Venus

Ever since ancient Greece, women have been the most unsung social triggers in history; they have done all of the hard work, but in the shadows and have never received any recognition for their hard labor other than the satisfaction of a job well done. I often ask myself how many of the historical changes have been in fact the brain child of a woman "behind a man".

There have been a few throughout history that have made the difference  in their chosen field, writers like Virginia Wolf, painters like Frida Kahlo and even political figures like Eva Peron or Shirley Temple -indeed the sweet child who tapped danced grew up to be a renowned international political figure- and most have done all of that while being also devoted wives and mothers.

Equality is not so far ahead, and do not confuse equal rights with being the same -a mistake most people fighting against equal rights tend to make-, the so called "minorities" do not want to be like the rest, we thrive and grow on our uniqueness, find strength in those things that make us special and all we ask for is to have the same rights that you were born with.

Women don't want to be men, why would they? they are fine as they are. Why is it that some people find women in power emasculating or what's worse, masculine?; our mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins and nieces all want the same, to be paid the same as the rest, to be given fair treatment at the work place and to be simply given a voice as loud as yours, and ever since they got the right to vote, it has laid a ground for all of these things to slowly come to pass.

In second life I have met many incredible women who are ground breaking and are making an difference, I am both privileged and honored to have met them and even call some of them my friends, to all of you out there, in RL or SL who happen to be an important part of my life -or not- happy women's equality day.

There's still a lot of ground to cover, but the fun part about reaching a goal is the journey, not the destination.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Sci-Fi

Sometimes life surpasses fiction and sometimes people -oddly enough more so in SL but we will get to that in a moment-, like to create their own reality to justify the lies and try and continue to live up to these lies that have cost them something they once held precious.

"Decorating" the truth can be fun if you are a movie director, a producer or a machinima artist inside the platform, or to go to more normal lenghts, if you are a roleplayer but when your altered reality, affects other people and involves feelings -yes, I won't say this enough, pixels or not, the people behind the avatars do have feelings- that's when, what I define sci-fi, becomes something else.

I have gotten used to the idea of being the topic of many conversations -it comes with the job- and have even chuckled at the rumors that float around, of things I've said or done, but sometimes you need to send a clear message to the people fueling nasty rumors, specially when it involves third parties and people I love. I usually make a habit of not getting directly involved in anyone's business or drama -it simply is not what I'm here for- and I tend to live on the premise that one must live and let live.

Do you want to be a gay man while on SL when you are in fact very much a woman in RL? power to you, I have a good friend who is in fact a gay man and is a woman in SL, the reason why I respect her is due to the sole fact that she's always been very open about her choice and does not date as a woman whilst on the platform.

That's where the difference lies, and you are probably wondering, but isn't it your SL choice and your RL, to be kept separate and anonymous?, yes but when you start a serious relationship with someone and it involves feelings, having the person with the mistaken idea of you being of a particular gender is both a lie and cruel, not only to your partner but to others directly involved -not to mention the fact that your relationship is built on a lie-

So next time you -or anyone for that matter- wishes to create sci-fi that directly involves me, to justify something you clearly ruined from the very beginning, do yourself a favor and find a better excuse or lie and leave me out of it.

Because I have better things to worry about -and like me many others- to go around humoring or shining the light of truth around a pathological liar.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Venus

One of the things I have been wondering about recently, is the moderate fascination most well adjusted and average homosexuals have with strong female icons, what drives us to feel identified, pursue copying their strong character traits by making them our role models? Like Madonna's song said -and yes she would be one of the icons I mentioned- Greta Garbo and Monroe... Dietrich, the list goes on; these women were well advanced and pioneers and made a difference in the world around them, for better or worse.

Maybe that is it, I was wondering it could be simply what recent research has proven, and that is the fact that the male homosexual brain responds and interacts with the world around it more closely related to that of a woman that of the "normal" functioning parameter of our "straight" counterparts -there's no such thing as 100% straight in my opinion, but that's a theme for another article-; we want to be strong, we wish to make a difference, we desire the world around us to remember who we were, long after we are gone, all of this without us losing our glamour and glitter much like our Divas did back in the day.

