There’s a few things about a nude Second Life I find irritating, notably the manner in which some sims demand ‘no nudity’.

This isn’t how things work in real life, a real life which is very much gymnophobic.

While SL presents an opportunity to shake off real life fears & phobias, with many avatars exploring their generally submerged sexual fantasies, lived to the full in SL, that gynophobia remains everywhere from skin designers who routinely self-censor nipples or genitalia in their shop displays, to sims whose rules demand ‘no nudity’.

Why?

Moving forward, SLN2 will treat all sims as potentially naturist for the purpose of photo shoots or exploring. No, we aren’t going turn up naked at your dance night, just as we aren’t going to turn up naked at a dance venue in real life. However, you’ve created a photogenic sim, with a body of water running through it…what are we going to do? That’s right, go skinny dipping.

What I am going to do, though, is to get models and/or photographers to wear a ‘naturist photoshoot’ title, so we’re identifiable. We’ll be discreet, just as we would be discreet in real life if going ‘wild swimming’ (and there’s going to be a little bit of an ongoing series of ‘wild swimming’ posts added to the blog in due course).

I’ve gone ‘wild swimming’, or skinny dipping (wild swimming doesn’t necessarily have to be conducted nude) and once in a while had ramblers or walkers stumble upon me (and others). No one has yet gone apoplectic. Generally the reaction is a friendly wave and they walk on. I’ve even had conversations, while immersed in water, with clothed walkers who’ve asked about the legality of it all. Once, a couple joined in with those of us skinny dipping in a very remote part of an English river.

I’m sorry, but if we can go onto your sim and find a nice spot to swim, we’ll take that opportunity, irregardless of your rules. 99% of the time you won’t know we’ve been, won’t receive any complaints and will remain blissfully unaware if it wasn’t for the fact that I also intend to provide an url to the swim locations and publish photos on our Flickr site.

If you wish to retrospectively ban us from your sim, so be it. We’ll accept that in the same spirit we’d accept a ‘caution’ from a British policeman. But as far as accepting some silly gymnophobic rules are concerned the gloves, as well as the swimsuits, are off.

Ella.