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Scylla Rhiadra

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Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    In general I'm sure you're right, although the decisions to publicly support BLM, and produce a "community page" for black people are surely conscious decisions that must have been considered, at least in part, from a marketing or PR perspective.
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    Ironically (or not), one of the ways LL does market itself as inclusive is by carefully tucking away the not-so-inclusive parts ("plantation RP" or r*pe play, for instance) behind the "Adult" rating. I wonder if many RL women might think twice about trying out SL if they were more aware of the prevalence and popularity of misogynist groups and RP here? Good distinction. I do see a lot of "myself" in SL -- by which I mean women of whatever sexual orientation or ethnicity who are not gendered stereotypes. (Although god knows, I run across the other type often enough too.) But then I'm a well-educated, privileged white woman. So . . . not a very useful measure. PS. Just to make it clear that "myself" is not a racialized term: I have women friends in SL who represent as (and as far as I can know, actually are) black with whom I feel a very strong affinity and connection. But then again, it's relatively easy for me not to feel that race is an issue. That's clearly and for obvious reasons not necessarily the case with WOC.
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    Ah yes. Gamergate 2.0
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yes. DEI is about much more than just hiring practices -- something, in regard to LL anyway, that we know nothing about in any case. I think a more interesting and relevant issue is how (or if) issues such as representation and diversity are reflected in LL's management and marketing of SL. That's something we can talk about. There is of course the other thing that makes SL somewhat unique: that "representation" among RL users is not the same thing as representation in-world. Both are relevant: Does SL do a good job of signaling its inclusiveness, as a platform, to POC, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, etc? Does representation in-world reflect RL diversity, or are there impediments to that? My sense is that there are far more POC in SL now than there were when I started. Or at least more people representing as POC. Does that reflect conscious strategies on LL's part? Is it the result of a broader range of products available for diverse representation? And if the latter, is that because there is now a market for them that there wasn't at one time?
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    Didi (Vladimir)
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    An important point to consider with regard to DEI in a corporate context is that it's probably mostly not about boards of directors or CEOs or shareholders suddenly "catching" wokeness, as though it were a brain virus. Mostly DEI is adopted by corporations because they think it makes good business sense to do so. It may be that they want to score "virtue points" with parts of their target audience, or that they want to encourage a more diverse and broad job application pool. Perhaps, like Disney, they've determined that employee retention is improved when they practice elements of DEI. There can be lots of reasons why a corporation might embrace a DEI policy, but I doubt many of them have a lot to do with ideology or ethics. They are corporations, not people, and their sole reason for existence is generally to generate a profit. If they decide to reflect diversity better in their hiring practices, it's almost invariably because there are sound business reasons for doing so. And that applies to LL. If LL has tried to increase the visibility of POC in SL, for instance, it's mostly likely because they recognize that that's a demographic they haven't properly tapped yet. If they are very much pro-LGBTQ+ (which they certainly are), that might in part reflect the makeup of the company, but it also has a lot to do with the fact that the LGBTQ+ community in SL is huge and important. So I think that people who are yelling at corporations for "caving in to wokeness" are barking up the wrong tree. What they are doing, in fact, is finding ways to maximize profits and improve operations.
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, this tends to be my view: bannings just drive stuff underground. There are advantages to that -- people don't have the same freedom to actually advocate for misogyny, racism, or what-have-you, but on the whole I'd rather that the festering pustules were visible. I don't want to have anything to do with someone who holds egregiously racist or homophobic views, or who can only get it up if he's imagining he is inflicting pain or humiliation, so I find it quite useful when people make their toxicity clear and open. DEI isn't actually "against" those things, in theory anyway. It's actually about amplifying the voices of those who are seldom heard or seen. DEI doesn't say "Don't hire white guys!"; it says "Be more diverse in those whom you hire." In practice, that does mean hiring fewer white guys, but that's mostly because they've had advantages for hiring in the past. How it works in practice is, of course, sometimes a different thing.
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    This rather depends what you mean by DEI (which in Canada, btw, is more generally "IDE," for whatever reason). I think SL culture is pretty inclusive, on the whole, and gloriously diverse in some ways (especially with regard to gender and sexuality; less so maybe in other regards). Probably more so than RL. Is it equitable? That likely depends on your metric, but overall probably? But DEI is generally used in the context of institutional policies, rather than as a description of a "culture" or "society." The LL ToS and CS, and most especially the "toleration" clause in the latter, do, arguably, mandate DEI. Or would, if they were enforced as written, which of course they are not. In practice, LL's policy of "tolerance" has tended to extend to the "intolerant," with a few exceptions for really egregious views, behaviours, etc. So violent and hateful misogyny is also tolerated here (in pretty much any form you want to name. I have receipts), as, to a slightly lesser degree, are homophobia, transphobia, racism, Islamophobia, and a number of other toxic perspectives. And what that has meant in practice is that, despite the generally inclusive nature of SL, there are corners of it that are really pretty deeply uninclusive and hateful. On the whole, I think LL gets it right. At least, I don't have any alternate suggestions that don't involve censorship (which I abhor). Probably, however, I wouldn't complain too loudly if the more extreme forms of misogyny -- snuff porn and Dolcett, for instance -- were actually suppressed, in line with the way in which extreme articulations of racism currently are.
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
    C'est moi. Well, one of my photographic alts. Same as the one previously, actually.
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
    This is my newest version of Estragon (aka "Gogo") from Waiting for Godot. The mostly-dead tree in the background is one of two "stage props" used in the entire play. The other is a rock. A weeee bit visually challenging!
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    Aww, thank you, Leora!! ❤️
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    I love the vibe of this one, Lexxi. Great pose!
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    Cute cute cute!
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    I didn't realize until yesterday (and this conversation) that there had been a 2009 "TV" remake of The Day of the Triffids. I watched a bit of it: it's not bad. It's certainly got a pretty good cast -- Joely Richardson, Scott Dugard, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, and (weirdly, although he was pretty good in it) Jason Priestley. But yeah, the first 20 minutes or so were traumatizing. Something else I didn't know until yesterday: the novel was the inspiration for the movie 28 Days After.
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    Just time, air fare, and an extra seat for Ayashe. (I get the window seat, though! Called it!)
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    I really don't need an excuse to visit London. Just time and . . . air fare. (And an airliner that doesn't use Boeing!)
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    Oh thank god. Yes, of course. I thought you were talking about The Day of the Triffids. And yes, of course I've seen the movie of Rocky Horror -- but no, never a stage version!
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    There's a Broadway version??????
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    lol I'd forgotten about this. Confession: I've never seen the movie!
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    God, this is bringing it all back. I was brought up on English comedy (by an English mum). Wasn't Frankie Howerd the original Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum too? (And please, no complaints about "going off topic" in this thread. Lol.)
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, ever since I read John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids as a young'un, I've had this barely masked terror of looking at weird sky phenomenon like meteor showers. Because maybe THIS is the one that will strike everyone around the globe blind, leading to the collapse of civilization, and unleashing terrifying man-eating plants upon a helpless population! Could happen!
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    And NOW, featuring Kenneth Williams and the whacky Carry On Crew! What's not to love?
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    lol this thread . . .
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    It just passed over here: Toronto got a 99.98% eclipse, but the cloud cover was far too heavy to see anything. It DID get very weirdly dark for about 2 mins, during which time the street lights went on automatically. A teeny bit underwhelming, however. Sadly. Definitely a peeve.
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