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Being ‘Sexy’

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Cyberpsychology as Everyday Digital Experience across the Lifespan

Abstract

Focusing on the consensual use of the internet for sexual pleasure and enjoyment among adults, this chapter explores cybersex as a reciprocal sexual interaction mediated by the internet. Technological affordances such as anonymity, disembodiment, and non-proximate intimacy are examined in relation to two key related questions: Is cybersex ‘real sex’? and Does cybersex transcend the body? The chapter argues that cybersex can offer new opportunities to play with, experiment or try out sexualities in relatively risk-free ways, but also evoke new obligations and requirements. Virtual spaces can operate as liminal spaces, as spaces betwixt and between reality and fantasy which users can exploit to their own satisfaction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

    Dave Harley, Julie Morgan & Hannah Frith

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  1. Dave Harley
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  2. Julie Morgan
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  3. Hannah Frith
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Correspondence to Dave Harley .

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Harley, D., Morgan, J., Frith, H. (2018). Being ‘Sexy’. In: Cyberpsychology as Everyday Digital Experience across the Lifespan. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59200-2_5

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