Some really great opinions though.

I’m a plus-size avie in SL, and I get lots of mixed reactions. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. Usually the good reactions I get are from people who are shaped like me IRL, and they call me things like “brave” and “pioneer” and other things that I think are flattering, but I don’t know how true they are.

Then sometimes I just get random people saying, “Why would you choose to be fat in SL?”

Okay. A lot. I get that a lot.

I’m a recovering bulimic in RL, which had little to do with my choice of avie. I wanted my avie to be an extension of myself. I know and respect and understand that lots of plus-size RL people feel like they have a thin-size person on the inside trying to get out, that idealized, amazing version of themselves, and I treat someone designing a thin avie just like choosing to be a neko, a furry, a faerie, a robot avatar, a tiny, or whatever. For me it’s all about getting to know the person behind the avie anyways.

I have some plus-sized avie friends, but most of my avie friends are what I would call healthy/average shaped, or thin. I get saddened when people base their own self worth on the shape of their avie, and hearing the more pretentious prance around and talk about how they are a “top model” or whatever — the truth is, I could be shaped just like any of them if I wanted to take the time to undo the hard work I’ve done with my sliders to make Rosie who she is.

It’s true that I have to spend a lot more time adjusting clothes or even finding clothes to fit me properly. But it’s worth it, to me. My avie is proportional — I have some belly and some pudge around my middle, my breasts have gravity, I have thunder thighs AND a large waist. I don’t have a porno-star bod or even what many women like to call a “BBW shape” in SL — with a teeny waist and a huge “ghetto booty.” I just am who I am.

I do have to admit though, when I see avies with 7-foot-long legs that are pencil-thin and lanky and very disproportionate, I do wonder if there’s an eating disorder lurking on the other side of the screen. And then I pray there isn’t one. Because I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.

It shocked me at first, since it was counter to my expectations. My husband and I have laughed about it, and wondered if it’s some generation gap thing that I don’t get, being 40.

I see a lot of curves out there. Big thighs, big rear ends. Breasts. Much much more than I see waifs.

Now I’m in my mid 30s, and I much, much prefer a womanly shape, both on myself, and on those whose figures I admire. Selma Hayek, Scarlett Johansen, Lutitia Casta… give me boobs and hips and curves every time. If I want a stick thin model, I’ll slap a dress on a 12 year old boy.

My AV is very tall, but I gave her an athletic figure, with some moderate boobs and curvy hips. It suits what I now consider more of an ‘ideal’ than the super skinny avs that look like they have huge hands and heads.

Regardless of size, I think proportion is the key.

I’m going back to my red wine and sun in Portugal now, stay cool people

I agree.

Honestly, I can’t help but sigh at the misconceptions that are spawned by campaigns such this one (that often take seed in an ill-informed public all too easily swayed to prejudice and snap judgements), misconceptions that do nothing but hurt the same people that these ads are supposed to be helping. It’s obvious I have strong personal feelings on this subject, so I’ll just say that this isn’t a light matter to be thrown in our faces like the daily tabloid. I would much rather see such a campaign done with the right amount of compassion, rather than sensationalising something so serious as this.

These guys create an image of their perfect woman, I suppose. And that often involves very large breasts. and the whole porn star look.

That said, I think RL women have a wonderful opportunity in SL to sport the larger breasts they wish they had.

I, for one, like my athletic ballet-dancer-like RL breasts, and it has kind of been a struggle to make my SL breasts that way. Maybe some day Linden will put a new slider in the shape controls — 1=Audrey Hepburn, 99=Sophia Loren!