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MasileinDE
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Blog

Below are the last blogs of this player. You can also post comments or subscribe.
TitleCommentsDate
BOOKS • 2023 reads130-01-2023 13:56
DESIGNS • Uploading a design013-11-2022 11:13
DR • Using the same reference is not stealing201-05-2022 16:19
DESIGNS • Designing with references024-01-2022 12:17
DR • Using references doesn't mean you're lazy or uncreative009-12-2021 18:32
DR • Copyright and Crediting009-12-2021 18:32
DR • Talent VS Skill009-12-2021 18:30
DR • Design Requests1009-12-2021 18:24
VP • What is appropriate and what isn't?2711-03-2021 18:23
VP • Why I quit DT1811-12-2020 16:57
DESIGNS • changing a skin 422-07-2020 18:10
VP • Why being male is so unsexy2101-06-2020 14:04
VP • Why being a teamer on VP kinda sucks427-05-2020 11:50
VP • Is DM ever worth it?026-05-2020 17:56
VP • The secret of a VP designer1222-02-2020 22:17
DESIGNS • General hints and tutorials516-11-2018 21:48
DESIGNS • remakes1802-10-2018 09:42
DESIGNS • Step by Step1204-07-2018 12:25

 ReportVP • What is appropriate and what isn't?


I'm not joking, these subjects will be discussed in the blog and you have been warned. There's no reason to go crying to anyone because you got triggered by something despite thinking you could handle it "because it's on VP". There won't be any pictures other than the sets already in game.


Disclaimer:

This is in no way, shape or form meant to shame on or discredit the designers or admins on this site. This is a reaction to recurring controversy when it comes to the items in game and raising questions about the community guidelines, the handling of situations and the change of tone when it comes to the content on this website.

Even though I have an opinion on the matter (and am clearly not exempt from some of the points I'll be raising in this blog), I will try to present both sides as clear as possible and try to present information and facts as unbiased as possible.

Please keep in mind, I'm a very cynical person, so I do tend to "joke" about uncomfortable things in a very deadpan way and seem swaying more to the negative, distrusting and spiteful side.

This blog is meant to be informational and "fun" (if you think irony is funny, you might have a blast) at the same time.

If you are unable to cope with the past of VP, questioning of motive and actions and blatant pointing out of past mistakes and questions about what is appropriate and what not, this blog sadly might not be for you.

I don't take pity on people who skip the disclaimer, because they think this is all fun and games and disclaimers are just there for shit. You have been warned and I'll use my right as writer of this blog to just not give a fuck about people reading this despite not being comfortable with what I'm discussing and then getting all riled up.

Also, fricking super long blog ahead. Read time is approximately around 25 minutes. You have been warned.



A quick glance over the demographic of VP shows that most of us are either young millennials, old gen Z or (and this might be the biggest group) part of those weird cusp years that prevent you from identifying with any of the two generational terms completely. Nonetheless, we share similar memories when it comes to our teen years on the internet and it shows.

We grew up learning how to use the internet and surfing by ourselves quite early. Our first connections online were with friends after school when we were around 10. Myspace, Facebook, Tumblr and other sites for personal blogging and chatting were what we used most; this was what we got home to after class. And because the internet was rather new, most children and teenagers knew little to no censoring. We all have fond memories of watching cute cat videos, lamenting about our teachers, getting tagged in a beheading video and trying to find the perfect song to fit our profile page. I'm feeling rather confident in saying, that we grew up with people trying to be as edgy as possible and people going all out to paint a certain picture of themselves.

Sure, we weren't the first, but we were the first who had the World Wide Web at our disposal and could reach people all over the world in a matter of seconds. We finally had the chance for private platforms during our darkest times: puberty. And oh boy, did we take advantage of it.

But how does this relate to VP and current issues? Well, let's take a closer look.


The most recent controversy regarding what is proper and acceptable on VP happened during the first week of February. The DM set was a plague doctor set by German designer Jisatsu with a sombre background piece, two newspapers reading the following headlines: "Over 100Mio Cases" and "New Corona Mutation". The reception was rather mixed.


The English server was the only one being fast enough to pull the item from the set and handed out a code to all people having DM to let the players decide if they want the item or not. Overall a rather sensitive decision and one of the few instances where the players got to decide. Nonetheless, some players were not happy about that decision at all.

The reactions to the newspaper ranged from indifference to slight outrage, some people taking it even further than necessary. (Though granted, that was on the Dutch server, known for their love for everything a German designer does and starting a shitstorm on German DMs every single time; so it might have just been feeding the generally present dislike.)

People were claiming that the newspaper was making light of a very serious event and that it hit a bit too close to home, saying that choosing the Spanish plague would have been a more sensitive fit. There's a fraction of people who don't want to be confronted with the bitter reality of millions of people dying from a disease - deaths, that could have been prevented with just being less of a self-centred and selfish prick and staying the fuck at home! Yeah, I get why people are upset.

Especially considering the pandemic is far from being over and the world is still burning, I do understand that reflection cannot happen yet. We are in the eye of the storm; it might seem ok where we are, but shit's on fire and we can't deny it. We open the internet or switch on our tv, radio or phone and get bombarded with new death counts, infection rates and people losing their livelihood and loved ones. We want to log on to VP and have a happy time. We want to close our eyes and hide from all the misery, pretending it's not happening.

Now we have to learn the hard way, that maybe starving African kids would be way more taxing on our mental health, if they weren't in Africa. (Who am I kidding; poverty and abysmal healthcare in our own countries don't make us care anymore than it does in African or other countries. We truly needed the great equalizer called death close to home to remind us that plagues don't discriminate depending on your socio-economic background.)

