Intimacy on the Internet: Media Representations of Online Connections

271 Pages·2016·2.068 MB·English

by  Lauren Rosewarne

Intimacy on the Internet
Lauren Rosewarne is among our most daring and adroit explorers of the
sexual scene, always poking at the edges, the margins, to reveal how mass
media have constructed our experiences. By ranging across a variety of
media representations, from online dating to cyberporn, Intimacy on the
Internet tells a new story of the Internet’s impact on love and sex. Neither
exclusively brave new world nor solely a haven for lonely and dangerous
perverts, it’s all of that, and a lot more.
Professor Michael Kimmel, Stony Brook University, Author of Angry White
Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era
Simply put, this is the best book I’ve read in some time! I couldn’t put it down
when I started reading it. This work addresses an exceptionally timely topic
in an extremely comprehensive, yet parsimonious fashion. It is meticulously
researched, and Rosewarne artfully succeeds in placing numerous depictions
of the subject matter from popular culture into a tremendously solid schol-
arly framework. This book is destined to make a substantial contribution
to professional literature in a number of fields including sociology, psychol-
ogy, and cultural studies. However, the best feature of this book is that it is
well-written and enjoyable! The writing style makes it accessible to a variety
of audiences. Not only will advanced scholars in a number of social and
behavioural sciences find it useful, I strongly believe that undergraduate stu-
dents would benefit from reading the book. Additionally, the non-academic
reader with an interest in this topic would find the book just as enjoyable.
Professor Keith F. Durkin, Ohio Northern University, Co-Author of S ociology:
Beyond Common Sense
This book masterfully explores one of the most fascinating and controver-
sial issues about digital lifestyles. By providing important insights into how
contemporary media portrays intimacy in cyberspace, it reveals not just our
underlying fears about the Internet, but also our hidden anxieties about
connecting deeply to others. This book is a must-read for anyone who seeks
to understand intimate relationships in the age of technology.
Professor John Suler, Rider University, Author of Psychology of the Digital
Age: Humans Become Electric
The focus of this book is on the media representations of the use of the
Internet in seeking intimate connections—be it a committed relationship,
a hook-up, or a community in which to dabble in fringe sexual practices.
Popular culture (film, narrative television, the news media, and advertising)
present two very distinct pictures of the use of the Internet as related to inti-
macy. From news reports about victims of online dating, to the presentation of
the desperate and dateless, the perverts and the deviants, a distinct frame for
the intimacy/Internet connection is negativity. In some examples however,
a changing picture is emerging. The ubiquitousness of Internet use today
has meant a slow increase in comparatively more positive representations
of successful online romances in the news, resulting in more positive-spin
advertising and a more even-handed presence of such liaisons in narrative
television and film. Both the positive and the negative media representations
are categorized and analysed in this book to explore what they reveal about
the intersection of gender, sexuality, technology, and the changing mores
regarding intimacy.
Lauren Rosewarne is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne,
Australia. She is the author of seven books, most recently Cyberbullies,
Cyberactivists, Cyberpredators: Film, TV, and Internet Stereotypes, and spe-
cializes in gender, sexuality, and popular culture.
Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.
56 International Perspectives on 64 Studies of Video Practices
Chicana/o Studies Video at Work
“This World is My Place” Edited by Mathias Broth,
Edited by Catherine Leen and Eric Laurier, and Lorenza
Niamh Thornton Mondada
57 Comics and the Senses 65 The Memory of Sound
A Multisensory Approach to Preserving the Sonic Past
Comics and Graphic Novels Seán Street
Ian Hague
66 American Representations of
58 Popular Culture in Africa Post-Communism
The Episteme of the Everyday Television, Travel Sites, and
Edited by Stephanie Newell and Post-Cold War Narratives
Onookome Okome Andaluna Borcila
59 Transgender Experience 67 Media and the Ecological Crisis
Place, Ethnicity, and Visibility Edited by Richard Maxwell,
Edited by Chantal Zabus and Jon Raundalen, and Nina Lager
David Coad Vestberg
60 Radio’s Digital Dilemma 68 Representing Multiculturalism
Broadcasting in the in Comics and Graphic Novels
Twenty-First Century Edited by Carolene Ayaka and
John Nathan Anderson Ian Hague
61 Documentary’s Awkward Turn 69 Media Independence
Cringe Comedy and Media Working with Freedom or
Spectatorship Working for Free?
Jason Middleton Edited by James Bennett and
Niki Strange
62 Serialization in Popular Culture
Edited by Rob Allen and Thijs 70 Neuroscience and Media
van den Berg New Understandings and
Representations
63 Gender and Humor Edited by Michael Grabowski
Interdisciplinary and
International Perspectives 71 American Media and the
Edited by Delia Chiaro and Memory of World War II
Raffaella Baccolini Debra Ramsay
72 International Perspectives on 79 A Cultural Approach to
Shojo and Shojo Manga Emotional Disorders
The Influence of Girl Culture Psychological and Aesthetic
Edited by Masami Toku Interpretations
E. Deidre Pribram
73 The Borders of Subculture
Resistance and the Mainstream 80 Biopolitical Media
Edited by Alexander Dhoest, Catastrophe, Immunity
Steven Malliet, Barbara Segaert, and Bare Life
and Jacques Haers Allen Meek
74 Media Education for a Digital
81 The Emotional Life of
Generation
Postmodern Film
Edited by Julie Frechette and
Affect Theory’s Other
Rob Williams
Pansy Duncan
75 Spanish-Language Television
82 Social Memory Technology
in the United States
Theory, Practice, Action
Fifty Years of Development
Karen Worcman and Joanne
Kenton T. Wilkinson
Garde-Hansen
76 Embodied Metaphors in
83 Reviving Gramsci
Film, Television, and
Crisis, Communication, and
Video Games
Change
Cognitive Approaches
Marco Briziarelli and Susana
Edited by Kathrin Fahlenbrach
Martinez Guillem
77 Critical Animal and Media
Studies 84 Motherhood in the Media
Communication for Nonhuman Infanticide, Journalism,
Animal Advocacy and the Digital Age
Edited by Núria Almiron, Barbara Barnett
Matthew Cole, and Carrie P.
Freeman 85 The Pedagogies of Cultural
Studies
78 The Middle Class in Emerging Edited by Andrew Hickey
Societies
Consumers, Lifestyles and 86 Intimacy on the Internet
Markets Media Representation of
Edited by Leslie L. Marsh and Online Connections
Hongmei Li Lauren Rosewarne
Intimacy on the Internet
Media Representation of
Online Connections
Lauren Rosewarne
First published 2016
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
The right of Lauren Rosewarne to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rosewarne, Lauren, author.
Title: Intimacy on the Internet: media representations of online connections /
by Lauren Rosewarne.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2016. |
Series: Routledge research in cultural and media studies; 86 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015050143
Subjects: LCSH: Online dating. | Love in mass media. |
Mass media—Social aspects.
Classification: LCC HQ801.82 .R67 2016 | DDC 306.730285—dc23LC
record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015050143
ISBN: 978-1-138-82417-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74085-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
To Dr. C.
In happy recognition of an abundance of on-topic
conversations.
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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 The Market Economy of Love 5
2 The Authenticity of Online Intimacy 41
3 The Dateless and the Desperate 85
4 Online Deception, Offline Disaster 115
5 Seeking Stimulation Online 153
6 The Quest for Kink 183
Conclusion 220
Media References 223
Bibliography 231
Index 247