LL Announces New LGBTQ+ Community Page

[Ayashe Ninetails]

5 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

So was the Black community page, just for African Americans, or is it for every black person on this planet? I am confused here. I mean the Black Canadian community, sure has an amazing culture. I know they are an American company and all. But I mean the black community does expand past the US. 

 

Now you're getting to why the page didn't really resonate with me (as a Black American). It didn't have a regional focus, IMO.

Specifically, tossing the Egyptian Revolution, Little Kenya, and Harriet Tubman together in featured destinations.

Your guess is as good as mine on which community they were trying to highlight with all that! 😂

[Sammy Huntsman]

10 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Now you're getting to why the page didn't really resonate with me (as a Black American). It didn't have a regional focus, IMO.

Specifically, tossing the Egyptian Revolution, Little Kenya, and Harriet Tubman together in featured destinations.

Your guess is as good as mine on which community they were trying to highlight with all that! 😂

I am technically Multiracial. Being of White Black and Asian Descent. But that page was confusing af. I mean it only talked about generalized American Black tropes and Generalized American Black Culture. It didn't dive deep into the other cultures or even the international black cultures. 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

24 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

This is one of the issues with LL generally: as an American company, they often seem rather unaware of other cultures.

As you note, Black Canadian culture is quite different in many ways than what exists in US. Here, as also in the UK, the predominant culture influence is the Caribbean, with an infusion of African (there is, for instance, a large Somali diaspora here in Toronto).

I'm not sure what to do about that, or if anything can be done. Every community is diverse, including the LGBTQ+ one. The answer I suppose is to be as diverse as possible, and not prescriptive.

Oh and yes, we've got lots of Caribbean influence here, too! Depending on where you live and how large the communities are, that might be baked in to the same regional culture, or maybe not! Might be separate. And even within that, there are island-specific differences.

So needless to say, the whole thing just didn't feel very...cohesive to me?

 

8 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

I am technically Multiracial. Being of White Black and Asian Descent. But that page was confusing af. I mean it only talked about generalized American Black tropes and Generalized American Black Culture. It didn't dive deep into the other cultures or even the international black cultures. 

I'm glad I wasn't the only one feeling some kind of way about it. 😂 Yeah, it did confuse me, too. I mean, like I said earlier, there IS a Black culture in the US, but that's not really what was presented there. If it was meant to be about that at all. Dunno!

[Sammy Huntsman]

12 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I'm glad I wasn't the only one feeling some kind of way about it. 😂 Yeah, it did confuse me, too. I mean, like I said earlier, there IS a Black culture in the US, but that's not really what was presented there. If it was meant to be about that at all. Dunno!

And not gonna lie, I feel like it was more catering to the dark-skinned black people in America. Not for the light-skinned or the people like me who are part black, but don't look it. I mean I still get people who basically look at me like I have 2 heads, when I say I am part black. Like somehow it is impossible for me to even have any african in me. 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

3 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

And not gonna lie, I feel like it was more catering to the dark-skinned black people in America. Not for the light-skinned or the people like me who are part black, but don't look it. I mean I still get people who basically look at me like I have 2 heads, when I say I am part black. Like somehow it is impossible for me to even have any african in me. 

No, I didn't get that feeling from it at all. Especially considering the banner image. 

Besides, skin color doesn't determine the culture, at least here. Yup, you might get some inner battles between light/dark - very much apparent within the beauty industry itself, but that really doesn't change the *actual* culture/community elements - shared history, food, music, traditions, etc. We don't split ourselves off that way in this country. There IS a controversial movement to separate by lineage (slavery descendants vs. everybody else), but that's a whole different thing - mostly focused on who deserves reparations.

[Sammy Huntsman]

6 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

No, I didn't get that feeling from it at all. Especially considering the banner image. 