On the other side, we have a bunch of people who don't mind seeing reality being a subject on VP. They say that you can't hide from reality and pretending like nothing is happening would be just as bad as making fun of the severity. If history has taught us one thing, it's how oblivion and ignorance can fuel a whole bunch of problems. Don't believe me? Well ask Europe how it's coping with the remnants of a very right-wing mind-set and you'll understand why some of us prefer the harsh truth instead of just looking away and the potential of misinformation being spoon-fed to us, because we don't want to rely on serious sources.

But the whole discussion led to a very serious question being raised: What is appropriate - and who decides?


Now this case is not the first of an item getting some backlash from the community. And it's far from being the first one with a rather questionable subject. I opened a thread on the German server and asked the users which items they thought to be rather controversial. Even though I already could think of a bunch that raised a lot of brows or that I find rather unfortunate in being on a site for kids and teens, I know that one person alone can't find everything that's potentially wrong with the items on VP.

So we ended up with a long list of items that could easily be bunched into different categories. I will be giving examples, although the list of example is far from being complete and of course I'll be cherry-picking a few of my personal "favourites" to drive the points home. (Also, in case people truly wonder: yes, most of the things and arguments from this point onward have been taken from a discussion on the German server, but I think you'll find them just as valid and matching on this server as well.)

As a quick heads-up: I do realise that most of these items, especially when speaking about complete sets that might be rather controversial, were uploaded in a rather specific context; Halloween or pop culture being the most dominant reasons for these things to exist. But as with everything, people love to take things out of context. In a creative environment this might even be encouraged. Especially here on VP, where you are supposed to make new outfits and looks with all the items you have and not just wear them in the specific coordination that the designers gave you in a set. But this unfortunately also means that people will be tempted to take innocuous items and misuse them for sometimes even rather vile looks. This is the perfect segue into our first category.

Misuse of items - more than just penile gags

Okay, raise of hands if you remember the time before mods became the fashion police? Do you remember all those looks with predominantly Solovey tails being used as a rather fashionable and let's be real freakish way to protest the lack of male sets on the servers. Needless to say, Kaj certainly gave no fuck about it and it left the designers and mods to clean up the mess; but let's be fair, seeing how Kaj never does anything worthwhile for this site and it's usually teamers trying to save the day, this hasn't been surprising at all. But this is not about how Kaj left us all on a big cruise ship with no lifeboats whilst staying behind on his remote island.

Since always people have tried to be as creative as they could with the items they have and while for most people this is limited to creating the most intricate and stunning looks (quick shout out to all the wonderful people on this website using their combination skills for the greater good, especially since the update that allowed more than one item per category to be worn), some do need to take things a step further every single time. So yes, the army of naked dudes with their lizard-tail and furry schlongs out and about might have been a weird protest situation, but it's not the only case of people using items in a different way than intended.

Most notable in this case are the famous bathtub and the noose around the neck. Both items come in a set that truly sets a specific mood - one being a dreamy self-care inspired outfit, the other the typical Halloween scarecrow that comes to life after someone tells the story of how it's the mummified body of someone they hung for his crimes. The sets themselves weren't really controversial, but then the user base happened and we ended up with a whole bunch of suicide looks. Not only is this a rather distressing subject for some, it's also clearly against the rules of conduct (and believe me, we'll be talking about them a lot later on).


So no surprise the mods had to issue another statement and now it's not just forbidden to run around in your birthday suit, but you're also not allowed to romanticise the suicidal tendencies of your virtual self. (Oh hey, look, another subject we'll be talking about a lot later on.)

Wallowing in blood

Now when talking about the misuse of these items, let's all be clear that especially the bathtub is so easy to misuse as a suicide bed because of the gallons of blood this website has to offer. No, seriously, VP has enough blood to recreate the elevator scene from The Shining and barely anyone took offence. If you get off on virtual blood, you don't need to look out for gore animes or mangas anymore - just come to VP and dress up as your own personal wank fantasy.

But the abundance of severed limbs, skinned avatars and bloodied weapons might not be enough to drive the point home. Especially when criticising sets for their potential portrayal of self-harm and suicide, we do need to talk about all the items that can be used to recreate these sceneries. Where is the difference between someone who slaughtered their spouse and someone to slit their wrists? Does it matter in the grand scheme of things who the obvious violence is aimed at? Are we more ok with murder and assassination than with suicide? I'm raising a point that will come up later again, but only because I really need you to think about it. What makes someone with blood on their sleeves and a bloodied knife in their hand ok when they just killed someone, but shows poor taste if it's supposed to show self-harm? And this is not to say that self-harm or suicide aren't bad. This is me asking why no one gives a fuck about murder.


I also remember a very heated discussion from years ago about imagery that supports the ideas of self-harm. We are talking about cutting scars on the legs and tummy and razor blades. Everyone who's been on Tumblr in 2014 knows the aesthetic I'm talking about. The designer was boo-ed for their idea, the design deemed harmful and not suitable for VP and that's about it. Same goes with syringes sticking out of the body (the critique here was drug abuse, I'll get to this to a later point, but let's entertain the idea in a purely self-harm-centred way) and the negative impact they might have on other players. Yet here we are with a nurse outfit and bloodied scalpels sticking out of her arms. I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how these scalpels are ok but the prospect of scar tissue might just be too much for some. I'm clearly playing devil's advocate, but what is the difference between cutting yourself open with scalpels or a razor blade?


Or let's just take it even further with the violence theme and let's slide into the topic of (domestic) abuse. There is more than one shiner in this game and the amount of bloodied noses and mouths is over the top. I still don't know why exactly, but there was a time when spotting a huge black eye in its plethora of colours was the go-to look for half of the user base. Looking like you were married to Chris Brown or just an overly ambitious MMA fighter was what people craved for and even though we already had a ton of bruises all over the body in game, people kept trying to get designers to design more and more. Oh, and we did comply.


