Between the image and the act : interactive sex entertainment on the Internet

M. Kibby, B. Costello

An analysis of participation in adult video-conferencing on the internet reveals a subversion of traditional relations between the image and the act in pornography, providing an 'interactive' sex entertainment which is both representation (or image) and presentation (or act). CU-SeeMe offers an experience that is at the same time both image and act, creating a space that accommodates multiple and fluid roles, allowing the positions of spectator and spectacle to be freely exchanged, and rewriting active/passive gender relations. In proposing that interactive CU-SeeMe sex entertainment blurs the boundaries between image and act, this article suggests that online interactive sex entertainment allows for the possibility of rewriting codes of sexuality.