ABSTRACT
This chapter looks briefly at some feminist theorising that engages with the implications of new technologies and, in particular, the technologies of ‘cyberspace’. The expanses of virtual reality and cyberspace may seem to offer new freedoms for ‘travellers’ who feel frustrated or limited by their real life (RL) bodies and the world they inhabit. ‘Virtual sex’ like other forms of ‘virtual’ activities remains textual and therefore is not risky to the body in the way that sex between bodies in RL can be. While a great deal of attention is paid to the relationship of the RL body to the virtual personae in the cyberspace theory, a number of writers point out that the material bodies and lives of those producing the base technologies is often erased totally or glossed over. Allucquere Roseanne Stone discusses the ‘reality’ of virtual space for some users and the ways in which a virtual experience of boundaries being crossed can create long-term real-life effects.
