Hello, My Name Is Salome And I’m a Girloholic…
“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” ~ Janis Joplin
I’ve gotten a few in-world comments from a couple people who tell me that they can’t bridge the disconnect between my “feminist rants” and my “squee! look how pretty!” posts. My virtual fashion lust, they feel, leads others to “take me less seriously” than they think I deserve. The general sentiment is “you should be doing so much more than wasting your time on all that fashion drama.”
Fashion drama? Kittens, I grew up on teh interwebs back when Mac vs PC flamewars were still defining troll and forum tropes. 4chan vs Scientology is drama. SL fashion is just bored housewives and college students being bratty. It’s not like they’re rioting in the stands over men in shorts kicking around a ball or anything.
I know, from the bottom of my heart, that these individuals are well-intentioned, and they are paying generous compliment to my writing, but seriously, if this is how you feel, just get the fuck out of the 50s already. I read any number of blogs where a guy will frequently weave in boy-squee rants about sports teams or the latest techno widget without blinking; I doubt anyone takes their other content less seriously or tells them to move on from iPhone drama.
So, once more for those in the cheap seats:
Virtual fashion and bouncing in girlish delight over pretty things does not remove anyone’s ability for critical thinking, their professional experience, or demean their sense of self. I am human; I have vanity; I embrace the deadly sin. But it alone does not define me. Or anyone.
Just in case you missed it — I’m a girl (BTW, spare me the mock-feminist outrage of “you’re not a girl, you’re a woman.” Girls are girls; boys are boys. Deal with it.). I grew up playing dress up and outfitting dolls, baking bad cupcakes in a box with a lightbulb, and applying cheap makeup onto a disembodied over-sized Barbie head. I also grew up enamored with Erector sets, Lincoln logs, and Legos, playing video games, watching my uncle rebuild his Shelby Cobra as if he were reassembling the Ark of the Covenant, listening to my Dad’s folk rock and my other uncle’s hard rock, and learning how to bait a hook properly.
The fact that I can rig ballyhoo or gaff a mahimahi in the right way so that it damages as little of the fillet as possible, doesn’t negate that I drool over vintage Chanel. The fact that that the words “Marino from the shotgun” can still give me shivers when I’m watching old games on the NFL channel doesn’t remove the reality that I also hum “I Love Being a Girl” while I’m shopping in SL. I don’t understand why those dots are so hard for some people to connect. And maybe it’s just a vocal minority giving me a skewed perspective. But given the amount of “oh those silly fashion girls” crap I read by people claiming to be taking virtual platforms seriously, I think this type of mindset really is as permeating as it seems.
Avatar customization and character immersion is a huge business model and is going to be for a long time. We’ve already got research that demonstrates the visual representations that people bond with can affect them physically and mentally. Tapping into human vanity is marketing 101 for men and women. Yes, many of “those silly fashion girls” are annoying. They’re also driving our virtual economy. And, I promise you they’re no more or less annoying than listening to some idiot try and outline why Lebron James or Brett Favre is the real anti-Christ. Squeeing over make-believe fashion gimcrack is no different from some blogger blathering about how his new iPhoneX.x is ZOMG! BEST! THING! EVER!
So, fair warning — I’m going to blog about pretty things that make me squee beside, around, and in-between all the other “serious stuff” you’ll find here. Given the amount of things that annoy me in SL, I need the squees. The squees are why I’m still in the format. So if that means you take me less seriously, or feel compelled to remove me from your twitter/blog feeds, have at thee. It’s a free world; you can opt-out and I will muster on with life.
All I ask is that you opt-out in silence and don’t moan about it in my IMs; it kills my vanity-drenched, girl-squee, drama-hopping shopping buzz.
Me too!
http://ccslfashionista.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-name-is-cc-and-im-girloholic-with.html
Commented by CronoCloud Creeggan on August 22, 2010 at 6:30 PMBarbie Fashion Face FOR THE WIN, it is how I taught myself how to french braid hair lol, keep on Squeeing
xox Sasy a Girly Girl xox
Commented by Sasy Scarborough on August 23, 2010 at 11:47 AMA-freakin’-men. Put simply and beautifully. If anyone is going to discount someones intelligence for having and enjoying an aesthetic… well then they deserve missing out on it anyway.
Commented by Lila Corith on August 24, 2010 at 6:54 PMSalome –
I’m totally with you on this. I’m an uber-feminist. Former war correspondent. Former foreign new bureau chief. I can program in a few different languages (all, sadly, now obsolete).
But I got new hair today in Second Life (thanks, White Lebed!) and I’m ecstatic. I don’t get that happy over my real hair.
And earlier, I picked up some new clothes for my OpenSim avatar (I’ve got a company grid in OpenSim for meetings with my employees in other countries).
And I’m sad because I couldn’t find a blouse to match my new vest. Oh, the pain!
In real life, I haven’t changed my look in years — black pantsuits for conferences, jeans and t-shirts the rest of the time. But dressing up my avatar has brought out girly impulses I never even knew I had. (I never had dolls as a kid, never really bothered with fashion.)
Maybe I might even… get some G$ or OMC money and go shopping on the hypergrid. I heard Alpha Towne has some nice stores. And Ellis Island Shops on GermanGrid is really nice…
After all, I’m having a meeting with a new staffer on Tuesday. Gotta look my best!
– Maria Korolov
Commented by Maria Korolov on September 10, 2010 at 9:18 PMEditor, Hypergrid Business
Absolutely, I agree with you too.
Commented by OpenSim on September 12, 2010 at 5:16 PMHonestly, I think there’s a direct line between “OMG squee” over fashion and feminism. It is prejudice against women – with whom fashion is now associated – which has resulted in it being labeled something unintelligent and to be ashamed of. Discounting women, and discounting things we enjoy, is part and parcel of what feminism is fighting against.
Hopefully, gone are the days when a woman has to pretend to be as male as possible. And if that isn’t the case, well, they can kiss my fashionable ass.
Commented by Deoridhe Quandry on September 16, 2010 at 9:30 PM