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The
3rd Asia Pacific Next Generation Camp: 「New
Relationship with the Net」--2003/2/20-21,
Taipei
Draft—do
not quote without author』s permission
Cyber
Sex: Sexuality, Youth, and Cyber Space
Josephine
Ho
Center
for the Study of Sexualities
National
Central University
Chungli,
Taiwan 320
sexenter.ncu@gmail.com
http://sex.ncu.edu.tw
It
is a great honor and pleasure for me to deliver this keynote
speech at a conference designed for the NET generation, a
generation that is growing up within an environment and a
lifestyle built around the use of digital media.
This new generation, along with its unpredictable but
fascinating developments, has attracted the interests of
educators and advertisers as well, although mostly for
purposes of better supervision or better manipulation.
And nowhere else are these intentions more obvious than
in the area of cyber sex.
World-class sociologist Anthony Giddens has described
the late-modern world as one in which personal life as well as
intimate relationships have become open and self-reflexive
projects that involve everyday social experiments by the
individual (8). And
nowhere else is this self-reflexivity and self-experimentation
more rigorously practiced than sexual liaisons on the net.
So my talk this morning will be devoted to laying out
these new formations of cyber sexuality as well as emerging
efforts to curb them. I
will concentrate especially on the individual-based rather
than the commercially operated sexual contacts on the net.
State
of 「Affairs」 in Sexual Cyber Space
It
is well-known that while such technologies of freedom were
first promoted by the state for politico-economic or military
purposes, the widespread usage of the French MINITEL and the
American ARPANET, both credited as forerunners of the
Internet, was to a great extent facilitated by none other than
their appropriation for purposes of erotic self-expression and
interpersonal sexual contact by the population (Castells
343-345). It has
been estimated that already more than 250 million people have
joined the e-population which, growing by more than 10 million
every month, is expected to multiply to one billion by the
year 2005. The
significant fact here is that as fast as this demography
expands, a new sexual revolution is also raging on the virtual
frontier of the internet, where personal anonymity and global
access provide seemingly unlimited opportunities for sexual
exploration. Erotic uses of the email, on-line chat rooms, interactive
webcams, or the newest haptic (sense of touch) technologies
have created a kaleidoscope of choices and channels through
which our deepest wishes, our darkest desires, and our
universal need to connect with others are constantly
negotiated and played out in this virtual space, transcending
boundaries of gender, age, nation, physical form, etc.
Youths in particular are seeking whatever sexual
knowledge or experiences that have long been denied them in
the 「real」 world, and the internet proves to be a powerful
tool for them to experiment with their dreams and desires.
Many
have defined 「cyber sex」 as a combination of communication
and masturbation, as one net citizen puts it, 「nothing more
than phone sex typed out on the internet,」 nothing more than
a selfish act of egoistic gratification.
Yet cyber sex has never been limited to such
rudimentary acts that quench simple biological urges.
Sex in cyber space has always included various forms of
flirtation, role-playing, fantasy enactment, etc., which may
or may not culminate in heterosexual cyber sex but definitely
calls for intense interaction among the parties involved.
And while the combination of the internet with the cell
phone has made it all the more convenient for the individual
to establish as well as manage multiple relationships, webcams
and broadband services have helped make cyber sex an
increasingly stimulating activity that increasingly
approximates real-life relationships.
Yet, sex in cyber space is not necessarily a paired
activity, as evidenced by erotic activities in the multi-user
dungeons/domains (better known as MUDs).
Nor is it a simple imagined experience.
Recent cyber sex toys promise to enrich cyber sexual
experience by letting the person on the other end stimulate
some of their net-mate's body parts.
Special cyber-sex commodities—including the
「virtual sex machine」 that allows a remote party to
manipulate sex toys attached to the home party, or the 「all
body cyber sex suit」 with multiple sensation sensors, or the
computer controlled life-like sex dolls with special
motor-driven organs—are all creating new dimensions for
cyber sex that may transform our commonsensical understanding
of the erotic act. The
sensorial channel can feel surfaces, edges, and even
temperatures; and promises to compliment the sound and
feedback modalities already widely used in current virtual
simulations. Even
though these devices may not have been created particularly
with cyber sex in mind, most likely they will be adapted for
erotic purposes as soon as they become available.