The taboo of the female body and how sex sells

Now when talking about abuse, the idea of not only violence but also sexual assault are not far off. And, if news outlets are to believe, skimpy dresses are at fault for rape just the same as GTA raised us all to be prostitute murdering car-thieves. Don't worry, we are not yet on the topic of sexual assault, but we do need to broach the matter of sexualisation on VP. (No need to tell me sexual abuse and sexualisation aren't the same subject, I know that, I just struggled to find a better transition, so I went with this non sequitur based on the similar letters.)

Overall VP seems to cater mostly to a stereotypically female audience. Or, well, what society prefers to call "girly things". Let's stick with that very sexist thought just for the sake of the argument I'm going to make. Now considering this, it is rather funny how taboo the matters of the female body are. Nipples that give milk? Uhhh, very naughty, downright pornographic, better not put that in our game. But hey, did you ever want to run around in a choker with the word "sex" on it, while leashed and geared up like you're the exhibit model on a bdsm fair. Please, let's not forget the ahegao face and the mouthful of "saliva". I haven't found a ballgag during my research, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was one of those as well. (Edit: There is a ballgag! It's official, I now crown VP the best stocked virtual non-sex-shop sex shop.)


Now the second a designer makes Duran Lantink's vulva pants, all hell breaks lose because we can't have things on this site that might look remotely sexual. Come to think of it, the nude latex-leotards were Solovey's first dabble in subliminal sexual fashion and they have earned some critique as well. On the other hand, we have the whole collection of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion referencing WAP (for everyone living under a rock, this stands for "wet ass pussy" ) and there is no fucking way in all that's holy on this planet this could mean anything but something overtly sexual. But hey, let's put them as the high-selling sets in the MCW.



This whole section might seem like a total Solovey bashing, so I take this moment to remind you all that this is in no way a critique on Solovey's designs. It's just rather peculiar how some of her designs are too sexual, because they might look like a naked body from afar or because pants that look like a vulva are clearly nothing but overly sexual items that should not exist on a children's platform, but then on the other hand we have very obvious fetish gear (and no, I'm not talking about how the 50 shades of grey craze made wearing corsets and harnesses socially acceptable and started a whole trend around those) and outfits from a song whose video clip looks like a soft porno.

I definitely don't see myself as enough of a feminist to even remotely try and figure out if they are both on the same spectrum of proper female representation or if one of them is a good or poor representation of female sexuality and sexual liberation. This is not my call to make. But let's just say, from what I read in various articles and heard in a bunch of commentary essays, I don't think that the looks of WAP and Duran Lantink's vulva pants share the same zip code when it comes to feminist representation and I do worry about the message we might send with the choices we made regarding what to put in game and what not. But who am I to judge?

The whole rest of the shit show

So now to the topic of sexual assault and while we're at it eating disorders, racism, drug abuse and other miscellaneous topics that would deserve their own chapter, but I grew tired and depressed of talking about this and trying to find sense in what is apparently acceptable and what not.

Fortunately the topic of rape can be abbreviated, as the only discussion of rape-friendly (and I hate myself for having to use that phrase) depictions on VP ever were related to some pants made by Ratskeleton, that she later on defended as something else. And this is where the whole aesthetic thing starts to play in as well. There sure are a bunch of sets on VP that seem perfectly fine in the little bubble they are represented in. And again, I'm mostly talking about Halloween sets here and how their use of gore and violence is kind of justified. So, more often than not, if people are wearing sets that might indicate depictions of abuse or just general violence, it's by using items from many different sets and putting them into a completely new context. But there are exceptions to that rule and one of them being this very specific set by Rats.

When she posted pictures of it in the threads, people were worried that it might give off the vibe of a rape victim. Let's be real, the open jeans and blood dripping down the hands did not help in making it look super innocent. But thankfully it was not as ghastly as we suspected. No, she just overate and is now sporting a food baby that prevents her from fully closing her jeans. All is fine, it happens to the best of us. Maybe it's just me being oversensitive and thinking that this is very much toeing the line between "relatable" and possibly pro-ana content.


Oh hey, look, eating disorders are a thing on VP, who'd have guessed? Now don't get me wrong, I do know everyone looks differently, there is not one body type that looks like everyone does. But then we have those skins that take the already fairly skinny DollMania base, remove even more pixels around the thighs and make clearly visible ribs... Yes, there are people out there looking like that and not having an eating disorder, I know that. I just find it very concerning that we had even thinner skins before we even had remotely chubby ones. And please, let's not all forget that people are still hating on the official "chubby base" for not really being truly chubby and yet again perpetuating the idea of certain body types. At this point I'm just pointing out things we have in game and how they came to be, this is not even truly commenting on the issues around them anymore.


Now speaking of issues, let's go over to racism, cultural appropriation and poorly aged sets. Seeing how I am as far from having any authority on matters like racism and what is cultural appropriation and what not as anyone could be, I will keep it short. There are a bunch of items and sets in game, that looking back at them are far from ok when it comes to it. These things weren't really ok back then either, but it was tolerated and perpetuated in the media, in society and thus also on VP. I am definitely not exempt from such mistakes and have only myself, my lack of research and awareness and ignorance towards issues that didn't regard me personally to blame.

Let's lift the mood a bit and talk about uplifting stuff, like drugs for example. I don't need to tell anyone what VP's stance on drugs of any kind is, we all have supposedly read the code of conduct. And yet here we are with cigarettes and booze at our disposal. Yes, ok, don't come at me, I do understand the difference between socially acceptable drug use like smoking and drinking compared to snorting cocaine and taking colourful little pills or shooting a spoonful of heroin. But seriously, it's a site that caters to people under 16, who in many countries are barely even legally allowed to have a sip of beer and a puff of a cigarette. Am I that wrong in questioning why we even need those items, if drugs of any kind are forbidden and anything that glorifies their use (and yes, in this case even the consumption of alcohol) is against the COC? Is it just me who thinks that's a bit hypocritical?

