From Lisbeth Klastrup Miss Digital World. CNN article here.
"Miss Digital World is the first ever virtual beauty contest, strictly for the most beautiful and intriguing virtual models made using the most advanced 3D graphics tools. Miss Digital World is the search for a contemporary ideal of beauty, seen through virtual reality."
What is this ideal of beauty? Whose ideal is it? Where does it come from? I suspect that we will see stereotypical depictions - white women with unrealistic bodies, no 'imperfections' of any kind. The ideal virtual woman will be nothing like real physical women.
Much like Barbie:"if Barbie were a real person, she would be 5'9" tall and weigh 110 pounds, only 76% of her healthy weight. Her measurements would be 39-18-33, and she likely would not be able to menstruate due to being underweight."
I also suspect that if we were to create an ideal virtual man, he would be a macho dude with mega muscles, a six pack stomach and little body hair. What is it with these unrealistic notions of the human body that do nothing but make people feel insecure and uncomfortable with themselves? These ideals drive us to eat improperly, perform surgery on our bodies and spend countless dollars on anti-aging cream and cellulite butt busters. It's all about the Benjamins.
I have the theme song of the Six Million Dollar Man in my head:
We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
We have the capability to make the world's first Bionic man.
Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before.
Better . . . stronger . . . faster.
Better than what? What is wrong with our bodies now? We have the technology to build unrealistic depictions and expectations of the human body.
This should read:
We can rebuild her. We have the technology.
We have the capability to make the world's first perfect woman.
Virtual Women will be the new 'woman' - Better than they were before.
Better...more anorexic...more unrealistc...just more....
Ugh
Yeah, the MDW site is pretty disgusting, and one can well and sadly imagine the intended audience and their debates about How Hot She Is versus How High Her Poly Count Is. And re "a macho dude with mega muscles, a six pack stomach and little body hair", I'll submit that Mr. Digital World has already been constructed and is in fact ubiquitous in FPS games: those biceps, those quads, those pecs, those delts -- and, oh, that jaw, from Duke Nukem to UT2K3.
And, in fact, here's the difference: for the boys, and no I'm not being snarky or metaphorical here, it's all in how good the gun looks. The maleness of Return to Wolfenstein's Luger pales in comparison to that of Q3A's BFG.
(Blacklily8, this is where you shut me up by chiming in and citing Toril Moi.) :)
--
Mike
http://www.vitia.org/
heheh
I'm not a big fan of FPS, actually (Part of that school who thinks using a gun is unmanly anyway; use a sword, for God's sake!) Now, my sword is a Blade of Socratic Questioning +5/+10 vs. Sheep. It's sweet! !