Besides, skin color doesn't determine the culture, at least here. Yup, you might get some inner battles between light/dark - very much apparent within the beauty industry itself, but that really doesn't change the *actual* culture/community elements - shared history, food, music, traditions, etc. We don't split ourselves off that way in this country. There IS a controversial movement to separate by lineage (slavery descendants vs. everybody else), but that's a whole different thing - mostly focused on who deserves reparations.

That is why I said I feel like it does. I mean growing up, I remember telling kids at school I was part black, and proudly talking about my black heritage. And even the black kids were looking at me like I was a moron. It kinda felt hurtful to have your whole heritage mocked, by the own community you are a part of. It wasn't until graduation that kids started believing me. My dad came and the look on their faces. When They were wrong. It was priceless.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 minute ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

That is why I said I feel like it does. I mean growing up, I remember telling kids at school I was part black, and proudly talking about my black heritage. And even the black kids were looking at me like I was a moron. It kinda felt hurtful to have your whole heritage mocked, by the own community you are a part of. It wasn't until graduation that kids started believing me. My dad came and the look on their faces. When They were wrong. It was priceless.

Don't feel bad about that. I'm very clearly black (medium-dark), and other black people used to look at me like I had three heads, too. They'd ask me "Why do you sound so white?" "Why do you dress so white?" Etc. I kid you not. My inner sassy b had SO many good comebacks ready to go, but I pride myself on having never gotten into a fight and didn't want to start at that moment. 🤣

Meanwhile, showing up to goth and industrial events as a black girl decked out in PVC raised eyebrows in a whooooole other way, so eventually, I just learned to love being a complete mystery to just about everybody I ran across and stopped worrying about fitting in anywhere - though honestly, the goths didn't care and never treated me badly at all. Just got the odd "oh...so that's a thing" look from time to time, LOL.

[Mollymews]

On 7/8/2022 at 12:33 PM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Pic please.

And you too, @Mollymews!

i thought about posting a pic, but decide that it probably derail the thread even more

maybe someone could start a post like: Show Us Your FAMADATAS. Which I just made up for (Furry, Anthro, Mer, Animal, Demon, Angel, Tentacle, Alien, Scaly). Says like: faah maa dat as.

I like Famadatas. so I would post a snapshot in there. (snapshot as I am hopeless at photography)

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Mollymews
took out the distraction

[Persephone Emerald]

27 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

i thought about posting a pic, but decide that it probably derail the thread even more

maybe someone could start a post like: Show Us Your FAMADATAS. Which I just made up for (Furry, Anthro, Mer, Animal, Demon, Angel, Tentacle, Alien, Scaly). Says like: faah maa dat as.

I like Famadatas. so I would post a snapshot in there. (snapshot as I am hopeless at photography)

 

I have a fondness for non-human skin tones, scaly tails, and tentacle attachments. There IS something for me about wanting to present in SL as non-human sometimes. This is my pink Bento mer tail with a lavender skin. I've yet to find a nice Bento octo-mer lower-body or a Bento lamia lower body that I really like. I rarely wear tentacle attachments, but I do like them. I have some old ones that I've worn semi-transparent, coming out of my back, but I figure most people won't understand what that means for me and I don't really want to go down the road to explain it. They can just think, "Oh, another weird alien", which is fine with me.

I guess one way to explain this version of me is as the semi-human seductress - mermaid, siren, lamia, etc. It's not a furry. This type of avatar would fit more properly with mythical creatures such as mermaids, dragons, faeries, centaurs, etc. 

Dragons in SL can properly fit either with scalies or mythical creatures imo. Merfolk seem to be their own subset of mythical creatures.

[Sammy Huntsman]

Just now, Persephone Emerald said:

I have a fondness for non-human skin tones, scaly tails, and tentacle attachments. There IS something for me about wanting to present in SL as non-human sometimes. This is my pink Bento mer tail with a lavender skin. I've yet to find a nice Bento octo-mer lower-body or a Bento lamia lower body that I really like. I rarely wear tentacle attachments, but I do like them. I have some old ones that I've worn semi-transparent, coming out of my back, but I figure most people won't understand what that means for me and I don't really want to go down the road to explain it. They can just think, "Oh, another weird alien", which is fine with me.