(Also, special mention to swear words, slurs and just overall vulgar speech. Yeah, clearly this is me shooting myself into the foot, seeing how I have a vile mouth myself. But even though I swear like a sailor, I to tend to not make it a habit of wearing my language on my chest and I do prefer not to insult people indirectly by shoving the phrase "fuck you" in their face just by wearing a specific shirt. But even though there are way more serious matters at hand when it comes to questionable content on VP, I don't think we should ignore this part. Btw, the same goes with religious and traditional symbolisms - the biggest discussion about this I've seen so far was between the whole Satanism and Christianism discussion.)

Now going back over the list of all these items raises a few questions for me. Especially, why do we even have these pieces? Why was there a craze for these items in the first place? I am in no way for a mass deletion of everything that's remotely problematic according to some overly Christian American moms, I'm not that crazy. Yet I wonder, why do we start drawing a line when it comes to new items, censor them and let older items live on? Why do we keep holding to the truly bad past and excuse it with a "it was a different time back then"? Is it just nostalgia bias or is there something else at play?


Anyone of you remember Tumblr from back around 2014, when the grunge aesthetic hit full blast? Well, this was about the time I started to be more active on VP as gSm started to close down, so I'm not really surprised most of my first memories of VP also relate to what I saw more and more around that time on Tumblr. I was never really into Tumblr (this is the beginning of my life-long struggle with any kind of social media) and the sheer flood of confusing and to me not so appealing content clearly put me off. (Yes, I'm talking about the self-harm pics and all the porn.)

Now, don't think I haven't been one of those edgy teens that clearly struggled with their mental health and didn't know how else to cope with life other than sharing all my woes online. I did have a magazine collection on the German gSm that I was quite famous for where I explored all those darker thoughts. Looking back at it, I cringe really hard. And there's not much differentiating between what 16 year old me thought to be amazingly crafted belles-lettres and what others would have called a well curated Tumblr-blog.

Being a teenager for most of it sucks. You feel like you don't fit in, you have trouble finding your crowd. You are convinced everyone is living a false live, putting on masks to get along and leaving you standing out in the rain all by yourself. You don't understand yourself or the world, plus your body truly sucks and does nothing right. You grow into someone, both physically and mentally, that's so new and strange to you, that you feel like you're forced to be someone you're not. You start to think that life is nothing but a farce and that being an adult fucking sucks. Everyone comes around and starts pushing their expectations on your, their beliefs and ideas; you're now supposed to be someone you never were. You feel like an imposter, you feel like you're lying to everyone and yourself. You feel like nothing makes sense and all the struggles would be gone the second you just cease to exist. You wish to cease existing, because just not having to cope with everything seems to be way easier than having to learn how to navigate that shadow world that's been opened to you. Plus there are hormones and they fucking suck even worse than life on its own.

Sound familiar? Yeah, told you, it's no rocket science, it's just what puberty feels like, so it's not really a surprise why edgy content, the mysteries of life and topics like mental and physical health struggles suddenly became so important to us. We start to turn to like-minded people who share their stories, their failures and their success, and we try to emulate it in our life. We start to romanticise the weirdest things, because we think of it as universal benchmarks of struggle and healing.

Self-harm is usually considered the lowest point for people struggling with their mental health. It's a visual representation of their inner turmoil and struggles and in the context it was very obvious that if someone posted a picture of razor blades, they were trying to show us that they struggled with something. (Or tried jumping on the aesthetic bandwagon, but well, mostly real struggles.) There always was that magic of healing from your depression and finding peace with life and yourself and not having to resolve to these measures anymore. Plus hello further insecurities put onto us by societal oppression via media and warped self-perception. No wonder it was so easy to get wrapped up in an eating disorder or self-mutilation; people told us that this was how struggling looked like and that it would be a way to cope.

Also, don't ever forget that humans are sick twisted little evil bastards who just LOVE misery. The box gifted to Pandora did not just contain all the misery and evils of the world. No, there was also hope in there and if that does not tell you everything you need to know about how humanity works and functions, then I don't even know.

And this list of warped perceptions goes on and on and on. We see it portrayed everywhere in our life and as the time flies by and we find new outlets and timely representations of these same destructive patterns that we used to have in blogs back in the 2010s. I mean ... just go on YouTube and look up movie or series reviews that go a bit deeper on societal issues. Once someone pointed out to me how much pro-rape content could be found in tv-shows, I was thrown for a loop. But then I started looking and for sure, there is so much sexual assault and misconduct going on. And it's fricking romanticised?! And I'm not just talking about really improper BDSM technique from a poorly written Twilight fanfiction, but sure, it fits as well.

We all have that very specific view of what violence in a relationship looks like, how assault and trauma looks like. We have these shows that don't show us reality, but a Hollywood-esque interpretation of misery, pain and what is deemed wrong and we look at it through the rose-coloured glasses of I don't even know who the fuck this sicko is that tries to push this view onto us? Things that would actually be defined as rape now get brushed off as "it's how it is, there's nothing wrong, you're just overreacting, they didn't actually physically hurt you". Domestic or child abuse now gets excused with a "it wasn't that bad and I didn't even touch them".

We are perpetuating the idea that only visible harm is serious harm - which did I really have to make a full loop just to come back to why we had that aesthetic back then, where we felt the need to physically show emotional harm and distress in order for people to take us serious? It's been nearly 10 years and I don't feel like the world has changed an iota when it comes to our perception of things no matter how much people try to insist that we are more sensitive to these matters than ever. Are we really? Because all I can see is people trying their fucking best to desensitise the newer generations into thinking that it's normal and abuse only happens if there is proof of physical harm. (I'm actually a bit distressed right now and really feel the way people usually do when they say they need a drink.)

