Virtual Sex: Is It Real Sex?

By Jenna Owsianik, Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net

June 14, 2016

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As technology opens more and more channels for sexual communication, it's also putting what we call “sex” up for reinterpretation.

You can have video sex calls on your smartphone. You can exchange racy messages with strangers in adult chatrooms and virtual sex worlds. You can, if you choose, even have good old-fashioned phone sex with your honey while on a business trip.

What’s missing in these scenarios is, of course, physical contact between partners. But does that mean it’s not real sex? Or do sex acts lie rather on a spectrum that resists easy definition?

We were lucky enough to hear futurist Marc Pesce’s take on the subject a while back at one of our Sydney meetup events.

Is virtual sex actually sex? Share your comments below!

TRANSCRIPT:
“I think what's happening is that distinctions that used to be reasonably clear—not perfectly clear, reasonably clear—are just going on a gradient…because even when you are connected physically to another person, there's still something going on in your head which is making that the hottest experience in the world, right?

“So there's still always that side of it, that's virtual and we acknowledge that, right? All the way to something which is, “You're right. This is entirely your own scene, it's entirely your own show.” In a way the technology is giving us more points on that scale, but that scale has always existed.”

Image source: Luis Hernandez [NSFW]

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Jenna Owsianik

Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech expert. Since 2014 she has been Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net, the world’s leading publication on how technology is changing human sexuality, today and tomorrow.

Jenna is the primary author of the Future of Sex Report (2016).

Her expertise covers state-of-the-art sex technologies and the major fields driving innovations in intimacy: robotics, virtual reality, remote sex (teledildonics), immersive adult entertainment, human augmentation, virtual sex, and sexual health.

A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States.

As a sex tech industry consultant, she is especially passionate about helping companies deliver accessible services and products to people with disabilities and other underserved communities.

Jenna also runs the sites SexforEveryBody.com, a sex-positive, body-positive online magazine that promotes inclusive sex education; and DisabledSexGuide.com, an adult resource on sex, disability, and erotica.

In 2013, Jenna won two Canadian Online Publishing Awards for her work on The Pain Project, a multimedia site on global access to palliative care.

She won second place at the 2011 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism’s Public Health category for her participation in the documentary Freedom From Pain.

Jenna has an Honors BA in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research as well as a French minor from The University of Western Ontario. She spent a year studying at L’Université Lumière Lyon 2 in Lyon, France.