I guess one way to explain this version of me is as the semi-human seductress - mermaid, siren, lamia, etc. It's not a furry. This type of avatar would fit more properly with mythical creatures such as mermaids, dragons, faeries, centaurs, etc. 

Dragons in SL can properly fit either with scalies or mythical creatures imo. Merfolk seem to be their own subset of mythical creatures.

I have a fondness with body modifcations tattoos and elves. So much so, I want to get the elf ear surgery in the future. So until the time being. I wear pixie ears in SL.  

 

[Mollymews]

23 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

mythical

i like this word. Is all encompassing and all inclusive and has a clear meaning. No matter what kind of non-human or human-blended form we take then is mythical in the sense a mythical  creature is one (or a form of one) that we have imbued with some aspect of our own humanity as we interpret this for ourselves

so if anyone does start a pic thread then: Show Your Mythical

and maybe Linden will take the word and use it for their upcoming page. Would fit with the blue lady imagery they did a while ago

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, Mollymews said:

Says like: faah maa dat as.

Says like: faah maa dat as.

Says like: faah maa dat as.

 

 

[blissfulbreeze]

Most people will assume things based on past experiences. If they had bad experiences with a race, they'll be cautious going forward. It's human nature to think that way. However, we're going to have to work on focusing more on  individual experiences. It's hard to not assume. We all do it. Instead of people flipping out on someone who is on the default nature to assume, try asking them to give you a chance. 

We don't need to attack people if they do things wrong without bad intentions. It's called a mistake. Give them a chance to correct before you cancel them. Tolerance should be full circle, not just granted to those who think like you do. 

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 hours ago, blissfulbreeze said:

If they had bad experiences with a race,

[Kiera Clutterbuck]

3 hours ago, blissfulbreeze said:

Most people will assume things based on past experiences. If they had bad experiences with a race, they'll be cautious going forward. It's human nature to think that way. However, we're going to have to work on focusing more on  individual experiences. It's hard to not assume. We all do it. Instead of people flipping out on someone who is on the default nature to assume, try asking them to give you a chance. 

Yes I was reading about this phenomenon, how people will have a negative experience with a member of a particular group they're not familiar with and then assign the negative characteristic they encountered to all the members of this unfamiliar group.

To change we have to become aware of how our mind tends to operate. Such self-awareness is not easy to master.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Kiera Clutterbuck

[Arielle Popstar]

1 hour ago, Kiera Clutterbuck said:

To change we have to become aware of how our mind tends to operate. Such self-awareness is not easy to master.

Your struggles have been noted. Keep up the good fight!

[Love Zhaoying]

On 7/8/2022 at 10:50 PM, Persephone Emerald said:

It's not a furry

A scaly! 

Or if you're into maths, a "scalene".

 

[Love Zhaoying]

On 7/8/2022 at 10:03 PM, Mollymews said:

I like Famadatas.

Sounds like a Tony Soprano-ism!

[Kiera Clutterbuck]

24 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

1 hour ago, Kiera Clutterbuck said:

To change we have to become aware of how our mind tends to operate. Such self-awareness is not easy to master.

Your struggles have been noted. Keep up the good fight!

Thanks for the well-wishes!  Yeah, the mind gets addicted to seeing things in a certain way, gets into a rut caused by past experiences (not using 'addicted' in a purely clinical sense here), and if we had negative input in the past for say, a certain race, or the LGBTQ+ folks, we tend to look at those people negatively if we seldom have additional experience to change our mind.

And so, in addition to fostering connection for various communities, these community pages are new data points of positivity to counter any negativity. Build enough positive data points and a negative mind can change! 

[blissfulbreeze]

12 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

And? Waits...

I have freedom of speech. I will say a word if I want to.

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by blissfulbreeze

[blissfulbreeze]

12 hours ago, Kiera Clutterbuck said:

Yes I was reading about this phenomenon, how people will have a negative experience with a member of a particular group they're not familiar with and then assign the negative characteristic they encountered to all the members of this unfamiliar group.