I'm now sitting here wondering ... is this just how we were taught to cope? Is this our way of handling situations? Are we glorifying certain aesthetics, because they remind us of our past and of struggles we went through? Are we into it because of our personal experiences or because we're being told that this is in now, this is trendy, this is pretty and this is the goal you should live by? When is it too much? And how can we stop people from trying to push too far?


These questions, these struggles, are why we need community guidelines everywhere. They are supposed to help all of us. Community guidelines are the safety net of the community. They exist to prevent users from being harmed via the content on the website. Especially on websites with user exchange, these guidelines are important. They limit the topics that can be discussed openly or even at all to prevent people from experiencing or reliving trauma. They are also meant to keep the community in check and prevent anarchy from breaking out, but let's just focus on the guardian function.

Community guidelines usually prevent people from discussing triggering topics and sharing distressing images or stories and sometimes even give the users a safe space to explore those subjects. Sometimes this means closed discussions, labels and little boxes warning you of potential triggers or maybe just a popup box that implores you to get some help if you feel like you need it. (Has this ever worked for anyone? This feels a bit like a legally clever way to not have to prohibit certain topics on your website because you know they are in demand and generate clicks and thus help you make money. I think I need to lie down again...)

Anyhow, you need people to install and inforce those rules. Let's bring the topic back to VP. In this case it's the admins and mods taking care of the rules, altering to the need of the community and making sure people follow them. It's what causes them to look like party poopers when all they try to do is guarantee there's as little conflict on the website as possible. But, the code of conduct also forces players to self-censor their own behaviour and their activities on the website if they were to go against the rules. The mods and admins basically are the last instance. It's like in real life. There's the laws and people are supposed to abide by these rules all by themselves. But in case they don't there's the police and the legal system in place making sure the rules are followed and taking action if needed. (I'm living in my happy place right now, it's also called being delusional. That's how I cope.)

This brings us back to the designs. Whose "fault" is it really? Is the designer at fault for making a design that could be misused or that portrays problematic and questionable behaviour? Are the admins at fault for letting the designs get into the game? Are the users at fault for their personal and creative expression? Are designers forced to only make designs that can't be misused by anyone? Are users bound to comply to the use of an item in the same way the designer did in his design? Is preventing someone from making a design because it gives too much potential for misuse censoring and limiting the creative expression of designers?

Let's take it back to the original item that sparked the whole discussion. What is the difference between people making face masks at the beginning of the pandemic and the newspaper with the cases (not deaths, cases, there's a distinction)? Is it just bad because of how people interpret it? Is it really just because it's so close to home? Would we be more wary regarding sets with guns if there was another mass shooting at the same time a set with guns was to be released? Or is this maybe something different? Does it help in any case to make people decide whether they want to own the item?

The item ends up in game either way, so it's just like with every other item as well. You either own it or you sell/delete it, if it doesn't suit your style or vision. But that won't erase the item from existence. And if we ask this from the newspaper, shouldn't we start asking the deletion of other items as well, just because they are potentially as triggering? Should we now start to delete threads and blogs that treat certain topics? When is it being sensitive and when is it tiptoeing around a subject in fear of potentially offending anyone? What is the minimum number of people something has to affect negatively for us to be sensitive about it rather than just calling someone over-emotional? And yet again we'd have to define who gets to decide on what is right or wrong. And no matter how you toss it or turn it, people will never truly be satisfied, there's always someone getting upset and someone paying the ultimate price.


I know this might not really be a satisfying blog to read seeing how there is more questions raised than answered. But I just want to spark some thoughts. I want people to think about the items we have in game, the items we will have in game in the future and I want everyone to think about how they act on the website and what expectations they have towards others.

I hope this blog made sense to most of you and didn't just seem like random babbling. I actually never put in as much research and rephrasing in a blog and do hope it paid off. If so, feel free to leave me a comment. (Also if not, I'd love some critique no matter what the reception of the blog.)

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Comment on this blog VP • What is appropriate and what isn't? of MasileinDE .
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Private wrote on 21-03 02:50:
Potion wrote:
as its 3 in the morning this is too much for me to read right now, but I'm commenting as a mental bookmark that ill be back to read this later on. seems very interesting!
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MasileinDE wrote on 13-03 14:27:
MasileinDE wrote:
Kit wrote:
go off masi! super interesting read & a rly interesting conversation. was surprised not to see the solovey swastika hands mentioned too but this wld be 10000x longer if u had to talk abt every problematic item lol

The issue with the swastika hand is that the nazis did appropriate it from hinduistic culture. They did the same with a lot of nordic stuff (they were really big on the religious side of the Nords, the appropriation is soooooo intense and actually a rather interesting topic) and just religious symbolism in general. People wouldn't think about forbidding runes in designs even though the nazis used them big time, so I kinda get why you couldn't just remove a cleary hinduistic inspired set. This is again a discussion about context of the set and potential misuse or misinterpretation of a single item by removing it from said original context. Although, I personally would put the criticism about the swastika set into the category of religious content and how to properly treat that. Most of us don't know a lot about Hinduism and most of us, upon seeing a swastika, don't think about luck and prosperity but rather see an antisemitic statement. So in our mostly western culture here on VP, the set can easily be misunderstood for something else, when in reality, it is meant as something joyful and rather religious. Come to think of it, why didn't I use this example, because it's one of the best to really show how a different upbringing and different experiences change your perception of the world and how you develop biases based on it. I realise the more and more I talk with people about the topic of this blog (which clearly was just a starting point, you could go so much deeper on many different aspects of it and still only scratch the surface), that we could go so much deeper on it and that there are so many facettes of it left that I didn't explore in depth enough. This could become an ongoing series :d (I won't do that, no worries, it would be a rather upsetting series and I would suffer from the negativity even the research brings just as much as people would from reading what I collect. :d)
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Kit wrote on 13-03 12:16:
Kit wrote:
go off masi! super interesting read & a rly interesting conversation. was surprised not to see the solovey swastika hands mentioned too but this wld be 10000x longer if u had to talk abt every problematic item lol
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Ausma wrote on 13-03 11:18:
Ausma wrote:
Thank You for that blog. I even don`t know... Mostly I don`t feel uncomfortable about  strange items (and try to make innocent looks with them :) ). For me blood/violance/illnesses related items are more inadmissible, then other subjects of discussion. Even if it`s Haloween related. Among all I have seen, I feel the biggest discomfort about https://en.virtualpopstar.com/clothing/avatarmanagement?x=possession_info&cloth_id=5879 (don`t even want to link it :) )
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Private wrote on 13-03 11:12:
Uhyre wrote:
MasileinDE wrote:
Lamb wrote:
isnt this a ballgag

