I think it’s important to have beliefs and personal moral tenets by which you live. I for one believe a few basic things.
I believe it’s wrong to treat people badly.
I believe you shouldn’t kill people or steal.
I believe in the value of friendship.
and…more to the point of this post, I do in fact believe it’s wrong to wear real fur.
Now, that being said, man, fur is BEAUTIFUL. It’s beauty doesn’t outweigh the suffering and treatment of the animals who die to give it to us. So pretty much, unless you’re still an indigenous, native, primitive type people, you probably shouldn’t be wearing fur.
I think fake fur, however is awesome. Since it’s made of horrible chemicals it’ll never age, and could absolutely be passed on from generation to generation, like china or crystal. No animal died or suffered to give it to us, and we get the beauty without the cruelty.
In the world of real life, I believe firmly that as a modern person I shouldn’t wear any animal I won’t eat. I eat cow thus I wear leather made from cows. If I eat it, I’d wear it most likely. Chicken might not be so pretty. I digress.
When the ridiculous brouhaha over PIXEL fur popped up the first thing I had to do was BUY it, because, the drama is so silly it hurts me. But, in order not to be a hypocrite I decided to keep to my own rules.
It was really difficult to get this into this pot by the way. It was however, delicious.
Awwwww. I am a messy eater.
Seriously, pixel fur. Love it. Make more.
No fashion details. Just delicious fox.
You’re so cool
By far the best post I’ve seen on the pixel fur controversy. Fantastic!
I agree but have to point out how very racist this sounds: “…unless you’re still an indigenous, native, primitive type people…”. Made me cringe a bit.
ILU Gidge.
WOOOOO! stick that in your pot and eat it! Fake Virtual Fur forever! \o/
Best comment yet LOL
Just brilliant! This is just a reminder of why you’re one of my favorite SLers (and my whole face hurts from laughing!)
Actually Frequency, that’d be ELITISM. Not Racism. Please pick the correct insult. Thanks.
I love it! I agree with Anichka – best post I’ve seen! You rock!
I’m sorry, I meant something more along the lines of ‘culturally insensitive’. I shouldn’t have even spoke up and I’m sorry. It was a great post and I quake in the shadow of your awesomeness, Gidge.
I get where you come from, but I’m not sure I entirely agree. Everything in Second Life is “just pixels”, and nothing (much) died to make it. To me, this would be more about the underlying principles – I don’t agree with the concept of killing an animal for the sole purpose of fashion, and I don’t agree with it being glorified, condoned or popularised within a virtual environment either. In a similar way that I wouldn’t like to see a skin of a woman who’s been beaten or an animation that shows an avatar committing suicide. I guess it just comes down to a case of personal opinions/views and how those continue to translate from the real world into the virtual, and how an individual interprets what a virtual environment means to them. As its been pointed out countless times before, Second Life represents much more than just cartoon images to many people.
That said, it’s not a topic I feel particularly strongly about – I just thought I’d offer another viewpoint and let the wolves attack me 🙂
Oh, and I come from a indigenous, native, primitive type people, and we still want our tea back.
No fashion details!!! But, but, but…. you’re wearing your Cajsa hair!!!!
Prad: TLDR. Love you mean it. Ok kidding I did read. You should hit your neighbors up about the tea. I didn’t steal it. That lot did.
Freq: Really, for fuck’s sake. You quake in the shadow of my awesomeness? For real? What the crap. I’m just a person. I’m an intensely flawed person in many instances. Here is where we fell at odds today. You disliked something I said, which is neither here nor there. I am sure there are plenty of other things I said that pissed off lots of other people. But, you aren’t some random stranger. You’re someone I know. Leaving a blog comment is also one thing. See Prad up there, he’s my friend, a good friend in fact and he disagreed with me and he’s still my good friend. We aren’t ever going to agree on everything.
But what you did was, you made your comment, and then rather than us discussing – because I’m actually rather reasonable, and rather than us getting to have a sort of “oh gee I didn’t see it that way” and me possibly editing it…..you went over to plurk and had a moment of self aggrandizing.
“just called somebody out on a racist comment and hope she doesn’t get slammed.” Then all your buds jump and and tell you how RIGHT you are without any context.
And now you’re saying “Oh I’m going to be shunned and I’ve insulted a powerful blogger.”
Really? I mean….we’ve met right? In what world am I a powerful blogger?
Powerful blogger? No. Not so much. Shunned? Not that I’m aware of. I don’t have the power to shun you and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t do such a thing.I wouldn’t ban you nor encourage others to do so. I wouldn’t encourage others to give you crap or confront you about this. I don’t wish you ill.
What I do wish, is rather than bash me today, you’d treated me as the friendly acquaintance I thought we were.
I’ve always wondered this… what are the ethics of wearing real fur if it’s a family heirloom and thus was bought waaaaaay before people were conscious of the cruelty involved in making fur items? should i not wear my grandmother’s fur coat even though it comes from a time/place when the cruelty factor was irrelevant? ofc, i don’t want to get paint thrown on it, being a family heirloom and all, so it stays in the closet, but really, aren’t there limits?
Regardless, great post. LMAO. :))
I am Native American Indian real life and although I’m not a traditional Indian in the big sense, I wouldn’t say that comment “So pretty much, unless you’re still an indigenous, native, primitive type people, you probably shouldn’t be wearing fur,” is racist because Indian people DO still hunt traditionally. Hunting and using the meat and fur and tendons and sinew and fat on animals is not only a tradition (*loves Deer, Moose, Caribou, Buffalo meat*) but it’s a spiritual connection and so the whole process of hunting and utilizing the body is a heritage that is still passed down to the new generations and I think that is worthy to note. I wouldn’t use the word primitive necessarily but perhaps archaic.
You do not even need to be an indigenous person to learn how to hunt traditionally and skin, process the meat/dry it, and use the body parts for crafting purposes either, as all people at one time or another were a part of a hunter/gatherer society.
Anyways I totally took it as a tongue-in-cheek statement personally. 🙂
I can summarize my reaction in two words: (snort, giggle). Well done, Gidge.
OH FFS. Is this all you have to worry about? Saying that what Gidge said was racist is like me saying that on Tangier Island they speak a pidgin form of English.
Get over it there’s plenty of real life important things to worry about. Yes this is directed at Frequency.
@kake: I don’t know. The ivory that my family owns that is over 100 years old is something I won’t throw out, even though Ivory is banned. What’s done is done (in the past) and if it’s a family heirloom it should be treated as such. (My personal opinion)