Online Sex Talk and the Social World Mediated Desire

This book develops a feminist and queer linguistic account of the construction of sex, sexuality, and desire through a linguistic and discursive analysis of naturally occurring sex talk from an online community. Critical discourse analysis is used to analyse a corpus of data drawn from incidental sex 'talk' observed in the community over the course of an 18-month period. Sub-types of sex talk that are examined include cybersex, self-disclosure, confidences, joking, games, flirting, and automated sexual commands that ‘generate’ sex between participants. The book will be of use to students and researchers interested in the language of gender and sexuality, as well as feminist and queer accounts of technology and sexual communication.

Chrystie Myketiak is Principal Lecturer in Language and Linguistics at the University of Brighton, UK. Her research investigates discourse and narratives in text and media with a focus on language use in relation to issues of power, identity, and inequality.