well I'll be damned... thanks for finding that one, I definitely skipped it in my search. how come VP is stocked like the fetish aisle of a sex shop
its one of my fave items and the first i spent major money on here on lmao i immediately thought of it reading thru this
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MasileinDE wrote on 13-03 10:52:
MasileinDE wrote:
Annie wrote:
"If you get off on virtual blood, you don't need to look out for gore animes or mangas anymore - just come to VP and dress up as your own personal wank fantasy."

Best line ever written
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MasileinDE wrote on 13-03 10:51:
MasileinDE wrote:
Lamb wrote:
isnt this a ballgag

well I'll be damned... thanks for finding that one, I definitely skipped it in my search. :d how come VP is stocked like the fetish aisle of a sex shop :d
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MasileinDE wrote on 13-03 10:50:
MasileinDE wrote:
Acidreflux wrote:
i have bigger issues w the "sexualization" of female bodies than the rest, like blood? who cares. 
but the many bdsm items are gross imo.

I can get that, especially considering how much sexualised content it really pushed in our faces nowadays. 
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Annie wrote on 12-03 16:32:
Annie wrote:
"If you get off on virtual blood, you don't need to look out for gore animes or mangas anymore - just come to VP and dress up as your own personal wank fantasy."

Best line ever written
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Private wrote on 12-03 10:48:
Uhyre wrote:
isnt this a ballgag
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MasileinDE wrote on 12-03 08:57:
MasileinDE wrote:
Escobar wrote:
I fail to see how the newspapers are insensitive as well as halloween sets (that are supposed to be goreish and scary) 
(Could be because I study history  and is used to more..."inappropriate" content. )
However I think with the age range on vp people are more mature since from what i've gathered it's from 19-24 yr olds.
No one can control how a user dresses her avatar, so I feel like I can't be offended over how someone dresses their pixel doll. 

Yeah, in all fairness, the items on VP are rather tame considered what else is out there and how bad things can get. But I guess nonetheless the moment a bunch of people start to critique something, we should at least have a talk about it and explore the different sides to understand and see what is valid, why concerns are raised and how funded they are in the setting of this art.
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MasileinDE wrote on 12-03 08:55:
MasileinDE wrote:
Misdreavus wrote:
I don’t find any of these offensive. It’s a dress up site and I just see them as dress up outfits nothing more.
It’s just art in my opinion and yeah people have different interpretations of it but me personally, I’m not offended by it in any ways.

completely valid point to make and nothing I want to take away from anyone. and yes, definitely, if we go the art route, there isn't really anything that should be forbidden in its rightful context.

(this blog obviously isn't meant to show what people should think is offensive or inappropriate, but a collection of things that could just as easily offend and trigger as the newspaper in question. this is why most of these examples have been chosen based of a thread I made and how people questioned the setting there)
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MasileinDE wrote on 12-03 08:52:
MasileinDE wrote:
Callum wrote:
i think its a reach to say that 
some loose fitted jeans (with a g string underneath) and the regular vp base would possibly fall under "pro-ana"

the bruises? definitely a weird time for vp lol

The pro-ana discussion back then came up together with the other art Rats was making at that time and how she generally acted out in threads. It sure is a bit of a stretch, but I mean ... it clearly has nothing to do with overeating, I even doubt Rats was much inspired by the naughties trend of too tight jeans that Claire referenced. So yeah, definitely a stretch, but I think one fair to make in reference to what else was designed during that time (see the skins below as an example) and how the community looked at some moments.
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MasileinDE wrote on 12-03 08:48:
MasileinDE wrote:
Ouch wrote:
For me everything is fine tbh, I don't like being limited, both when designing and when creating looks (so long as its possible, it should be allowed). Not that I would make those types of designs myself very ofthen, but I just feel like ugh. 

I'm quite honest, most of the sets that are in game as such, I don't really mind them at all. I'm maybe no big fan of them, but I can see why others like them, I can understand the appeal of certain aesthetics and I certainly can understand why some might be bothered by it and others completely unfazed. And I'd say with most of the inappropriate cases it really came down to the users making sets that were clearly pushing the boundaries of the COC.
Though I have to say, I personally wouldn't make sets like that (again). There are a couple of things I personally never would make and the longer I reflect upon this, the more I realise that I don't want to cater to people who want to edge around what is appropriate and what is not. So I take the very deliberate choice as a designer to just not design anything anymore that could be used in a way I don't want it to. Does that mean I won't be making bloody Halloween sets? Absolutely. But it also means that I can venture into the classics of Wizard of Oz inspired Halloween things or maybe a Hocus Pocus one (though I still think that movie is ... well let's just say, I think it's a tad inappropriate in parts and I'm surprised Disney green-lit that and then proceeds to play the bigotry card 10 years later with newer works.)
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MasileinDE wrote on 12-03 08:41:
MasileinDE wrote:
Claire wrote:
honestly for me it's only suicide and self harm shit that really crosses the line. i've unfriended someone for using the bathtub item in the way you discuss in this essay. it's just so disrespectful and frankly i got triggered when i saw it lol. for the most part i'm okay with art pushing boundaries and even honestly crossing lines. almost everything i think is okay to express and roleplay a character. i think it's mostly okay to cross the line when expressing some kind of charachter with your avatar.

