Diversity and the Nature of the Internet

The Internet connects people of diverse sexual proclivities. People who once felt perverse and isolated can now connect with others who have similar desires.

• Porn of many flavors
  • Wired Article - "Pornucopia of Posteriors"
    
• Newsgroups for just about every fetish

Who's Online?

Studies by Al Cooper at SJSU:

"Almost half the women in Cooper's study said chat rooms - online person-to-person discussions - were their favorite forum for cybersex, compared to just 23 percent who said they preferred pictures. The numbers were almost exactly reversed for men." - "Cybersex Addiction Said Spreading," ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer


Wired News - Internet Sex Not So Hot

ZDNet - Modem love: sex and the Net (women and cybersex)

Anonymity and Multiple Selves

With anonymity, people are more apt to express their true, sometimes undiscovered or dormant, desires that would otherwise be hidden because of social unacceptability and fear of negative judgment. *

"The lure of cybersex, speakers at the conference said, is its anonymity. Shy women, closeted gay men and image-conscious corporate executives believe acting out fantasies online is safe." - "Cybersex Addiction Said Spreading," ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer



"In these "rooms" people can jump on and join a room and type text in real time with other people. They can be themselves, but more often than not, the people are playing a role. They are transforming themselves into something that they wish they COULD be - or perhaps they are truly being who they are but cannot be that way in Real Life out of fear. Whatever is the truth, they are not as they would be if you met them on the street. That is the true power and destruction of this medium. People fall in love with images painted with deceit - even if the deceit is unintentional. As you will see from my story, the deceit associated with on-line life runs rampant and is very destructive to the psyche of many unwary participants. " - Dr. Mad's Kiss & Tell Page

"The multiple selves that users of online chat rooms experiment with online are part of a whole self. Experimentation with these selves is possible, at present, only within the narrow-bandwidth space on online chat rooms...In the conclusion of this paper, it is argued that we can only resist becoming cyborgs if we can fix the repressive `real world' society that keeps us from experimenting with our multiplicity of selves. Until we live in a society where it is safe to freely experiment with sexuality, and with gender (a social construct), we will be forced to become cyborgs." - "Cyborgasms: Cybersex Amongst Multiple-Selves and Cyborgs in the Narrow-Bandwidth Space of America Online Chat," a Master's thesis by Robin Hamman

• Wired Magazine - "Sex, Lies, and Cyberspace: Online, no one knows you're a dog. Or a male. Or a 13-year-old girl."
  
  
• Sherry Turkle: identity isn't fixed but variable and fluid
  Wired Magazine - "Sex, Lies and Avatars: Sherry Turkle knows what role-playing in cyberspace really means. A profile"
  
  
• Sandy Stone*