source: http://www.amsterdamweekly.nl/pdf/volume4/ AmsterdamWeekly_Issue49_6December.pdf
WEB KAMA SUTRA The future of that most ultimate of indoor activities. By Jules Marshall It was a disappointment to enter the Waag on Thursday night for a seminar on the Future of Sexuality and find a room full of middle-aged men. Where were all those earnest, sex-positive twenty-somethings? And what about women? Technology is driving perhaps the most rapid evolution of sexuality in human history, so you might think the topic would be of interest to a slightly broader demographic, especially on the cusp of Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Yet this Club of Amsterdam event, featuring Dutch scholars and a San Francisco-based sex writer video-linked to the discussion by Skpe, fell strangely flat. In fact, you might say, the evening was a study in frustration, with confused, awkward pauses caused by technological glitches, teasing hints at conclusions that were then withdrawn, and intellectual promises gone, ultimately, unconsummated. Marie-Louise Janssen, lecturer in gender studies at University of Amsterdam’s Political Science Department started off the evening with a discussion of ‘Paid Sex and Public Space’. A cultural anthropologist who began her post-college life working with sex workers in Latin America, Janssen treated prostitution just like any other industry, such as catering or horticulture, arguing for stronger trade union and better education on civil rights. ‘It’s not prostitutes that are the problem but those around them taking their profits,’ she concluded, fairly, but not very originally. The time she’d spent discussing people trafficking and labour rights left very little for addressing any kind of sexuality, let alone the futuristic kind. The event then became frustrating for purely technical reasons. Melissa Gira, editor of San Francisco-based Sexerati.com, a slick, kaleidoscopic online magazine focused on contemporary sexuality, started her presentation on ‘The Story of i: Sex in the Information Age’ but only got as far as saying she wouldn’t talk about cybersex or virtual reality sex because, ‘The net is not about removing people but bringing them closer together and deepening personal relationships’ when her Skype connection froze mid-sentence. Ten minutes of cable twiddling couldn’t bring her back, so local cyberentrepreneur and intellectual gadfly Luc Sala stepped in to reminisce about how, in the early ’90s as a publisher and writer of techno magazines and books, he’d been titillated by promises of virtual sex and ‘teledildonics’ (the rather clumsy neologism for attaching sex toys to the internet for sex-at-a-distance). But neither of those materialized. ‘We thought we were the New Edge,’ Sala lamented. ‘What went wrong?” Realizing that Gira wasn’t going to return, Sala, a smart and original thinker flawed only by an over-developed self-promotional reflex, continued by discussing the sexual impact of new technologies— not just digital or mechanical (such as USB dildoes), but psycho-therapeutic tools, advances in plastic surgery (vaginal rejuvenation; penile implants), and chemical aids to sex (from Viagra to LSD). Cybersex may be a cheap, safe alternative to flesh-2-flesh ho-hum sex, but it was also addictive and anti-social. ‘Realtime but not reality-based,’ Sala said, adding that it had not actually made sex any more fun. The ancient technologies of yoga and Tantra, he said, had been more fruitful to him in his personal quest for sexual enlightenment. He cited data that he had compiled on his website (www.net.info.nl), creating complex matrices of every imaginable aspect of sexuality, from analingus to zoophilia. He concluded that, ‘Most people never get even close to achieving their sexual potential.’ Once again, I felt our interest had been aroused only to be denied. Returning to the discussion on her mobile phone, having waited patiently through Sala’s talk, Melissa Gira said she was optimistic about sex in the information age. Social networks, mobile computing, DIY porn and other means of promoting a democratization of sexuality were great leaps forward, she said. But by this stage of the evening her observations were too dense, too theoretical and too late. Mirjam Schieveld, head of the Summer Institute at the International School for Humanities and Social Sciences had introduced the program by saying that the topic was indeed challenging: ‘It’s hard enough to ask “what sexuality?” and “whose sexuality?” let alone contemplate the “future of sexuality”,’ she said. ‘We don’t expect any answers tonight, but there will be plenty of material for discussion.’ And material there was—it was just too diffused to achieve anything. The Club of Amsterdam should be commended for attempting to address the complexity of social questions related to the rapid evolution of sexuality, but reminded that just as in sex, dryness is anathema to interpersonal communication—and it’s not wise to rely on technology when it comes to seeking fulfilment. _______________________________________________ Netporn Mailing List Netporn-l@listcultures.org list: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/netporn-l_listcultures.org links: http://del.icio.us/netporn