One
important force that has made cyber sex all the more palatable
to the young net citizens is the fast changing sexual
attitudes of today』s youths.
A survey done in 2000 reveals that 60% of Taiwanese
college co-eds get on the internet mainly because they want to
make friends, in particular, to develop net romances.
About 40% of them actively pursue one-night stands on
the net—among them, women number just as many as if not more
than men. About
24% express interest in conducting or having already conducted
the increasingly popular form of compensated companionships
(or what is better known in Japan as enjo-kosai).
In 2001, the same trend still holds, with women』s
interest in net romance rising steadily. A 2002 survey reveals that almost 30% net users have had
「real-life」 sex with their internet acquaintances.
Those who approve one-night stands have also risen to
46%. In the
meantime, new forms of intimate relationships, such as net
marriages, are also developing.
It is estimated that in Taiwan alone, 50,000 net citizens
have established some sort of net marriages, helped especially
by role-playing internet games that provide the marriage
function. Mainland
China is reported to have more than 100,000 net couples who
have registered their net marriages with various websites
(source: China Times 2002-10-14). As internet liaisons are increasingly used to compensate for
the restrictions and repressions of erotic life in the real
world, a new sex revolution is obviously in the air.
Sexual
Identities and Communities on the Net
When
one acknowledges the proliferation of sexual tools and
activities in cyber space, and the changing sexual attitudes
of the net generation, one must not lose sight of the fact
that these have from the very beginning transcended the scope
of mainstream sexual norms of reproductive heterosexuality.
In fact, practitioners of all kinds of so-called sexual
deviations and perversions have found for the first time
fertile ground for existence and self-empowerment in the cyber
world. Many have
even found political voice in internet exchanges: in Taiwan as
well as in other areas, it is through the growing availability
of cyber technologies and services that marginal subjects have
found or founded their communities.
The numerous sexually-oriented bulletin board systems
and chat rooms cannot even begin to reflect the immense
diversity of sexual interests and tastes that are now
permeating cyber space. New
forms of identity as well as intimate liaisons are being
created all the time. Be
it sexually active women, teenage and adult homosexuals,
closeted and open bisexuals, people with multiple sex
partners, part-time or full-time sex workers, learning or
practicing S/Mers, cross-generation lovers, devout nudists,
hard-line body modificationists, etc.—all have found a new
means of communication to build their solidarity through the
internet. New
information is disseminated, new pleasures are exchanged, new
debates are waged. The
internet has become a most important channel through which
individuals are fashioning their identities and embodiments,
and the identities and embodiments serve to further affirm and
support their sexual practices and discourses.
New sexual communities, new sexual counter cultures and
sexual counter discourses, and even new hybrid sexual subjects
announce the arrival of an unprecedented vibrant sex
revolution.
In
the case of Taiwan with which I am more familiar, the internet
has proved to be a most powerful tool for organizing and
politicizing sexual minorities—gays and lesbians in
particular. Coming
out has become much more manageable and open through
rehearsals on the internet; various sexual closets have been
replaced by open discussions and exchanges.
In the past two years, transgender persons have also
built up enough rapport on the internet that they are now
meeting regularly and discussing plans to start a hotline for
the differently gendered.
In other words, contacts established in virtual reality
are now taking active steps to change the 「real」 world.
Furthermore,
the specific qualities of cyber space liaisons make it
possible for identities to be, as many gender/sexuality
theoreticians put it, truly 「fluid.」
That is, identities are no longer fixed or innate, but
actively 「assumed,」 taken up, fashioned and performed,
mixed and matched, and eventually given up only to assume a
series of other gender/sexual identities.
