Monday, September 7, 2009

Blogger Challenge: Plus-Sized Pixels

Hybrid Ansar's Big Girl Challenge was one I had to give a go, being as in real life I am, let's say, a touch on the Rubenesque side. Over the last few months, my avatar has been gradually creeping up in weight, from a usual SL 'petite' to something that could just about in RL count as curvy. Slimly curvy, but curvy, nonetheless. To me, it's not enough just to ramp up the 'Fat' slider and say you're done, so for this challenge I based Niv's shape on my own shape. And that shape is pear-shaped. Oh so very pear-shaped. I have almost no bust to speak of, but hips and thighs forever and ever. And not much in the way of a butt. So I'm a sort of 2D pear, really. A cross section of a pear, perhaps. As some sort of self-esteem thing, I've come to consider pearshaped a very sexy shape, in a quirky kind of way. In smaller proportions than my own preferably, but small breasts and big hips are now terribly aesthetically pleasing to me.

As I based the shape off my own, I erred on the side of caution as far as dressing nicely, and so for the first picture, I dressed as me. But with red hair. The shirt I'm wearing, from Naive, I have one very similar to, in RL. Perse told me I needed more colour ("You don't usually dress in such...bland colors" "I dress like this in RL except my hair is brown so it's even more bland!" "Oh") so I threw some armwarmers in there, something I have an immense collection of. But she had a point, and so I also made a second outfit that was a little more 'Niv', consisting of one of my favourite skirts, from Thimbles, and some silentsparrow. Can't be Niv without some silentsparrow!

On the whole, the experience of doing this challenge has actually been really fantastic, in a deep sort of way. I loved how my avatar looked. And that was a surprise in itself. Because, she looked like me. Okay, with better skin/hair and nicer clothes, but, the shape that I thought looked so nice, was my shape. It was a self-esteem boost of sorts, and felt quite liberating. I was proud of how "I" looked.
On the other hand, I have extra extra admiration for people who do this all the time. I couldn't. I briefly considered it, but it would all be such hard work. Just the logistics of it. I'd have to resize all my skirts, a lot. And poses! Poses would be a nightmare! I used Dove Swanson's chubby poses from her recent Poop hunt, and still my hands were poking through my flesh. It was disheartening and I can't imagine having to have that as an everyday feature, with the difficulty of finding an AO that 'fit' and....everything. It'd be exhausting. And I'd feel like a balloon next to some people *cough*Emee*cough*. Still, I think my av will be eating a few more big meals in future, and perhaps a time will come when SL is kinder to the bigger lass.

Outfit credits:

Pic 1:

Skin: [plastik] BaelElven-Glow-Freck
Hair: Truth - Gemma - Cranberry
Shirt: .:Naive:. Face Top White
Pants: Sprawl - The Treble - Oxblood
Shoes: {kari} - Kicks
Necklace: >>Figure 8<< Jr High BFFs (Be Frie (Emee has the other half, we're so cute))

Pic 2:

Skin: Curio - Pin Up - Moonbeam Dark [Frex] - Jitterbug 1
Hair: Gritty Kitty - Faders - Red
Corset: silentsparrow - Blood Velvet Corset
Skirt: Thimbles - Svetlana Takes the Bus (black)
Shoes: Kookie - Kat Platforms - Red

2 comments:

  1. Great job with this. I love both looks.

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  2. Great post and yes your shape looks cute as hell. You bring up a very good point, I think this is a market that is totally over looked. Maybe most of us stay in our rail avatars because it's the easiest thing to do. I can't think of too many places where I've had to downsize prims, always making them bigger. And poses, yea, hardly any big girl poses. SL is not a place for the real world sized lady. Someone should change this.

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