Sorry! The Caireann profile pages should have gone in before the front cover (I always publish the front cover last)

To make amends, here’s some previously unused photos 🙂

I was going to make this a standalone post, as I’m about to ‘clear the decks’ regarding previously unpublished photos, but, well, here it is! I make no apologies that it’s a little bit more male-fixated than usual 🙂

What I’ll add to the text above is that you will find this issue of SLN much ‘wordier’ than previous issues. This is how it should be. This is how I envisaged it. We’ve also blurred the lines between naturist and non-naturist locations in SL, as well as blurring the lines between what we’re writing about. The real world’s naturist community certainly impact on me, and so I’ve opted to include real life naturist events and theories into the writing, and let those concepts and happenings bounce off us and influence our writing. In many ways, missing the St.Valentine’s deadline benefitted us, and I don’t expect that in future we’ll work to any sort of false deadlines. We’ll publish when we’re good and ready.

Ella

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy علياء ماجدة المهدى is the Egyptian blogger who posted photos of herself naked in order to highlight the lack of freedoms for women in her country and, by extension, within Islam.

Since doing so, surviving a rape attempt and death threats, she has sought political asylum in Sweden, and participated in Femen protests.

One of our very earliest SLN posts was in support of Aliaa, and of other ‘dissidents’ who dared to stand up to oppressive governments. It was a popular SLN post at the time and remains so now.

You may have heard about Onebillionrising an organisation which highlights the fact that one in three women on the planet (i.e. one billion) will be raped or beaten during their lifetime. A Second Life equivalent is also in existence. We would urge you to support the cause, both in SL and in RL.

Violence against women MUST stop. Whether that’s some sort of mental violence, that results in ‘dissidents’ fleeing the country, or physical violence, it must end.

We would also urge women in SL to avoid sims where any sort of violence, passed off as ‘role play’, occurs. That may be Gor. That may be BDSM sims. But we would urge every woman to avoid those kinds of sims. We neither need or want them, and we feel that women must absent themselves from those sims, playing the victim and thus reinforcing the image in men’s minds that we are willing pawns in this ‘game’, or that we approve. We don’t.

Women have the right to be equal, to be free, and to express themselves. For us, Gor and its ethos is no better than Sharia Law, or Islamic subjugation of women.

Absent yourselves from Gorean, or BDSM sims, if you’re female. We DO need to make this message, make it loud and make it clear.

I was passed the following photo…

…by a reader who enquired, ‘Nude Kayaking? Any chance you could report it?’

We do our best to please, so I had a scout about for locations. I did find a clothing optional beach where it was available (a beach new to me, a report coming up!) but the kayak didn’t seem to want to rezz itself for me properly.

So I moved on from there and did find a place where kayaking worked. The paddle didn’t, unfortunately, rezz, but never mind, I could still steer the kayak. I took to the water (complete with new, ‘straggly’ hair to create the impression the surf and wind was playing havoc with it) and hey, presto, some photos.

Suitably impressed, as it was a SL first for me, I’ve decided I’ll cover a bit more in the way of sailing, in general, for a post in Issue 9,  so expect an extended stay in Eden for that one! In the meantime I’ll make do with just these photos for now. I have to say that the emphasis here has to be on ‘fun’. I found that I could have merrily sailed around, looking at boats and scenery, for hours. After a while in SL you can get jaded doing the same sort of things, and it’s fabulous that there are still new things to try and simply enjoy for their own sake.

Pookes

Another in the occasional series of replicating RL photos in SL.

The first one is lovely to my eyes, and I think it’s because it conveys sensuality, proving you don’t need to be fully naked to create that mood.

A topless lady, she reveals, well, nothing! Her face is hidden by the camera angle and the hat. We only guess at her hair. She’s ‘only’ topless, but the entire image offers a sense of the joie de vivre involved in nude swimming (or, in this case, topless bathing).

…are people breaking away from that Dorian Grey/Peter Pan forever youthful look?

I take a bit of an interest in ‘the older avatar’, being one myself in SL, and also being that bit older in RL.

On my travels I’ve been noticing that people, men and women alike, are adopting older skins. Well made ones, too. The market’s still small, and probably always will be small, but it’s a niche that some skin designers are prepared to fill, and doing it well.

Elegant Mature is one such store. Not ‘cheap’, but much cheaper than some of the 20-something skins available around the grid. Certainly well worth the money for what you get. There’s a greater range than that photographed, so my advice is to tp over there if you wish to adopt a more mature look.

First Lady is another such store that does some older, female skins that look fabulous, as well as a range of other, younger ones and some exceptional black and Asian skins. One thing I love about this store is that the skins are modelled nude, so you get some indication of the ‘full effect’. Other skin designers please take note!

Apologies for the quality of the photos. I’m not a SL photographer, in the general scheme of things.

Of course, being ‘older’ in SL doesn’t mean you have to wear an ‘old’ skin. I get by with a bog-standard freebie skin (there are always loads available) and with a bit of care you can make even a ‘young’ skin look and feel right on what’s intended to be an older avatar. I accentuate this by wearing white hair. Now, in real life my hair isn’t that white, being sort of  a washed-out black now (OK…dark grey!) and increasing amounts of white at my temples. I suppose I might need to think of dying it soon. 😦 But the white hair in SL creates an illusion of age. As does the hair style! It’s important to get an appropriate style that fits with your intended age.

Equally important is being realistic about the figure that accompanies the avatar. Don’t be afraid, as a woman, to increase the level of gravity on the breasts, widen the hips, round out your bottom, and give it more body fat. It doesn’t mean being ‘unattractive’, simply being truthful. It’s called ageing! Don’t be afraid to embrace it and look the part accordingly.

Finally, a word about clothes. Again, think of the overall impression of your avatar. One of the skins shown above will not look right in a mini-skirt, so don’t buy them! Pick clothes that will be more accurate in their impression of your avatar’s age. OK, so I hang around in naturist sims a lot of the time, so clothes aren’t always important, but I do have to get dressed occasionally, and I’ll pick outfits that reflect a 40-something woman. Formal dresses always look great. Jeans are fine. Tank tops, too, if you’re going for a casual look. But if I’m going to go swimming, for example, at a clothed sim, then a one piece swimming costume looks better than a bikini. No thongs, please!

Barbara.