Since I’m getting a few SL naturist-related gripes off my chest, such as the increasing number of textiles turning up at naturist sims…grrrr!!!!! I thought I’d share the thoughts of Hilary, middle-aged, plus sized avatar.

‘I’m a woman over 60 in RL’, she writes, ‘and getting increasingly pissed off with mesh that doesn’t fit, even in larger sizes, and even skins that, around the middle, look like I’ve got two separate parts joined together. I use some naturist sims (even if I’m not a naturist in real life) and I want my avatar to be a reflection of my real life. That is, I’ve got a big tummy due to a fondness for cake 😉 and the scars of childbirth. I don’t want to represent myself as some stick thin supermodel, however much SL is supposed to represent opportunities for fantasy. I want to talk to people who immediately grasp who I am, not project myself as something that’s 20 years old and super thin. What’s your take on the limitations of mesh clothes or even naked classic avatar bodies?’

I understand this. Even though I’ve not had any issues with wearing mesh clothes, the medium size usually fits, I do offer a silent swear word when I have to go to the ‘large’ mesh size, as it seems that there’s often no uniformity in mesh sizes.

The world is getting bigger, with 30% of the world being categorised as ‘obese’ (warning: it’s a link to Fox News, hardly a source of quality, informed journalism, but probably an accurate reflection of others’ research). At the same time, 13% of the world is undernourished. The developed world is eating too much, the third world not getting enough.

Here’s a photo of Hilary at Eden Bumrose, and just below her navel (belly button) you can see a distinct line which effectively ‘splits’ her skin into two separate sections. ‘My boobs also manage to stick out beyond the alpha layer on large sized mesh’, she adds.

Yes. Regardless of its capacity for fantasy and role-play, I’d say that skin and mesh clothes designers maybe need to address the fact that there needs to be an XXL mesh size, to allow people who are plus sized in real life design an avatar that they recognise in SL.

Many naturists are of a certain age and size. They’re comfortable in their less than svelte appearance, happy and contended with their naked selves. They’re doing naturism for them, not for the endorsement by others. So naturist or not, it would be nice to see skin and clothes designers address this in SL in 2017. As things stand, the five standard mesh sizes (who is actually XXS?????) don’t reflect any accuracy.

So let’s celebrate the human body in all of its different shapes and sizes. Everybody is beautiful. Every body is beautiful. Let’s see SL begin to reflect the reality of life in 2017 and encourage the diversity that is our wonderful human race.

Let’s make it easier for the likes of Hilary to adopt avatars they ‘own’, feel comfortable in, rather than feel forced to adopt an unrealistic alternative.

Ella