Monday 20 February 2012

On Being Offended

Now, I don't like to lie to you, dear readers, so here's the deal. I wasn't going to post today, or, at least, I wasn't going to post about this. I had another topic for discussion lined up, but the chances of me coming here today and committing it to virtual paper were incredibly slim. This evening, however, I logged into Second Life to scout out a couple of sims and found something that has genuinely outraged me. 

Because I am outraged, I should probably not be writing this right now. But I want to write it right now, and so I am going to. 

I will not reproduce the name of the sim, but when I landed there, I was directed to pick up a notecard (basically a Wordpad document) containing the sim rules and roleplay background. That's pretty standard procedure. When I opened the notecard, however, what I found is not something I consider 'standard procedure'. The notecard reads:

'BY ENTERING THE [name omitted] CITY SIM, YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU ARE IN REAL LIFE OVER THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN AND AGREE TO ABIDE BY THESE RULES. 

BY ENTERING [name omitted] CITY, YOU AGREE THAT YOU ARE NOT OFFENDED BY VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE OR SEXUAL CONTENT, AND WILL NOT HOLD THE OWNER OF THE SIM, OR ITS LEGAL PARTICIPANTS LIABLE.'

...Woah! Hold the phone! Just a minute! Back it up! Let's look at that one more time.

By entering this sim, you agree that you are not offended by violence, adult language, or sexual content - by 'sexual content', of course, they mean rape and public demonstrations of BDSM which, I should like to suggest, are not the same thing.

Don't get me wrong - in many situations (political correctness not being one), I agree with Steve Hughes - but it seems fundamentally wrong to me that this sim is suggesting that it is creating, or collecting, a society of people who are not offended by violence and sexual assault. If you wish to write about these things, by all means go ahead. Many artists and writers the world over have sought to engage with these topics. But I am offended by the idea that people should or might not find offensive breaches of morality and human rights. 

I am offended by the alternatives. What else are they going to do, if not find them offensive? - and, I think, this is the crux of it - Be entertained? Be amused? Should they find pleasure in them? Should they be indifferent? 

There are no rules, I might add, governing what is or is not allowed to take place on this sim. When you sign up, as it were, agreeing not to be offended, are you taking into account all of the possibilities of what could happen within that sim? Perhaps I am overestimating the imagination of the average SL user, but there was a poster on one of the foyer-room walls featuring a pair of handcuffs and advertising the "Hard and Nasty" group. These people are hard and nasty enough to warrant their own group?

I reserve the right to be offended. I reserve the right to be repulsed by some of the darker things humans and avatars are capable of. I reserve the right to engage with material that offends me, but I also reserve the right to be offended by that material, and to draw the line where I want it. 

Why should you ever, ever, give up the right to be offended?

Needless to say, I did not enter the sim.

I shall now cease this rant.

(I also touched on this topic, a little more eloquently, here)

3 comments:

  1. Ooo Abi....I have to say I agree with you 100% sweetheart.

    Hardly think a pair of handcuffs is very hard and nasty, but thats besides the point.....

    Hope you are feeling better after your rant...

    Mum xxx

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  2. I am proud of you. That is all.

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  3. Thank you, both of you. Unfortunately, I don't really feel better.

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