Watching Paint Dry (somewhat NSFW)

Sometimes SL events are like watching paint dry. Wait for things to rez. More people arrive. More waiting for them to rez. There's the lag, there's the series of comments and asides that scroll across the screen, and the "we want the show" feeling that even multitasking does not completely push aside.

On Saturday afternoon, Miss Vaneeesa Blaylock and 26 young ladies performed Miss Blaylock's VB03 - Veinticinco Mujeres, in the gazebo of Oxbridge Village.

Foreground: Miss Blaylock

The idea seemed to be that larger women - described as "beautiful, Rubenesque women" are "as refreshing as they are powerful and graceful," in Miss Blaylock's words on her Journal. Fair enough: most women in SL are impossibly skinny.

A backside view

As I gathered, these women were in Oxbridge Village to celebrate the diverse body types of women by showing up wearing nothing but a pair of shoes. Two small problem and one big problem:

The troupe at attention

First, not everyone got the memo (or, more likely, did not care to be seen nude in an area filled with noobs) (I resisted the temptation to write "did not care to show their boobs to noobs"), and wore bikinis, lingerie, or accessories. No big deal, as we all got the message.

I look on, safely behind a big tree

Second, the "performance" seemed to involve the ladies standing there. For more than a half-hour. After waiting - and waiting, and waiting - for additional action, I left the scene. But standing on poseballs does not a performance make.

And for the big finale...the ladies stand still

However, the big problem was that we were mainly celebrating the very problem the artist chose to highlight: tall, skinny women. The performers were 100% white (though skin tone ranged from vampire pale to well-tanned) and nearly 100% skinny (one zaftig woman was in the back row). Diversity of appearance came through hair color and style. Not that I have a problem with it; as I wrote the other day, one of the happy parts of SL is the ability to look better than one does every day. But the idea of watching a sim-ful of nearly naked women stand still for a half hour isn't even a particularly good way to celebrate tall, skinny girls.

Count me confused.