Today’s post is all about size…or numbers, anyway. First, I am proud to announce that this is my 30th post for Avatar Blogger Month. And I have the proof! Yes, I know, the print is tiny in the screen shot, but tiny is a size, too 😉 You can click the image if you want to see a larger version – or you can just trust me. And no, this doesn’t mean I’ll be taking the rest of the month off. I’ve hit the goal, but I plan to super-size!
But enough about my blog numbers – let’s talk about my digits. Berry’s meme challenge this week is about our avatar proportions. She has done this challenge twice before, but I wasn’t blogging then so this is my first unveiling of just what makes Peep’s body Peep’s. No, it doesn’t include all of the digits; just some of the basics, mainly the ones that are used to conform to mesh standard sizing. Berry has recently had a crisis concerning her inability to errr…wipe her butt…so she’s made some changes to her proportions. And of course, she had to share!
Here are this week’s instructions:
Meme instructions: Share your avatar’s digits (if you want to, not necessary) and then copy paste the following questions and answers into your post, remove my answers and input your own. Don’t forget to leave a comment in this post and if you decide to share your numbers, the flickr group for the Digits challenge is here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/digits
Here are my digits:
Height – 70 (6’8″ using the Avatar Ruler)*
Body Fat: 7
Head size: 50
Torso Muscle: 35
Breast Size: 50
Arm length: 97
Hand size: 30
Torso length: 55
Love Handles: 28
Belly Size: 1
Leg Muscle: 45
Leg length: 63
Hip width: 62
Butt Size: 43
Saddle Bags: 33
*I realised after I took my measurements and the photo I was wearing my SLink feet. If I take them off, my height is actually 6’7″. That is still considered exceptionally tall by the ruler’s judgment, but I am now shorter than (or about the same height) as most of my female friends.
And my answers to Berry’s questions:
1. Do you try and keep your avatar’s body proportionate and similar to the “average” proportions pictured above? (see Berry’s post for the picture) – About three years ago, a friend of mine devised a method of helping people adjust their avatar proportions to the Golden Ratio. I kept the shape she helped me create until the advent of mesh and standard sizing. When I made adjustments to accommodate a standard size small, I tried to tweak the rest of my settings to maintain this shape. However, I have changed my backside a bit – I preferred a slightly hippier version of myself. I do think I’m pretty close to the correct proportions, but even if I’m not, I’m happy with the shape I now have. I also adjust my arm length and hand size, according to whether or not I’m wearing my SLink hands. They do seem to shorten my arms and make my hands smaller, so I go with 83 for arm length and 20 for hand size if I’m not wearing them.
2. What do you dislike the most about the SL avatar mesh? – The hands and feet were an issue for me, too, until I started wearing mesh appendages. The only other things that really bothers me now are calves and elbows, particularly when using poses instead of moving naturally. Those body parts should NOT have pointy edges!
3. Does it bother you when you see other avatars that are not proportionate at all? – I’m not really bothered by whatever shape an avatar takes. That’s up to them to decide how they want to look. I do admit to a bit of a shudder when I see hugely oversize breasts, but that is most likely due to flashbacks over my early experience with wearing prim breasts! And I sometimes look at someone who seems to be out of proportion and stare until I figure out just what makes them look disproportionate. It’s not an aversion; it’s just curiosity. I’m just glad people can’t tell when I’m perving them 😉
4. Even though this is a virtual world and people can be anything they want to be, do you feel when they are in human form, they should try to keep their proportions close to average? – No, not at all. The beauty of Second Life is that you can be whatever shape you choose. I know a lot of people worried when standard sizing for mesh hit the grid that we would all end up looking like cookie-cutter avatars. That’s really not the case. Because only certain sliders need to be adjusted for a mesh shape, you can still be totally unique.
And in case you’re wondering about the wiener in my photo, I figured since I had the ruler out, I’d see if it measured up 😉
Basic credits:
Bikini by *Boom* (available at Summerfest ’13)
Hair by Tram
Earrings by Maxi Gossamer
Hands and feet by SLink
Pose by Glitterati and wiener from Sparrowtree Studios Poses
Pics by Peep 
I can totally wipe my butt now! 😀
What a relief! 😀
Yeah… I know I can sleep a lot easier with that info! (Does TMI mean nothing around here??? 😛
Loved your answers to Berry’s questions. I won’t go on too much here since I have my own longwinded post with answers coming as soon as I can find a spare, you know, 5 or 6 hours to ramble on about it!
But yes, it is interesting how many peeps choose human form. Does it not occur to people that they could be a robot or a furry… a flower or the planet Saturn… in any case… you could probably get away with a lot as Saturn… but when we choose human form our keep sense of discrimination comes fully into play for both better and worse.
Are we as judgmental about Avatar Bodies as we are about RL bodies?
