness, my femininity, my mysteriousness, my sexuality and so on. Aspects of my identity that are more than likely hidden in my offline body and appearance. Rather than feeling ashamed of myself for my choices of an avatar that reflects traditional Western beauty (and which I would scorn in other contexts), I am exploiting the medium of Second Life to mediate the identity for myself that makes me feel most feminine, gloriously free, uninhibited, sensual, and happy…So how do I reconcile my Barbie body with my feminist beliefs? Well, I figure that any culture that allows women to express themselves fully as women, and allows them to explore their femininity, their sexuality and all aspects of their identity, is a culture of liberation and empowerment. And that is a good thing and can only serve to advance the feminist agenda.
Please read the whole thing.
I don’t know if I’d precisely use the same language as Anya — I don’t think I would necessarily scorn images of beautiful real women dressed in skimpy lingerie (look in any fashion glossy for those images, no lad’s mags needed!) but it’s a thoughtful and thought provoking article. Plus, the magazine is really quite artfully put together — and with a Nonna Hedges interview along with some terrific art layouts, something I thought my readers would want to know about. Check it out!
Topics: External Resources, Opinion |
I think Anya incorrectly justifies as feminism her Second Life indulgences in making her avatar “perfect” (by Westernized standards) rather than more deeply delving into the pervasive and subconscious effect of Western socialization that produces such desire in the first place. Her argument about the feminism of her avatar’s sensuousness remind me of the group of feminists that support pornography as empowering as long as it is not explicitly demeaning.
Although nothing inherently wrong in “playing Barbie,” a more developed introspection on why so many female avatars are “perfect” and light-skinned would be far more interesting. Is it because the players secretly dream for that appearance in RL or is it because that’s what is the normative for SL? For example, although there seems to be an attempt to have SL fashions mimic RL ones, I still haven’t seen many pairs of SL jeans above the pubic bone despite the RL trend to much higher waistlines.
Posted by: chocolatejezebel on September 6th, 2006 at 2:58 pmI’m going to brand myself as a killjoy feminist with this, I just know it.
Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with an individual woman wearing skimpy clothing (and, for a few reasons, I’ve got no problem with Gor or other types of BDSM). But when nearly every woman does it (and when femininity is equated to it), I think it’s a symptom of a problem: namely, that women are treated RL as a sex class (albeit in subtle, often relatively small, ways) and this carries over into SL. I mean, if you look at the male avatars, they’re often dressing to impress, but that hardly involves showing so much skin or wearing anything so overtly sexual.
And yes, there are complications. There’s the presence of straight men playing women, who want their avatars to look (to them) hot. And there’s the paucity of non-skimpy clothing for women. And probably other factors I haven’t thought of.
Personally, there are a couple (literally; I’ve only got two right now) clothing vendors that I just won’t buy from because they offend my particular brand of feminism too badly. It’s not that they’re making skimpy clothing for women, it’s that the outfits seem to be skimpy simply because they’re for women. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, however.
It’s a tricky question, though, and I’ve been struggling with related ones lately.
Posted by: Miriel Enfield on September 6th, 2006 at 6:08 pmanyone with blonde hair is nasty. I can’t stand the blondes in sl, and I resent the escort stuff happenin’. Seriously why aren’t these things covered?
Posted by: doggy g on September 6th, 2006 at 6:21 pmVery interesting the responses, I feel a blog post of my own coming on….eventually. Being transgendered and a feminist (third wave) I have mixed feelings about pretty I want to be pretty, I want my avatar to be pretty, but I know the implications of it and cultural expectations and I have read Naomi Wolf’s Beauty Myth. I guess I want people to think of my avatar as “classy and stylish” and perhaps “appropriately sexy for various occasions” Hoochie skirts and over the top platforms are not me. I’ve found clothes I like, most of which I would wear in RL (if I had the figure for some fo them) Strangely I see more “orange” fake tanned avs than anything else. My av is pale because I am pale. Yes, I wish there was more RL inspired daywear/careerwear and less cocktail dresses, evening gowns and hoochie stuff. And I wish there were more “around the knee length” skirts. And though I wear lower rise jeans in RL (not superlow) , I’d like to see rises on SL trousers that are a little higher. But I am not the typical customer.
Posted by: CronoCloud Creeggan on September 6th, 2006 at 11:13 pmThanks for the comments Celebrity. I appreciate the mention on your blog!!
I also appreciate the thoughtful critique of my article by chocolatejezebel.
I do think there are different groups / waves and beliefs within the umbrella of “feminism” and perhaps you and I reflect some of those differences. But I am the first to admit that my article to me was a deeply personal one and not one that made any sort of social comment on the nature of female avatars in SL culture in general.
I do think that SL is far further advanced than other MMORPGs in the choices it offers for women in terms of avatars, but I think the members themselves reflect their own cultural inscriptions of beauty onto their avatars.
I also agree that discussing these issues would be far more itneresting to the wide readership than hearing about my own personal experiences, and although it may have seemed self-indulgent to do so, the tensions I have experienced are ones that I know many of my friends and post-grad students are also experiencing, so I felt I had some license to try and raise the issues from my own perspective.
I hope to do some further writing on feminist issues in particular for Slatenight, and would welcome more feedback or topics of interest from all.
Thanks again :)
Posted by: Anya Ixchel on September 7th, 2006 at 11:12 amAnya / Angela
Since my first day in SL, I’ve noticed the Barbie-doll phenomenom. I often think of it as women about 7 feet tall walking around with over-developed breasts, nearly no hips or rear, and waists so tiny that their spines would snap IRL. Some of these women are strippers or escorts, and my opinion on this is “Well, strippers gotta eat, too…”; if that’s how they desire to pay their bills, I don’t fault them.
One of my main complaints against REAL life is that people don’t let other people do what makes them happy. People like to feel offended by something, because taking offense implies that whoever-is-offended is above the other person. But less extreme than “offense”, people have a tendency to react violently (violent surprise, violent dislike, violent obsessiveness, etc) when presented with something out-of-the-ordinary to them. I have a darker shade of blonde/lighter shade of brown (depending on the light and the time of year) which I enjoy dyeing unusual colors. If I could GROW blue hair, and never have to dye it again, I would gladly get that gene-splice. I cannot, but SL offers a venue where no one even BLINKS if someone wanders up with blue hair and mouse ears.
As a fan of cyberpunk and of some Japanese graphic art, SL represents to me the virtual world (albeit to a slighter degree, based on our current technology) we were promised would one day exist. Literary descriptions of avatars within VR were often strange and alien, and I have SEEN the mercuial hacker and the ghostly maiden since coming into SL. And I’ve seen a pack of Bling-children and many other strange sights. If men want to look like He-man action figures and women want to look like Barbie dolls, so be it. My avatar is fairly close to my actual appearance (short, light in the breasts, curves where I’ve got ‘em) which sometimes makes it difficult to buy clothes that fit well (much like real life). Still, I admit to “touching up” some bits here and there: perfect skin (though I AM as pale as my av), tighter belly, about 4 inches taller than RL.
I consider myself an egalitarian, which is my way of saying a non-radical feminist. At the same time, some slaves don’t WANT to be free, and all the attempts at convincing them they SHOULD only serve to drive them further from a society they have been told (by their Masters) would reject them. I like my avy body and I like dressing her up (or down). I enjoy seeing the beautiful people who revel in their new-found freedom to wear or not-wear whatever they like. My primary philosophical premise: If the people are happy and no one is being hurt (this includes psychological damage), then where is the problem?
Posted by: Caligo Serapis on November 15th, 2006 at 1:56 pm