Nowhere else is this identity formation process more
actively carried out on the Internet.
I recently attended a conference where a young
Taiwanese gay detailed how cyber drag queens flirted with
existing categories of gender and sexuality by representing
femininity in such a way that it made masculinity look very
queer, and the drag queens successfully established various
kinds of erotic relationships with partners of all genders in
the cyber world through this form of gender performativity
(Lin).
When
anthropologist Cleo Odzer wrote her book Virtual Spaces:
Sex and the Cyber Citizen (1997), the use of the term
「cyber citizen」 in the book title carries profound
implications for sexual minorities.
For the internet promises a utopia where sexual stigma
and oppression would be replaced by full citizenship in a more
equal and free world. And
the daily practices of net citizens are to a more or less
degree working toward realizing such a utopia.
Interactive
Technologies and Intimate Relationships
If
sexual practices and alternative discourses about them are
proliferating on the internet, if sexual contacts are being
established among people who would have never been able to
hook up with one another in the 「real」 world, if the
fluidity and politicization of sexual identities are now being
forged on the internet, then how would net citizens』
experiences with cyber sexuality and related issues affect
their intimate relationships?
This is an often speculated question.
Much
warning has been levied by those who worry about the impact of
the new medium and technology, and many have reiterated the
observation that members of the net generation seem to have
loose morals and a strong indifference toward one-to-one
relationships when it comes to sex.
Yet, such characteristics of contemporary intimate
contacts are not necessarily 「created」 or 「brought on」
by cyber technology; in fact, they can at best be said to have
been 「facilitated」 by the use of new technologies such as
the internet and the cell phone.
Anthony Giddens, among others, has already noted that
late modern intimate relationships are marked by unprecedented
independence and equality cultivated by none other than recent
developments in the capitalistic mode of production and a
highly individualized consumer-oriented economy.
With such strong individuality, maintaining an intimate
relationship, where compromises are demanded and frequent, is
becoming a formidable task for many who would now rather
terminate a dysfunctional relationship than making every
effort to stick with it.
Serial monogamies or multiple relationships have thus
become commonplace. The
internet and the cell phone only function to facilitate the
management of such volatile connections.
In addition, people are now entering intimate
relationships with a different set of expectations: they may
still harbor dreams of perfect loyalty, but at the same time
the hazard of possible affairs is widely acknowledged.
Such
characteristics in the personality and style of the net
generation have been well-noted by researchers such as Don
Tapscott and it is believed that such developments may very
well impact on the overall formation of intimate
relationships. For
one thing, cyber space is participatory space, and the
emphasis is no longer on the passive reception of information
but on the search--which the net generation control.
On the net, blessed are those who take the initiative
to locate or create possibilities.
Our world of highly customized products and services,
plus a highly customized net environment shaped by the
individual, have made net citizens all the more
individualized. They tend to value independence and autonomy much more than
the previous generation and they value individual freedoms and
rights. The right
to be left alone. The
right to privacy. The
right to have and express their own views.
The right to change their minds with one click of the
mouse. Likewise,
they have developed more emotional and intellectual openness,
as well as free expression and strong views.
Such transformations in individuality and the shifting
boundaries of personhood are bound to impact upon the
formation of intimate relationships, a formation that to a
more or less extent demands the blurring of personal
boundaries.
These
new formations of the self are changing not only the nature of
intimacy but also the way people negotiate sexual contacts.
Instead of being timid and silent about their sexual
desires and needs, as the older generation were brought up to
be, the net generation tend to be quite direct and clear about
what they want. Intentions
and specificities in taste were communicated without much
reservation, and rejections are brushed aside with only mild
frustration as they do not carry the dire consequences and
humiliations that often accompany frustrated real-life
invitations. After
all, there are thousands of other possibilities on the
internet waiting to be explored.
Of
course not every member of the net generation has attained the
degree of ease that sex liberationists dream of. Still, the frequency and availability of sexual encounters on
the internet do make it easier for people to deal with sexual
failures or successes.
