There’s plenty of real-life drama to go around in the land of virtual worlds. And given what a major part sex plays in Second Life, it’s not altogether shocking that one activity gaining traction is the chance to give virtual birth [link not in any way safe for work].
Avatars are able to get pregnant the (virtual) old-fashioned way, and can choose the location in which they deliver. The whole process is mighty up close and personal, and results in a somewhat surreal-looking newborn avatar. The details often depart substantially from reality—babies are typically born in a matter of minutes, and sometimes emerge from the womb wearing cute onesies or resembling teddy bears—but the general experience is nonetheless captured. The births have even made waves in the (real) midwife community, with a midwives’ group setting up meetings and performing deliveries within the virtual world as an opportunity for professional education.
Here’s a pretty typical example [Warning: Not really suitable for children, or most adults, for that matter]:
January 15th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
[...] Second Life gives Avatars the ability to get pregnant “virtually” and even choose the location in which you ant to have your virtual baby. With surreal-looking newborn avatar. Babies are born in a matter of minutes, and sometimes emerge from the womb wearing cute onesies or resembling teddy bears. Real midwife communities are using second life to the opportunity for professional education in the virtual world. Second Life is not generally appropriate for children or for use at work. via: Discover Magazine [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Just thought you’d be interested to know that the midwives’ group was set up as a means of meeting, networking and professional development in SL, especially for midwives who are remotely and rurally isolated and unable to attend face-to-face PD. I am currently lead educator developing a SL birth unit where we are developing scenarios for students to manage. We’re not focusing on the actual delivery, but rather the thought-processes and decision-making involved in caring for a woman and her family. Please feel to visit my blog to watch how the project is developing. thanks a lot, Sarah (Petal Stransky in SL)
January 15th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
[...] needs to be turned into a game. When Technology Gets Creepy: Giving Birth in Second Life | Discoblog | Discover Magazine Possibly NSFW. __________________ "The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Second Life Babies said:
> Second Life is not generally appropriate for children
> or for use at work.
Second Life, in fact, is restricted to age 18+, although there is a Teen Second Life for ages 13-17.
P2
January 16th, 2009 at 2:53 am
yuk, pretty yuk
January 16th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Why is this yuk? There’s none of the blood or fluids generally associated with birth, so why? Unless you think vaginas being used for anything other than sex is a yuk thing?
January 16th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I find this pretty yuk because there *isn’t* any of the fluid found at a birth. The fact that the moms genitalia is depicted as a small slit while the baby is coming out really disturbs me. Can we not show women’s bodies opening the way they do? Are we that focused on making sure the girl parts are small and tight that we instead find it less disturbing to show a babe coming out of a perineum with an undistended labia? Jeebuz.
January 16th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Actually, in Second Life, you really CAN’T show women’s bodies opening the way they do. The closest you could get would be to wear a similar skin texture that just had a larger opening painted on. Anyways, you’re focusing on how unrealistic the digital vulva looks? Did you see that horribly-made, stock-stiff, cartoonish excuse for an infant?
January 17th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
“The details often depart substantially from reality…but the general experience is nonetheless captured.”
Um, not really. The first link shows a rectal birth.
Now, as an Ob/Gyn, I’m not going to get very picky but I have to point out that it would be most helpful with the “general experience” part if the correct organ system was depicted. Delivery isn’t so much about the digestive system as it is about, you know, the genital one.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
[...] When Technology Gets Creepy: Giving Birth in Second Life GOOD LORD THERE’S A VIDEO! Ok… I’ll repost but not watch. Probably. (NSFW!!!) Oh no I watched. Oh god. [...]
June 10th, 2009 at 9:06 am
[...] the leaps and bounds of progress in virtual technology. Yesterday, I even learned avatars can now give birth in Second Life. Go figure. That said, there’s a boundary that should NEVER be crossed, imaginary or not. I [...]
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 am
[...] a good way. I like being a bystander to the virtual world — it’s amazing to watch the hysterical wildness (and depravity) that humans carry out when the constraints of daily reality are [...]
August 9th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
second life is creepy overall because everybody in there is cabbalist and they dont know it, some do, the rest of them are very weird social darwinists who think they are ahead of the curve so far that regular people think they are weird. the truth is they are stuck in a world with no meaning, no real point, so they fixate on things that have meaning in the real world that they cannot or will not do.
because the governmental system is a dictatorship/oligarchy everyone knows that all the work they put in can one day be deleted.
I played sl for a very long time and i tried to see it as more than a haven for sexual deviants who were fixated on all issues below the belt, sadly i had to withdraw from it because the truth is just the truth, burning man/burning life other rituals just wore me down the constant request for bdsm furniture which i did not make and had no intrest in making and the usual path of friendship [always leading to gross poseballs and handcuffs].
second life has the ability to turn a spiritual non sexual deviant person into a religious person, something strong like islam
there are plenty of things to do in sl that dont involve gross sexual deviance that if you did in real life you would be arrested, but not much
August 26th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I am sorry, i cant stop laughing, that was the funniest thing I have ever seen!!!!
I thought giving birth in SL would be beautiful… Now I may do it just for a laugh…
PS The baby came out the wrong hole, and it looked like a teddy bear cross ginger bread man!!! Anyways thatnks for making me cry with laughter!!!
September 25th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
So, will this slow teen pregnancy because now their avatars can give birth for them? Hmmmmmm.