To change we have to become aware of how our mind tends to operate. Such self-awareness is not easy to master.

It can be looked at in a way similar to how the human brain is prejudiced naturally based on past experiences... like Pit Bulls, they are looked at a lot in a negative way. If someone had one ore more negative past experiences with Pit Bulls, they probably will be cautious going forward. That is default human nature. Of course, there will be some that say.. "oh, I love Pit Bills even though I had bad past experiences". Good for you. Most people are not like you, but that does not mean I am invalidating your views. I am speaking of the majority, to make a point.

 

If someone has bad experiences with Florida, they may refrain from going there again. Again, default human nature prejudice.

If someone had bad experiences with a fast food place, they will probably refrain from going there again.

Should we be forced to keep going there just to not hurt their feelings?

Edited July 12, 2022 by blissfulbreeze

[Silent Mistwalker]

10 minutes ago, blissfulbreeze said:

And? Waits...

If I have to explain it to you, you wouldn't understand.

[blissfulbreeze]

Just now, Silent Mistwalker said:

If I have to explain it to you, you wouldn't understand.

I know what you are getting at. I am old school, which means I will use whichever word I want to. Race, ethnicity, nationality etc.. just words on a screen. People need to stop getting all up in arms over things that are not meant offensively. There are much more important things to worry about than sitting on an edge just waiting for others to drop a "omggg that is offensive to me" word.

The world is offensive and will always be. There will never be a Utopian society. Again, a word not meant offensively by the speaker/writer/typer does not mean one is being attacked. Who made the definition of the word "Race"? Was it offensive back then? No. It was widely used. Some people decided to make it offensive. A word is just letters, it comes alive when the person speaks it, writes it or types it. That person's intentions should be taken in context.

Our emotions put life into a word. If they are not negative emotions from the orginator then get over it.

[Kiera Clutterbuck]

6 minutes ago, blissfulbreeze said:

It can be looked at in a way similar to how the human brain is prejudiced naturally based on past experiences... like Pit Bulls, they are looked at a lot in a negative way. If someone had one ore more negative past experiences with Pit Bulls, they probably will be cautious going forward. That is default human nature. Of course, there will be some that say.. "oh, I love Pit Bills even though I had bad past experiences". Good for you. Most people are not like you, but that does not mean I am invalidating your views. I am speaking of the majority, to make a point.

 

If someone has bad experiences with Florida, they may refrain from going there again. Again, default human nature prejudice.

If someone had bad experiences with a fast food place, they will probably refrain from going there again.

Should we be forced to keep going there just to not hurt their feelings?

Oh dear, I think I misread your original post I responded to.

But anyway, the topic of prejudice. It's quite complicated. I'd agree it's not easy to overcome, and I wouldn't advise trying to force someone to overcome it.  However if somebody's prejudice harms another they should be confronted in the most gentle way possible.

BTW, I'm not sure it's human nature to be prejudiced, at least not in all things. Much prejudice is taught to us, and that's a good thing really because it means we can unteach it.

[Silent Mistwalker]

Just now, blissfulbreeze said:

I know what you are getting at. I am old school, which means I will use whichever word I want to. Race, ethnicity, nationality etc.. just words on a screen. People need to stop getting all up in arms over things that are not meant offensively. There are much more important things to worry about than sitting on an edge just waiting for others to drop a "omggg that is offensive to me" word.

The world is offensive and will always be. There will never be a Utopian society. Again, a word not meant offensively by the speaker/writer/typer does not mean one is being attacked. Who made the definition of the word "Race"? Was it offensive back then? No. It was widely used. Some people decided to make it offensive. A word is just letters, it comes alive when the person speaks it, writes it or types it. That person's intentions should be taken in context.

Our emotions put life into a word. If they are not negative emotions from the orginator then get over it.

It wasn't the word race itself. Read your sentence again and get over your own self.