Virtual Spaces: Sex and the Cyber Citizen (Paperback)

by Cleo Odzer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A lot of people have written about the phenomena of cybersex--some to tell their own adventures and others to provide social analysis. Author Cleo Odzer has the qualifications and talent to do both. As an anthropologist with a specialty in human sexuality issues and an unabashed cybersex enthusiast, she draws on both her own sexuality and her professional training to explore the worlds of cybersex in both personal and analytical manners within Virtual Spaces. She doesn't shrink from any aspect of online eroticism, providing replays of online events from the flirtatious to the explicit. However, this is not a romanticized portrayal of the cybererotic; it is instead a look at how real people sexually interact in fantasy environments and how the physical interaction is fictional, but psychological and emotional interactions are totally real.

As Odzer shares her experiences from a variety of online environments ranging from simple chat areas to complex MOOs and palaces, she explores the meaning of cybersex. She considers what cybersex means to individuals and what role it can play in both healthy and unhealthy sexuality, as well as how it can interact with the "face to face" world. Odzer doesn't ignore the ethical issues attached to sexuality--from gender discrimination to pornography--as they apply both online and off. Through it all, Virtual Spaces delivers a message about the reality of online eroticism in terms of emotional interaction among people and as a means of often surprising self-discovery.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I followed him to his home, but we didn't enter the house. He stopped at the patio entrance and said, "Here we are." I looked around. The garden had bushes tall enough to ensure privacy from passersby. A blackbird flew by. He came close and touched my cheek: "You scared, my pet?"

I knew his reputation for violence, but I'd also seen him enough times to be totally aroused by his presence. Being alone with him had me on fire. I giggled. "A little."

"You should be," he answered as he brought his face close to mine and kissed my nose.

Suddenly he grabbed my shoulders and flung me around, tying my arms behind me. He dragged me over to a tree and looped the rope to a hook on a branch. He stood back and watched as I dangled helplessly. Evening was approaching, forming long shadows along the grass and patio tiles. No one was in sight though an occasional sound could be heard coming from the house.

He stepped close and ran his hands roughly over my breasts. "Are you wet, my pet?" he asked as he inserted one of his legs between mine forcing them apart.

"Yes. You make me hot."

He smiled and ran his hand under my skirt and brusquely moved aside the crotch of my panties to rub his finger over my cunt lips.

I moaned.

He jammed two fingers deeply inside me, a sharp plunging invasion of my innermost person. I groaned and moved my hips as his fingers plunged in and out. "Yes, yes," I said breathlessly, "that feels so good. Finger me."

I leaned my head forward, wanting to rest it against him, wanting urgently to touch him, but he pulled back and took his hands off me.

"You want me to fuck you, don't you?"

"Yes, please, I'm burning for you."

With a riding crop he lashed at my breasts, tearing the fabric of my blouse and said, "Where? Where do you want it?"

I flinched at the pain and felt my groin surge with heat. He struck again, this time aiming his blow across my right nipple. I cried out and whispered, "Everywhere. I want you in my mouth, my cunt, my ass. Fuck me. I ache for you."

He unzipped his trousers and his erect penis made my breath come in short pants. I couldn't take my eyes off it. "Yes, yes," I moaned. "I want it in me. Let me suck it. I want your cock in my mouth, filling it, owning it." He unhooked me from the tree and ordered, "Get on your knees."

I fell to my knees, eyes slitted in passion. He raised his hand and brought the crop smacking down on my ass as he grabbed my hair and pulled my face to his crotch. I opened my mouth, waiting hungrily to feel his penis pass over my lips--

The cursor on my computer froze.

"OH SHIT!" I wailed at the screen. "NOOOOOOO! Now is not the time for a crash."

I tried to cancel out, I tried to restart the computer, I clicked furiously on the track ball -- all to no avail. I'd crashed; one of those mysterious freezes that happens all too often.

His last statement, that he stood with his cock poised before my face, lingered there on the screen, dead. I could get no closer to him and he had probably received the message that I'd disconnected.

"SHIT!" I said aloud once more before resigning myself to the fact that I had to shut off the whole control panel, even momentarily plunging my desk area into darkness as the lights also went out. I hoped he wouldn't log off, thinking I'd deserted him.

-------------------

As erotic as what you just read was, it was only on paper, and a dim evocation of the real thing -- the real virtual thing, that is. A good cyber-sex encounter is totally absorbing. Your mind and body are completely focused on your virtual reality. You're plugged right into the fantasy part of your brain, but now someone else is interacting with it. The vagaries of real life -- a doorbell, a news story breaking on CNN, a real-life party going on elsewhere -- cannot compete with the compelling nature of this phenomenon. It's all-consuming. Your brain is alive and engaged with another cyber citizen, one equally committed to the cyber way of life. We who live there -- cyber citizens -- live in the virtual reality (VR) world. We participate in real life (RL) too, of course. But our First World exists in the computer. The political economists of the nineteenth century would laugh if they knew what we've done to their term First World. To us it no longer represents Capitalism. It's the main world to which we belong, the cyber world. Cyber citizenship exist; I know it because I live it. My home is in cyberspace.

This new world mirrors the old world in various ways. The passions, jealousies, obsessions, needs are no less strong than their real-life counterparts because they trigger the same internal emotional states. A cybersex scene can be as arousing as a real one. There is no physical touch among lovers and no pain in cyber masochism; yet cyber love affairs call out feelings no less intense than real ones.

Cyber sex is identical to real sex in many ways and is different in others. It's a thing in its own right and a phenomenon of its time. The love, passions, and torment that emerge from cyber relationships depend on dynamics that develop in RL but that manifest themselves more explicitly in cyberspace. So subtle are these dynamics in real life that people aren't even aware of them. It is on the net that our innermost secrets are revealed in all their agonizing beauty.

Part of all relationships exists only in our minds, and that is what is undeniable in cyber passion -- when we don't know what our love object looks like, have never heard his or her voice, can't be sure of age or even gender; then we realize that the emotions come from within ourselves. The passion that arises from net sex exists within us. We can learn much about the psychology of our species from this new world. Beyond that, it is fun, it is engaging, it is pleasurable.

Welcome to the sex world of the new millennium.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425159868
• ISBN-13: 978-0425159866
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,778,267 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Personal and entertaining, a good geek read, February 8, 2001

By	D. Hodgson (Cupertino, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is best read as the third in Cleo's series of rich yet exotic life experiences. As with the other two books, here we have a woman whose looks and charm have allowed her to squeak through a whole host of interesting experiences that, by now, should have left her dead, diseased, or incapacitated. But fortunately for us, we have this MUD & VR-centric collection of experiences that are refreshing, fun and immersive from this woman's community-centric point of view - and a very honest take on the (intended and unintended) hypocricies of love online.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ho-Hum, another Odzer book, January 14, 1998

By A Customer

Cleo Odzer, Phd, proves that in America these days, almost anyone with a pulse can call themselves a "Phd." Her writing style is dull, and her honesty doubtful - but her choice of subjects are always interesting.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Could not put it down until I read it cover to cover., March 17, 1998

By A Customer

It is very remarkable for you to write so frankly about something that is contrary to "our everyday lifestyle", and do it so well. Your books have been very interesting to read and Sex and the Cyber Citizen has proven your talent as a writer once again. Cleo keep em coming. Thanks.