Second Life throws off the most interesting controversies, doesn’t it?  I recently read about the latest dust-up over an artist who designed a series of custom female skins that include heavy bruising.  The designer, Gala Phoenix of Curio, named her series “Battle Royale,” referencing the cult Japanese film where teenage schoolgirls end up beating the crud out of each other in order to survive. 

I can say this for certain: seeing the bruised avatar skins is startling.  Second Life blogger Iris Ophelia illustrates her post on the subject with bruised avatars in two different contexts: as fashion models (the first set of pictures), and as an avenging angel returned from some pitched supernatural battle (the second picture).  The visible bruising is shocking in both cases, but for entirely different reasons.

Gala Phoenix designed her skins to depict a bad-ass female who had been personally engaged in physical combat.  This is unusual, is it not?  My first thought was, “Women don’t get bruised in movie fights.”  My second thought was, “Well, neither do men.”  Think about everything that Ellen Ripley goes through, and all of Sarah Conner’s travails, and neither ends up with more than minor smudging.  But then again, that is true of their male cohorts as well.

In the case of the fashion model context, the message is far more ambiguous and disturbing.  Stripped of the warrior context, we are forced to really think about what we are seeing, and what it might mean.  I found this confrontation to be difficult, and it led me to contemplate statistics (one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime) and secrecy (in which case, why aren’t visible bruises more commonplace?).  The shame of being trapped in an abusive relationship leads victims to cover up with makeup, to wear long sleeves, to don turtleneck sweaters out of season, to wear sunglasses in inappropriate contexts.

Considering the sad prevalence of domestic violence, the real surprise is how unusual these bruised avatars look.

One of the commenters on the post I first read about this says, “Just as we have had "heroin chic," now it seems we are to be treated to "abuse chic."  Someone later references “victim chic,” which is part of the appeal of anorexia, the appearance of being delicate and in need of saving.  (Also, the Twilight series.) 

A horrible thought, but borne out by another blog post on the Battle Royale skins, which seems to be treating them as transgressive decoration, pictured on a delicate and helpless model. 

Of course, if you want to get all meta on the discussion, you can point out that these skins probably wouldn’t raise an eyebrow if they were for male avatars.  This is partly because, while men are certainly the targets of domestic abuse (generally among homosexual couples, although physical abuse of the male partner does happen in heterosexual couples as well), it isn’t perceived to be nearly as big a problem as that of “battered women.”  (That phrase always makes me think of fish and chips, although that’s neither here nor there.)

One thing is certain: wearing these skins in Second Life would be a real conversation starter, for better or worse.