New
Forces of Control over Cyber Sex
Historically,
all forms of new media face suspicion and are liable to be
subjected to excessive regulation as they spark fears of the
potential power of transgression that the new media may incur.
The invention of television triggered decades of debates over
its dangers and harmful influences on the young.
Now, the Internet is receiving the same kind of
treatment, exception in a much stronger fashion.
Various attempts to censor and control its content have
been proposed in different countries and new devices of
screening and monitoring are being developed and marketed all
over the world. Parents,
teachers and other adults seem to be extremely frightened by
the fact that the powerful new tools of this digital age are
in the hands of their children while adults themselves are
left out of the game.
Interestingly,
while censorship in previous centuries focused upon the
political content of communication; for our day and age,
censorship and control of internet communication in most
countries concentrated on its sexual content.
And the urge to control, fueled by the adults』
realization of their own ineptness when it comes to new
technologies, is so strong that the imposed legislations
usually extend to cover a very broad area.
To
begin with an obvious example.
The US Communications Decency Act was passed in
February 1996. It
imposed broadcast-style content regulations on the open,
decentralized Internet, severely restricting the right to
freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the US
Constitution. While
child pornography, obscenity, or using the Internet to stalk
children are already illegal under law, the CDA flatly
prohibits the posting of any "indecent" or
"patently offensive" materials in a public forum on
the Internet--including web pages, newsgroups, chat rooms, or
online discussion lists. This would not only include the texts of classic fiction such
as J. D. Salinger』s Catcher in the Rye and James
Joyce』s Ulysees, but also any open discussions,
negotiations, or exchanges of experience of cyber sex—as
they may very well be considered offensive and indecent by
some people if not by all.
This legislation thus threatened the very existence of
the Internet as a means of free expression, education, and
political discourse. After
much debate and public outcry, the US Supreme Court in a
landmark 1997 decision ruled that the Internet is a unique
medium entitled to the highest protection under the free
speech protections of the First Amendment. This gives the Internet the same free speech protection as
print and the outcome of this case will have a tremendous
impact on the future of the First Amendment in the information
age.
Legislations
that monitor and regulate sexual speech on the internet had
also been proposed in Taiwan but they began from a place far
away from the internet. To
prevent the highly-profiled problem of the trafficking of
aborigine teenage girls into forced prostitution, religious
women』s groups had begun working on establishing a special
by-law by 1993, a legislation that would include prosecuting
advertising through any medium that lures young girls into
selling sex for money. During
the course of these efforts, the nature of teenage
prostitution was also changing dramatically.
Increasing numbers of teenagers are starting their own
sex trade, mostly through voluntary part-time sex work, better
known as compensated companionship (enjo-kosai in
Japanese). As the
internet is increasingly used in setting up communication
channels between the young and other age groups, the final
version of the by-law was amended in 1999 so that anyone found
to transmit through electronic signals messages that may be
interpreted as 「hinting」 at promoting or incurring sex for
money (be it involving teenagers or non-teenagers, self or
others) is liable to be sentenced to imprisonment under five
years plus up to $1 million in fine.
Incidentally,
just to give you some idea of the disproportionate severity of
this penalty--if you are caught with your pants down in bed in
a love hotel doing sex for money, the penalty is three days
detention by Taiwanese Maintaining Social Order Law.
But if you post a message that vaguely refers to sex
for money, you are liable to be sentenced to up to five years
imprisonment and up to $1 million in fine according to this
Prevention of Child and Teenager Prostitution Bi-Law.
Furthermore, the police merit for solution of such
cases is six times higher than catching a common criminal.
That』s why in the past two years, many a Taiwanese
police devoted most of their law and order efforts to
entrapping net citizens who might consent to sex for money
requests by police sting operations, or those whose postings
on the internet looked suspicious of being involved in such
monetary exchanges for sexual services.