the newspaper thing just seemed in poor taste in the moment. it was too difficult to read the intent of the artist from seeing the images alone so it was easy to interpret it in negative ways. was it cute? was it to honor victims? was it supposed to be funny? there wasn't a clear intent. allie's dead bodies and such don't bother me because her intent reads so SO clearly and obviously to me as being homage to horror films and having nothing to do with any reality (in as much as a horror film has anything to do with reality which i suppose we could debate) when viewing the full sets. i think with the full set one should be able to read intent easily and clearly when approaching a potentially controversial item.

many old ratskeleton items are actually quite clearly and obviously meant to be edgy and offensive and related to self harm and this 'oh she has a food baby' line is quite clearly a REACH when viewing the full set as a single art peice. her excuse has nothing to do with the way the item is presented within the set as a whole. so her excuse reads to me quite clearly as BS. if the intent had anything to do with overeating this would have been reflected in the other items in the set. 

once upon a time bdsm style items in this game bothered me because the game was really advertising itself as being for teenagers but it doesn't advertise itself that way anymore and the site is clearly only home to young women. but it used to really bother me how much fetish gear there was in game. nowadays i'm bothered by children that make their way to this site because it's the children really who don't belong here and not the fetish gear that doesn't belong here at this point.

fetish gear also has a strong relationship with punk fashion and is hard to separate them. many young punks may not even realize what some of the leather they wear actually signifies. 

anyway those are some of my initial thoughts on this and i look forward to seeing this conversation continue.  this is almost too well researched and put together you know. 

I completely get the idea that art is a tool to liberate yourself from the world and explore all possibilities, feelings and histories without the need for being censored. Tiptoeing around the lines of decorum and what is appropriate is basically the whole history of art.

I totally agree that the intent of the designers should be on the forefront. If the designer's intent is questionable or very much purposefully triggering, then yeah, I get why it might not be the best choice for such an open space as VP. But like I already said with Nesta's comment, art doesn't exist in a dead space. You sure have the intentions and ideas of the artist, but you also have the interpretation and feelings it brings up with the viewers. While you can't dismiss what the artist intended, I also think you can't dismiss the reaction it causes for the viewers. And I don't mean that as a "oh, someone didn't like it, let's burn it down" way, but more of a "isn't the reception and interpretation part of the art just as much as the artistic intent and the art piece itself?". But I do get that that might be a bit too philosophical for something like designs on VP.

I think when it comes to those homages to horror movies (I mean, Allie's nun quite obviously is about the Conjuring series, as well as many of her other Halloween designs reference other very specific movies from this trope that even I, as someone who doesn't watch horror or Halloween movies, can identify) and fetish gear, it all kind of stands in the realm of what we personally consider to be horror or frightening and what we deem is erotic or overly sexual. So I get why someone would say if we say the average minimum age on VP is 17, then these items shouldn't ruffle as many feathers as with someone aged 14. It kind of works on VP, because the community is so small and younger users usually don't stick around, because they feel how unwelcome they are, especially if they don't comply to the general feeling of "maturity" (I don't know how else to say this) in the community. I guess my personal critique about the fetish gear for instance is the same as with the language and religious items: You should know what it means when wearing certain items and what message you show. That's a responsibility I have no qualms about pushing on someone adult. If they don't understand what it means that they're wearing, it's on them. But when it comes to kids, I find it rather questionable to say they have to educate themselves before wearing things (because let's be real, how many people think that far ahead before putting on something?). Plus with fetish gear you have the pop cultural aspect that you pointed out - something most Halloween sets have as well.

As for the bruising and especially the Rats sets, yeah, I do feel like they were very much the result of that edgy grunge aesthetic from 2014 that I was referencing. Although she started to make thougher looking outfits and faces afterwards, there was a demand for the cutesy look with bruises and blood on the face. And taking into account what other art she was making besides the VP designs and the aesthetic she was pursuing at the time, I do wonder how appropriate it really was back then and if it just fell through the cracks because that was the time Kaj and Miranda/Kim were going of the submussions, with one of them not giving a fuck at all about what happened to VP and the other quite clearly still being a kid herself. (Me saying this like being nearly 25 means I know shit about being an adult, but at least I do feel like I'm way more mature than I was at age 17/18 and I guess that's what counts.)
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MasileinDE wrote on 12-03 08:17:
MasileinDE wrote:
Nesta wrote:
Every time I've voiced my discomfort with items like these it have been dismissed due to the items already in-game  and that other users like it/see no issues with it. However, personally I don't like being reminded of death people, or romanticize abuse, harm and so on even if it is just a game. If it should be a free space then I don't understand why we're bringing so much with negative assosiations into it, and to this degree. (most  was already ig when I started.) now I am used to it and I won't critisise designers creative decitions ever again bc that seems to be a big no. 

