[Air-L] List Submission: Cybersex?

[Mathieu ONeil]

In the early 1980s the French government freely distributed millions of Minitel terminals (teletext mini-computers) that could just be plugged into the phone line and the most popular / notorious use was "minitel rose" ie cybersex though that exact term was not used probably.
cheers,
M

----- Original Message -----
From: James Hinton <sgtsareth at gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011 5:28 am
Subject: Re: [Air-L] List Submission: Cybersex?
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org

> > Quoting Hilary W <hilarywheaton at gmail.com>:
> >
> >
> > > I was wondering if the list's collective mind could help me 
> with a
> > question:
> > > when was cybersex (here defined as two or more individuals 
> engaging in
> > typed
> > > descriptions of physical sex acts, emotions etc) first discussed
> > popularly
> > > and by whom?  ...
> > >
> > > Any thoughts, comments, epiphanies would be greatly 
> appreciated :)
> > >
> > > --
> >
> > You might want to try a Google book search for "cybersex" 
> limited to
> > items between, for example, 1900 and 1995. Here's a link to a sample
> > earch which returned 766 results: http://goo.gl/WcOF5 [Note. Google
> > Book search is somewhat non-deterministic, repeated searches may
> > return different results.]
> >
> > A Google book "ngram" search might also be fun ..
> > http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/
> >
> > Ciao,
> >
> > Steve
> >
> 
> Hilary,
> 
> It has been at least since 1985. While I can't say I have 
> checked the
> veracity of the story, and have only seen reprints, not the 
> original, Ms.
> Magazine ran a story in October 1985 titled "The Strange Case of the
> Electronic Lover" by Lindsey Van Gelder. In it she details her 
> experiencesas the victim of a man pretending to be a woman named 
> Joan on CompuServe in
> the early 80s who used his connection with women to lure them 
> into physical
> world sexual encounters. She states "Joan was sexually 
> aggressive. Every
> woman I interviewed reported - and was troubled by - Joan's 
> pressuring to
> have 'cybersex'. This is on-line sex, similar to phone sex, in 
> which people
> type out their hottest fantasies while they masturbate. (In the 
> age of
> herpes and AIDS, it has become increasingly popular.)" Van 
> Gelder claims to
> have met Joan in 1983, but we don't know if "Joan" was active in 
> Cybersex at
> the time already or if "she" didn't become "aggressive" until 
> '84 or '85.
> 
> -J. Hinton
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> 
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/

****
Dr Mathieu O'Neil
Adjunct Research Fellow
Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute
College of Arts and Social Science
The Australian National University
email: mathieu.oneil[at]anu.edu.au
web: http://adsri.anu.edu.au/people/visitors/mathieu.php