Over a thousand cases have been brought to court and
many young students have suffered the stigma and punishment,
not because they have actually conducted any form of sex work,
but simply because they have posted some messages on the net
that were interpreted as such. Human rights groups are protesting that such a by law is a
serious violation of our basic right to freedom of speech, not
to mention freedom to associate.
As
the Taiwanese by-law functions to prohibit the use of the
internet for negotiating sexual contacts and in some cases
sexual transactions, Japanese legislators in the meantime are
considering imposing laws prohibiting the use of cell phones
to conduct negotiations in enjo-kosai.
Other countries and other governments are also working
to infringe upon communication on the internet.
The important thing here is that the enforcement of
such prohibition measures rarely makes any distinction between
regular socializing interactions and money-oriented sexual
transactions. And
the truth of the matter is: discussions of transaction may not
lead up to transaction at all. And to punish people simply for their sexual speech on the
internet or the sexual interest they demonstrated on the
internet is just as unreasonable and undemocratic as punishing
people simply for their political dissidence.
What is being punished is actually sexual dissidence.
Freedom
of expression constitutes one of the essential foundations of
a democratic society, one of the basic conditions for its
progress. And the
internet, as an expanding domain of social exchange, offers us
a wonderful chance to create new modes of interaction and a
new ethics for intimate relationships in the digital age.
In that sense, unwarranted censorship and policing of
the internet needs to be resisted at all costs.
Sexual
Dissidence in Cyber Space
Cyber
sex is changing our definition of and attitudes towards sex,
but internet technologies would not have brought forth the sex
revolution we are witnessing today without the various and
diverse sexual practices that numerous net citizens have
invented and created and practiced on the internet day and
night. They
stayed up later than the net monitors, they slept less than
the net police, they are much more creative and imaginative
than net authorities. Many
cyber sex practitioners have become sex dissidents or sex
liberationists because their sexual practices are being
targeted by the authorities.
Yet in their measures to uphold their basic rights,
they are trying their best to maintain our right to anonymity,
our right to freedom of speech, our right to freely
disseminate information, our right to free association, our
right to resist stigma against marginal sexualities, etc.
As such, some of these pioneers have suffered
imprisonment or other punishments because of these practices,
and their sufferings make up a recent chapter in the history
of sexual oppression.
These
sex dissidents often create new alternative discourses from
their own sexual practices and from the debates they waged
against other net citizens.
These alternative discourses about sex express strong
resistance against existing sexual morality and sexual
attitudes, reinterpreting the significance and meaning of sex
as well as gender, sexual orientation, personal identity, etc.
in the virtual world. And
such reflections and reinterpretations of their own
alternative sexual practices have provided net citizens with a
wealth of different sexual views and values that serve to
enrich existing erotic culture.
The
Internet is a social, cultural, commercial, educational and
entertainment global communications system whose legitimate
purpose is to benefit and empower online users, while lowering
the barriers to the creation and the distribution of
expressions throughout the world.
As virtual reality technology advances, cyber sex will
be on the cutting edge of opening up more space for differing
views and practices. As
privacy and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights
recognized in all major international and regional agreements
and treaties, the respect for human rights should also include
respect for freedom of expression, and respect for privacy of
communications and personal data.
And all the more in the new world created by erotic
uses of cyber technologies.
Works
Cited
Castells,
Manuel. The
Rise of the Network Society.
The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol.
1. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1996.
Giddens,
Anthony. The
Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in
Modern Societies. Cambridge:
Polity, 1992.
Lin,
Dennis Chwen-der. 「Taiwanese
Cyber-Drag-Queens Representing Effeminacies: Queering Male
Subjectivity in Cyberspace.」 Paper
presented at the 2002 Cultural Studies Conference on
「Revisiting East Asia: Global, Regional, National, and Other
Citizenships」, 2002-12-14, Tung-Hai University, Taiwan.
Odzer,
Cleo. Virtual
Spaces: Sex and the Cyber Citizen.
New York: Berkley Books, 1997.
Tapscott,
Don. Growing
Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
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