How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex
Reason magazine|February 2023
As someone who covers the intersection of sex and technology, I was primed to love Samantha Cole's How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex. A great book could be written on this topic-but this is not it.
By Elizabeth Nolan Brown
How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex

The book contains tidbits of interesting internet history: the "trans activist techno nun" who ran a bulletin board system (BBS) devoted to AIDS info, the stripping "Tech Sign Girls," the early use of nongendered pronouns (e, em, and eir) in a Usenet group. It nods to some ways sexually oriented entrepreneurs drove adoption of new technologies, and it touches on points-like how virtual worlds allow experimentation with different sexual personae that showcase how sexual freedom can flourish online.

This story is from the February 2023 edition of Reason magazine.

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This story is from the February 2023 edition of Reason magazine.

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