Desire and Uncertainty: Representations of Cybersex in Film and Television

The concept of cyberspace and its complementary activity, cybersex, have long occupied the minds of individuals as part of the prominent development and integration of technology within society. The opportunity to explore the impact of our interaction with networked technologies and cyberspace was taken up by the creative industries, leading to cybersex becoming a well-established trope in fantasy and popular culture. Alas, in many ways, the prefix ‘cyber’ was a buzzword in the 1980s and 1990s before slowly declining as the initial fascination with the utopian ideals of the Internet faded; unsurprisingly, cyberspace and cybersex suffered this same fate. Nevertheless, although the enthusiasm has faded, the idea of cybersex has endured and continues to prompt a variety of responses, from titillation to intimidation. We persist in imagining how our most physical pleasures may interact with technology and its ‘other space’. Cybersex has revealed, as Dery stated, that ‘wherever humankind goes, sex inevitably follows, and the universe of technological innovation is no exception’ (1996, 217).