One of the recurring topics in our discussion of embodiment is the representation of age and how there are no “old skins” available in SL. The discussion usually revolves around one central notion — that people don’t make “old skins” because there is no market for them. The perception is that people won’t buy them, so the makers of skins don’t bother to make them. That’s an interesting question by itself, but the fundamental assumption — Age is represented by Wrinkly Skin — seems to me to be flawed, overly generalized, and much too narrow.

It appears to be predicated on the assumption that people don’t want to “look old.” I think this may be overly simplistic. As one of the senior members of the group (at 54), there was not any kind of conscious decision to pick a shape and skin that “looked young” rather I sought shapes and skins that — if not accurately reflecting my RL body, at least reflected a male, Caucasian in late middle age. This was not a conscious decision on my part, but rather a sense of “but *that’s* not *me*” whenever I saw the wide-shouldered, narrow hipped, flat belly and butt which represents the youthful male shape in SL. Instead, I wound up with a rather narrow shouldered, moderately muscled, slightly bottom heavy shape and a dark skin — as if I’d been working in the fields all my life.

So in the absence of wrinkly skins, how does one represent “age”?