Play’s Republic

(I’m not sure how long we, the students of last semester, will be able to keep on posting to the class blog, but I figured I would make a quick entry while I have access.)

The men’s magazine Maxim has released its “Hot 100 List” for 2007, ranking what they believe to be the 100 most attractive women around. Interestingly, they chose to put a synthetic girl – a Second Life avatar, to be precise – at #95. Next to her entry, Maxim writes:

“Second Life—a 3-D virtual world that’s imagined, created, and owned by its online residents—was launched in 2003 and now boasts nearly five million inhabitants around the globe. Never taken part in the nerdfest? Isn’t she reason enough?”

Many people seem to think it’s absurd to put a synthetic girl on the list, but it begs the question – how real are the “real” girls, anyway? After any photo is edited, retouched, and digitally enhanced, that’s not a real human being we’re even looking at. It’s a digital representation of a human being, in the most positive possible light. Why, then, is that so different from an image of a Second Life female avatar?

Of course, some might point out that Miss #95 could in fact be a middle-aged man in a stained undershirt eating Cheetos in front of his computer in Topeka. But that would break the veil of suspended disbelief, so I won’t go there. Instead, I’ll share this link to an image of lovely, virtual, virtually lovely Miss #95.