Yet another story about sexual impropriety on Second Life, with some interesting points. First, the continued presence of such stories suggests their normalization. It's no longer shocking to read about cyber-mediated infidelity.
Second, although many such stories retain the "virtual"/"real" dichotomy, they increasingly recognize the blur between the two. Notice this reason for the cheated-on feeling outraged:
The other woman says, "There's a huge trust between us. We'll tell each other everything."
The emotional connection is simply asserted, without reiterating the mediating layer.
Third, there's a historicity to this sort of thing, and a touch of irony:
The husband met his real wife online in the first place.
Fourth, although most of this is generic to digitally networked applications of all sorts, there is one Second Life-specific touch:
His virtual avatar is all about lingerie, nude dancers, and redheads, which is fake wife is but his real wife isn't
Sexual misbehavior, depending on participants' and/or reporters' mores, has long been a staple of cyberspace Gothic.
(thanks to Rob Vega -- Reference Librarian -- Valparaiso University)
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