Yeah, this is basically what I'd love to criticise about this the most. We have so many things already in game and in the system that bar from something hardcore racist, a clear violation of the COC when it comes to drugs, sexual content or self-harm basically everything can be excused and allowed based on the "we have similar stuff already, so what's the issue". And yeah, like I said, you won't ever make everyone happy. There's always someone who ends up being upset - either because they don't want these items in game or because they don't see the harm in these items. It's a balancing act trying to figure out what is the most appropriate for everyone and to find common grounds for such a diverse community.
I also don't think that raising the question as to why some things are made is necessarily a critique towards designers. Art rarely exists in a dead space, you always have influences, you have backgrounds and histories. Being able to explain and reason as to why someone made something should always be on the table. (And even if the explanation is: I need to make rent, this is something I can easily sell.) It doesn't absolve you from people questioning why you made something. Because art also doesn't stop with the artist and their intent, but gets carried further by the interpretation of the viewers.
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MasileinDE wrote on 12-03 08:10:
MasileinDE wrote:
BunnyButts wrote:
Thank you for making this ! I think its important to talk about designs that push things too far and t cant be hard because some people take it too personally 

I definitely think that there should be a discourse and I mean, it really is funny how in some instances death is ok and can be used as something else and in others death isn't even mentioned but the designers don't really get a chance to explain their design and people petition for it to be taken down. There really needs to first be a common ground for all designers and then we can discuss about how to work with potentially upsetting content.
Though in all fairness, I think that designers actually are the first instance of control. If they think their set is ok, it obviously goes over to the next person, but they are the first to decide their own boundaries and what they deem appropriate. The second a designer is forced to put something out they deem questionable, something went very much wrong.
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Pitbull wrote on 12-03 07:03:
Pitbull wrote:
I fail to see how the newspapers are insensitive as well as halloween sets (that are supposed to be goreish and scary) 
(Could be because I study history  and is used to more..."inappropriate" content. )
However I think with the age range on vp people are more mature since from what i've gathered it's from 19-24 yr olds.
No one can control how a user dresses her avatar, so I feel like I can't be offended over how someone dresses their pixel doll. 
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Private wrote on 12-03 02:05:
Misdreavus wrote:
I don’t find any of these offensive. It’s a dress up site and I just see them as dress up outfits nothing more.
It’s just art in my opinion and yeah people have different interpretations of it but me personally, I’m not offended by it in any ways.
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Private wrote on 12-03 02:03:
Claire wrote:
Another thought. I like having the bruises in game for when I make a tough fighter. A boxer or a street punk type. The sets they're on do seem to imply we're looking at DV victims though because of the context.  Like this sweet little girl hasn't been in a fair fight something appears to be wrong here. Were the bruises paired with boxing gloves or a baseball bat and a tough looking smile we could interpret the bruises different. If a set has bruises I'd like to be able to think "damn you should see the other guy tho"
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Private wrote on 12-03 00:50:
Claire wrote:
Callum wrote:
i think its a reach to say that x
some loose fitted jeans (with a g string underneath) and the regular vp base would possibly fall under "pro-ana"

the bruises? definitely a weird time for vp lol
There was a point in the 00s where people like Paris Hilton and other fashion setters would wear unbuttoned jeans as a style. Lol. Like it was just cool for your jeans to be too tight to button. 
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Callum wrote on 11-03 23:22:
Callum wrote:
i think its a reach to say that 
some loose fitted jeans (with a g string underneath) and the regular vp base would possibly fall under "pro-ana"

the bruises? definitely a weird time for vp lol
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Private wrote on 11-03 22:47:
Claire wrote:
tldr on my comment: the way an item reads within the context of a set should be the biggest factor in deciding what's ok to go in game.
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Private wrote on 11-03 22:45:
Ouch wrote:
For me everything is fine tbh, I don't like being limited, both when designing and when creating looks (so long as its possible, it should be allowed). Not that I would make those types of designs myself very ofthen, but I just feel like ugh. 
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Private wrote on 11-03 22:43:
Claire wrote:
honestly for me it's only suicide and self harm shit that really crosses the line. i've unfriended someone for using the bathtub item in the way you discuss in this essay. it's just so disrespectful and frankly i got triggered when i saw it lol. for the most part i'm okay with art pushing boundaries and even honestly crossing lines. almost everything i think is okay to express and roleplay a character. i think it's mostly okay to cross the line when expressing some kind of charachter with your avatar.

the newspaper thing just seemed in poor taste in the moment. it was too difficult to read the intent of the artist from seeing the images alone so it was easy to interpret it in negative ways. was it cute? was it to honor victims? was it supposed to be funny? there wasn't a clear intent. allie's dead bodies and such don't bother me because her intent reads so SO clearly and obviously to me as being homage to horror films and having nothing to do with any reality (in as much as a horror film has anything to do with reality which i suppose we could debate) when viewing the full sets. i think with the full set one should be able to read intent easily and clearly when approaching a potentially controversial item.

many old ratskeleton items are actually quite clearly and obviously meant to be edgy and offensive and related to self harm and this 'oh she has a food baby' line is quite clearly a REACH when viewing the full set as a single art peice. her excuse has nothing to do with the way the item is presented within the set as a whole. so her excuse reads to me quite clearly as BS. if the intent had anything to do with overeating this would have been reflected in the other items in the set. 

once upon a time bdsm style items in this game bothered me because the game was really advertising itself as being for teenagers but it doesn't advertise itself that way anymore and the site is clearly only home to young women. but it used to really bother me how much fetish gear there was in game. nowadays i'm bothered by children that make their way to this site because it's the children really who don't belong here and not the fetish gear that doesn't belong here at this point.

fetish gear also has a strong relationship with punk fashion and is hard to separate them. many young punks may not even realize what some of the leather they wear actually signifies. 

anyway those are some of my initial thoughts on this and i look forward to seeing this conversation continue.  this is almost too well researched and put together you know. 
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BunnyButts wrote on 11-03 22:06:
BunnyButts wrote:
Also its extra hurtful when designers defend the upsetting designs by trying to lighten the design and dismiss criticism. Such as saying a body is sunbathing
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BunnyButts wrote on 11-03 21:53:
BunnyButts wrote:
Thank you for making this ! I think its important to talk about designs that push things too far and t cant be hard because some people take it too personally