Socially|Mundane

Been busy, so I haven't been posting as often as I'd like here. The first requirement is a subject matter that actually interests me (either to debunk falsehoods with facts or sheer curiosities) - and I must say that in my life-experience there simply isn't a whole lot I could see or know of that would offend or shock me.

Important notice: part of the subject of this article may be offensive or even repugnant to some as I use the subject of vorarephilia as my main example.

Image: "Hannibal Lecter" character of "Silence of the Lambs" - a vorarephile (Anthony Hopkins,) which is the fetish of cooking and eating human flesh, often while still alive.

I've seen it all. No, really, I have. If not 'all' then enough that anything new I run across will be just that: 'new', but rarely ever surprising or shocking. And that's just through my adventures in First Life.

Second Life, however, is an entirely different beast. Not different in what goes on in-world, but rather how freely and transparently it happens. Even today Second Life could be thought-of as a wild wilderness or 'rough country' like the 1800's of the western United Sates where there was little law and practically anything goes, often without consequence.

I have been saying here for a long time: rue the day when Linden Lab drops the hammer on 'acceptable' public display and access of 'deviant' (my word) activities and, in some cases, mere display. Thus the new continent of Zindra (a.k.a. Ursula) and the requirement that all "adult-rated" content be allowed only there and the redefinition of the 'official' terms "Mature-rated" and "PG-rated" as they relate to the Second Life Grid.

Many have shouted out in shrill form, angry that Linden Lab is doing this. Others angry not at what is happening, but how it is being implemented. Most simply don't care. I think it's a good idea and probably one that is very late in coming. "Zoning" of the grid is perhaps something that should have been implemented long ago, but Linden Lab tried to remain as hands-off as much as possible. But now, their hand is forced as the 'world' evolves and more conservative users join the grid.

Why is sex and violence (especially sex of a deviant nature) so prevalent across the Second Life grid to begin with? Because we can.

Allow me to elaborate...



In doing some research across the internet, I ran into a humorous (but somewhat in serious tone) article about "5 incredibly impractical sexual fetishes" — and it was a fascinating read. Again, there really just isn't much that can be thrown at me that could possibly catch me off-guard, including vorarephilia. Like sex-slavery, BDSM, ... hell, even the very idea of anthropomorphic creatures acting and yif ...er, copulating like humans and so on. Anything and everything you can imagine has a place located on the SL Grid where you can participate in it.

And some people (from others' perspectives) have really whacked-out ideas and fetishes. After all, everyone has two faces, right? The public face we show to everyone and the "bedroom" - or inner selves we let-out only with others intimate to us in seclusion and privacy. "If those walls could talk..." as they say. The fact is many of these fetishes have always existed in first life and Second Life is basically "one big bedroom" where we let those deviant activities out into the public wild. The problem?

Some people have fetishes that are just plain never gonna happen unless they're willing to break the laws of physics (and several federal laws) in the process.

Why does the idea of vorarephilia not repulse me? Because I've seen it before. Not in person, to be sure, but I've heard of it, read about it and so on. Which is why it didn't surprise me when the Second Life Herald (now 'Alphaville Herald") wrote about it's activity on the grid, though on the grid it is known by the apparently fictitious term "dolcett" - which is really just vorarephilia. Why the term "dolcett"? I don't know. Perhaps because it sounds better than anything "philia" (which is really just Greek for 'love') — in either case, I'm not personally familiar with the term.

The "problem" with vorarephilia?

The thing about having a fetish for cooking and eating humans, or being the victim of such, is that's the sort of thing you can probably only do once in real life before they put a stop to it. So folks in the community are reduced to looking at staged photos of people being spit roasted, boiled in cauldrons and even microwaved (hey, we've all got busy schedules) and wish they were there in person.

Most "respectable" people of "sound mind" would find this subject matter offensive and the idea that it could possibly be a fetish completely stomach-churning and revolting (I know, redundant terms there, but you get the idea).

However, in the end, for those of you like me who just shrug and think "whatever, to each his own" — does it mean that Second Life actually is desensitizing us to the idea of these and other 'offensive' or 'abominable' visuals, ideas and activities?

I suspect Second Life, more than other 'virtual worlds' has a considerably stronger impact on our real lives simply in the way that nothing, apparently, is off-limits including the impossible, no matter how deviant it may be. And this tends to desensitize us to the once objectionable in a large degree.

And let me be clear: though vorarephilia (and many other fetishes) don't repulse me, it doesn't mean I condone them or anything like that. I thinks it's incredibly deviant and I find this in-particular to be rather disgusting. But they don't shock or surprise me with regard to the fact that there are people who actually dream these things up.

[Source: 5 Incredibly Impractical Sexual Fetishes | Cracked.com]