How many men/women are there in SL?

[Skylar Meridoc]

Just wondering how many men/women are using SL? And how many of them are actually playing their real gender?

And would they admit if they are opposite sex in RL?

Just curious...

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Skylar. My feeling is that it would be better to post your question in SL Forums under "General Discussion" category.

[Rolig Loon]

There is absolutely no way to tell.  It's one of the great metaphysical questions in SL .... good for hours of meaningless conversation.  If I were you, I would either (1) make up a number or (2)  relax and forget about it.  After all, what difference does it make?

[Griffin Ceawlin]

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Skylar Meridoc wrote:

Just wondering how many men/women are using SL?

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Well, I think everyone in SL is either male or female, the only possible exception I can think of being hermaphrodites, which would be... both.

 

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And would they admit if they are opposite sex in RL?

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Some would. Some wouldn't.

 

 

[Ceera Murakami]

There's no way you'll ever find out, since LL doesn't require genetic screening to create an avatar, nor do they impose any realistic limits on how many accounts can be created by one individual. LL certainly doesn't know. All they can tell you is what gender each account is registered as - but that could just as easily be false.

There's also absolutely no reason why anyone has to create an avatar that is a clone of themselves - any more than a book writer or a movie script writer can or should be limited to only writing characters that match their gender. Is Luke Skywalker male? Absolutely. Is Princess Leia Female? Yes, of course. Does it matter that the dialogue for both of them was written by a male, named George Lucas? Not at all, if you approach Luke and Leia as what they are - fictional characters in a made-up universe. Star Wars certainly wouldn't be the same if it had no female characters, just because the author was male, now would it?

Second Life isn't a dating site, where each account is required and expected to represent a real life individual. Some people may make accounts that are clones of their real-life selves, and may seek real-life romances by meeting others of like mind here. But such people are in the minority in SL, from what I have seen in 6+ years here.

I have several avatar accounts in SL. Some are male, some are female. Obviously, some don't match my gender. But none are "Me", and I don't ever try to make anyone think that, for example, my anthropomorphic three-tailed lady fox is a real person. They are just fictional characters, like Luke and Leia. Interact with any one of them, and how they respond is how I wrote them, with a gender and back story that matches each character. "Ceera" will say she's female, because that character is female. "Kendrew" will just as adamantly state that he is male, because he's a fine, handsome Scottsman. They are both fictional. There's no reason for either to discuss the gender of their creator, any more than Carrie Fisher, the actress who played Princess Leia, should, in the middle of filming a passionate kiss with Harrison Ford as Han Solo, should blurt out "You realize, it's a guy that you can't see who is telling me to do this, right? That screenwriter over there, in the Director's chair? He's who you're kissing.".

[zhanayebridges]

how old are you

[Griffin Ceawlin]

What does it matter how old I am??