Which brings me to second life, like most of my musings do and the legion of individuals who have chosen to play the gender bender or shyly walk on the threshold of femininity by being "femboys" -this is not mentioned in a judgmental tone-, the wonderful thing about second life as a platform is that it allows you to be whomever or whatever you want to be; if you wake up like Shania Twain one day and wish to tell the world that you truly "Fell like a woman!", there are means for you to do so.

Never judge a book by its cover, don't judge and you shall not be judged; this is one of the truths I base both my RL and my SL upon and it is the fact that, as a community we strive to gain equality as citizens and that we are able to live our lives peacefully and our sexuality as open as possible, but I have never understood why some sectors of our LGTB community judge, reject or point fingers at those also part of our discriminated group, whose only dream in life is to be queer and be proud of it

And I end with a quote from Bananarama, dedicated to all cross dressers, femboys, men playing women in SL and drag queens alike "I'm your Venus, I'm your Fire, your desire"

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Working girl

They are our mothers, our aunts, our sisters and cousins; they are the woman at Walmart, McDonald's and even the one at Town Hall who's never really nice to anyone and follows bureaucracy to the letter. Most of them juggle a family and a successful career with the added difficulties that being a woman has always implied.

There are stay at home dads who look after the children while mum works, but this is not always the norm and most have to rely on very short maternity leaves and babysitters -or even at times good old grandma ready to brush up on her maternity instinct-

There are the ones I've met, who even go the extra mile and decide to use their very short free time to explore other career paths with the use of SL -many times a DJ or a hostess has said, well it's got to be after so and such time, the kids will be in bed then- and for those of us who complain that there are just not enough hours in a day, imagine adding looking after children to that after a long workday.

To all of those women out there who sacrifice their time and lives to the well being of their families, this being second life or real life ones -or both- a Happy International Women's day; and if you haven't, call your mum, sisters and others in your family and thank them for all they do.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls



Son nuestras madres, tías y primas; son la mujer del super, del McDonald's e incluso aquella en el ayuntamiento que nunca es amable con nadie y sigue la burocracia y el papeleo de forma estricta. La mayoría balancean una familia y una carrera exitosa con las dificultades añadidas que supone ser una mujer.

Hay padres que se quedan en casa a cuidar de los hijos mientras mamá trabaja, pero esta no es la regla general, así que la mayoría se resguardan en una baja por maternidad bastante corta ó en niñeras -incluso en la abuela, que le saca brillo a su oxidado instinto materno-

Las hay que van incluso más allá y deciden usar el poco tiempo libre que les queda para explorar otros caminos profesionales en el second life -muchas veces una DJ ó anfitriona me ha dicho, si puedo pero después de tal y tal hora que es cuando los niños están en la cama- y para aquellos que nos quejamos de que no hay suficientes horas en el día, imagina añadir hijos, después de un largo día de trabajo.

Feliz día de la mujer trabajadora a todas aquellas mujeres que sacrfican sus vidas y tiempo para estar con sus familias -ya sean estas la de la vida real o la del Second Life-; y si no lo has hecho, llama a todas aquellas mujeres de tu familia y dales las gracias por todo aquello que hacen.


https://www.facebook.com/spikecls 

He's a Lady

Not since Victor Victoria and many other movies with actresses portraying women who pretend to be men, had I encountered with a phenomena so wide-spread in the SL gay community that I just felt compelled by writing about it.

We all have fiddled with the idea of having an alt of the opposite sex, even I do have one, and a very public one I may add (stick around me long enough and you’ll know who she is), but in my case it was just the fact that I had profound admiration for her RL personna and honestly, women clothes are much more fun to shop for in SL.

But one thing I have never gone to the lengths of is partnering a person in SL under the false pretence that I am a woman in RL; to me that is simply going too far, let’s all keep in mind that even though SL is that wonderful wonder world where we can be all we cannot in RL, there are people behind the pixels.

Over the summer I have heard of friends telling me how they had to end their somewhat perfect relationships because they had come to the disturbing realisation their SL partner was in fact, a RL woman. One of my friends even went to the lenghts of meeting his partner in RL, so much in love he was.

Here’s my two cents, for all of those women in the gay community pretending to be gay men. Do wish to experience gay sex? that’s fine, but please stop partnering innocent bystanders with the wrong belief that they will never find out.

The truth is like a bad cough my father used to say, there comes a point when you just can’t hide it anymore.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls