I didn’t intend to post today, or any time soon, and had planned an early night, but one of my SL friends alerted me to a tattoo layer which had me open-mouthed in amazement.

Yes, it’s possible to buy a fairly graphic face tattoo layer which shows a woman who has been beaten up, a clear hand print on her face and blood trickling from her mouth.

I’m not going to provide any links to where this may be bought, as I don’t wish to promote or normalise violence towards women, a problem that besets many, many households around the globe, is a staple of internet imagery and allows men to imagine that violence is possible towards women in SL (of course, BDSM sims have been around since SL began, another odious element of role-play in a virtual world).

I’m opposed to any form of violence towards women, to misogyny, to abusive IMs wherein women are treated as a willing virtual sperm receptacle, and even worse, that women avatars (or men utilising female avatars, imagining this is normal behaviour from a female perspective) play along with any form of violence towards women.

Having edited this blog, and continuing to write for this blog, and seen some of the body-phobic attitudes by designers in SL in which skin designers won’t even show a female nipple on displays in their stores, it offends me to think that some people imagine nudity is bad, that nudity is something that cannot be seen under any circumstances, yet accept depictions of violence against women, of women being treated in a harsh, horrible manner, as OK.

It’s not. It never is. And anyone playing SL with that mindset needs to do some personal growing very, very quickly.

Ella

Charlotte

Camille

Fi

Kumarini & Niamh

Camille