SL as the wild west?

I had an interesting conversation with someone at METC today regarding Second Life. She observed that SL right now is a lot like the wild west. If you do a search for casino, brothel, or similarly themed synonyms in SL you get a LOT of results. That seems to parallel what we read happened in the cow towns on the western frontier in the 1800s. Lots of saloons, lots of gambling, and lots of entertainment for lonely cowboys with money and time to burn.

Those “elements” seem to have preceded more “civilized” society as the central plains of the United States were eventually “settled.” That process involved lots of things, but included the killing or forced relocation of Native Americans to Oklahoma or other reservations. It also involved demographic changes, notably the presence of more women. I remember reading somewhere that the frontier could be demographically defined by the very low percentage of women living there. Anyone know what the demographic stats are for SL, male vs female? Maybe we’re going to see a similar evolution of inhabitants and activities in SL?

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