You Mean You Chose to be Fat?: Body Image in a Virtual World
Posted by marissa in Papers, Second Life, Uncategorized on June 3rd, 2008 | 70 Comments »I’d like to preface this article a little before you get to it. This was an idea I proposed in November or December to the Fat Studies panel chairs at the National Popular Culture Association/American Studies Association Conference that was held in March of 2008. The project itself began in January and I stopped collecting data in February. Everything you see here was presented to around 20-25 people in the panel to which I spoke in March. Being a procrastinator, I put off writing this article until now and got around to posting it in the beginning of June 2008. I hope this clears up any confusion on my intentions and about the purpose of this project.
- Marissa
It’s pretty easy to be skinny in Second LifeTM. In fact, because it’s so easy, why would anyone choose not to be? In pretty much all westernized cultures around the globe, being svelte and attractive (you can’t forget attractive) are some of the most desirable traits to have. No, your sense of humor does not matter here. Even if someone had a choice between a skinny ugly person and a pretty fat person, I guarantee the skinny ugly person would be chosen. What’s up with that?