While I’m usually in human form, I do love to play around in SL. I’ve been a pink platypus, a cow, an M&M, a hamster and a sugar glider! I’ve got the otter avatar from Summerfest ’13, but I haven’t had a chance to play with her yet. I may just slip into her and have a little swim in our cove 😉
I commented on another blog that I was once at a very popular rock club in SL and a plus-sized avatar came in. She was just minding her own business, and some of the regulars started giving her a hard time – bordering on abuse. When the host did nothing to curb their commentary, I left, never to return.
I also see a lot of negative comments made toward new avatars with their default shape & skin, blingy shoes and quite often, ridiculous physics. It bothers me, since they are new and are still exploring SL. I wonder how many log out and never return, based on those early experiences?
So yeah, I think we are as judgmental about avatar bodies as we are about RL bodies. And I think in the virtual world, with a keyboard and screen to cower behind, we’re often more cruel. Regardless of any proclamations of “letting people be who they want to be.”
Le sigh.
none of the excuses for being inhuman to plus size peeps IRL are worth anything, it’s just cruel. But it’s sort of even more strange in a virtual world. Obviously in a virtual world that body is a specific choice. And since it’s not the “default” body it’s an even more specific and more effort choice. Are they plus size IRL and decided to claim that identity here as well? Are they anorexic IRL and wanted to try something different here.
I love the slogan “think different” and it pains me that a giant corporation “stole it.” But much as we love that company’s sexy products and much as we celebrate Gandhi and John Lennon and all the others in their ads… the truth is we mostly hate peeps who think different or have different bodies. For every minute spent admiring Stephen Hawking, we probably spend 10 beating the crap out of the elephant man.
Yeah, we suck. How did this disc get so cheery?
And then there’s the noobs! OMG talk about a community shooting itself in the foot. For sure that’s not unique to SL, all kinds of places real & virtual, online and offline, love to torture the noob. It’s pretty much the high school bully picking on the kid half their size. Or as Heathcote Williams wrote about the whaling industry’s desire for whale oil, which protects their brain, as “deaf maggots” destroying sound libraries for scrap value.
Yeah, really need to be more positive. How about this! We once spent a day celebrating and helping noobs! 🙂
http://irez.me/2012/01/10/vb30-performance-document/
I love the post and the sentiment! I also loved that you had a “noob moment” trying to wear your mesh 😀
We frequently get noobs in the club where I work. They do the usual socially unacceptable things like walk into/through people, almost invariably come onto the stage with the DJ and host and run into walls or ceilings. MOST of our regulars are forgiving, if not helpful. I have noticed that a lot don’t understand what an IM is, so that could have been part of your problem – not that they were ignoring you. I mean, how could they ignore *you*? *big grin*
I tend to stay away from people and places where cruelty is condoned. In our club, among the regulars are straight and gay, transgender, furries, tinies and various vampires and werewolves. I’ve never once seen anyone have issue with another person there, based on how they looked or their lifestyle choice. In fact, I wouldn’t work there if they did. A noob is more likely to garner jeers, but usually only if they are being purposely obnoxious. Perhaps it’s a failing on my part that I don’t venture out and defend the noob, the plus size, the fairy or the furry where they are being persecuted. Or maybe that’s just not my role to play in Second Life.
I love your comments, Vaneeesa (yes, with many eee’s to make you different). They make me think beyond what is silly and frivolous, as my blog tends to be ♥
Yes, that was actually a long, grueling day. It was hard finding noobs to help! 😛
Maybe a bit like someone in the developed world one day deciding to “save the world” and showing up in the developing world and saying “ok, I’m here to save you.”
We were well-intentioned but naive. And a day isn’t a realistic time frame to do anything substantive. But we weren’t really trying to “save noobs,” it was more a conceptual meditation. So we weren’t total idiots. But it was still a challenge. But then some of the new peeps who trickled through after were really great. So it was a process more than an on-off switch.
Also earlier this year we have a Noob Pride Parade which was really a lot of fun!
http://irez.me/2013/02/04/noob-parade/
Yay for box-wearing, blingy noobs on parade \o/
hahaha, your “head” and your “breast” are both “50”! My head must be 10 times bigger than my chest! 😛
lol that’s because I’m not as smart as you! 😀
Smart? Oh, haha, I thought I was just flat because of those strange “clinical/erotic” childhood RP / bondage scenarios with all that chest wrapping that my sister Fiona loved to subject me to as kids when our parents were out! 😛
haha, now who’s TMI! 🙂
Then again… better to be TMI than TMJ!
LOL! Um…*backs slowly out of the comment*
😀
cool post … interesting comments … but what I really would like to know …….. Did the wiener measure up ???!!!???
They don’t call them foot longs for nothin’! 😉
As i said on Berrys blog about ” wiping” it seems weird but you arm span equals your height (mid thigh) you would think it makes you look neanderthal but its just right oh and perfect for wiping your virtual arse while on your virtual toilet with nonchafing virtual paper.. interesting blog as always Peep! : D