[null]

[Unregistered]

I decided 'f--- it' I tried this before in 2018. People twisted my words. Nothing to see here.

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Unregistered
Forget it.

[Rowan Amore]

12 minutes ago, Unregistered said:

2. Non-white people have largely given up on making their ideal avatar. -- I had a friend in the RP community whom I will not name here. She constantly struggled to make an African American woman appear convincing, because in the mid twenty-teens, the vast majority of skins for avatars which were black were just reshades of the white skin, and seldom did creators make something specifically for ethnic avatars. There were a few outliers to this rule, and she did scoop them up, but these were fringe creators. They were making money, but not nearly as much as those in the mainstream stores, because by the twenty-teens only the enthusiast ethnic bloggers were hanging on. Now we see an expansion and more true-to-life black skins expanding in creation basically everywhere, but on a Lara, it doesn't look right. It basically resembles blackface without the correct bone structure. Anyone with a google search engine, and can find fashion models who are famous outside the US sees this. It seems that the SL 'centrist' ideology is such that, "It looks fine. Stop complaining." When it clearly does not resemble anything fine.



4. 'A shape can't be ethnic' is a popular misnomer. "Just change the shape if you don't like it." That doesn't change everything, and anyone who makes a shape knows this is true. The shoulders slope in a specific way which is intrinsic to the body. This can't be changed. The hips, butt, and other areas where weight loading are apparent cannot be altered. A body has to be designed in such a way that it is built against a model, and while we can change some things in the values, shoulder width for example, we can't change the geometry of the arm, or the shape of the trapezis muscle. We can't elongate the deltoid, or even raise the elevation of the gluts. These are all locked. When you look at a Maitreya Lara, you are in essence seeing a Nordic descent person, regardless of what you do to the shape. After five years of observing these attempts to change and stylize and modify the body into something it is not, even trying this myself several hundred times, I can say with certainty, that it doesn't work. This is not to say there is something wrong with a Nordic body, but when the echo chamber in 3. pushes your market toward the Nordic body constantly, it represents a persistent issue that is durable and continues to resist statements against its perpetuation.

 

 

I'm going to have to disagree with you on these two points.  Although when I first started 10+ years ago, the options for women of color were few and far between.  The ones that were available were horrid IMO.

With the coming of mesh bodies and head, I've had no problem finding a head and shape to closely resemble me in RL.  Perhaps a bit younger looking but I can live with that.  I used the Maitreya for years, editing it as much as possible to give lifelike proportions.  I also used a Catwa head after hours of editing to achieve the look I wanted.  And I'm not kidding about hours as I owned the head for several months before getting it right.  I've recently changed to LeLutka as creators seemed to be focusing on that and Genus (which I couldn't get to look as I wanted).  

The skins I've chosen also have the suble shading and such that I look for in an ethnic skin.  The things most light colored skins don't need.  Are the soles of my feet and palms of my hands lighter than my skin?  Am I more brown than orange which was a big issue with early ethnic skins.  We all looked like tanned white people.  

I don't think the issue is what's out there, it's what you take the time to do with it.  But that's just been my personal experience.  

[Nick0678]

1 hour ago, RowanMinx said:

With the coming of mesh bodies and head, I've had no problem finding a head and shape to closely resemble me in RL.. etc

I totally agree with you on that cause  I 've seen some very realistic dark skinned avatars, for example this one belongs to a friend. Everything takes time, practice and of course choosing the right components.

[Theresa Tennyson]

When you look at a Maitreya Lara, you are in essence seeing a Nordic descent person, regardless of what you do to the shape.

Huh. I always thought it was some sort of alien - it's really no closer to a "Nordic person" than any other type of person.