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Expressions of love through the casual shorthand of cyberspace can be easier to comprehend than the expression�and culmination�of sexual desire. Those who find satisfaction in these textual encounters find themselves called upon often to defend the practice from those who cannot understand the appeal: �For outsiders, the thought of "sex by typing" makes little sense. Despite evidence to the contrary, text sex is often considered something only weird people (and writers?) do, and the assumption is they aren't capable of having sexual relationships in real life� (Lynn Real Sex). These expressions have only gained more attention now that animation is involved, and the experience of virtual interactions comes with explicit imagery. The virtual world at its most flexible allows for a particular freedom in the images connected to the fantasy: the animation engine behind avatars allows for the realization of fantasies in a range that comes closer to rivaling that of the textual dialogue. Second Life is an unexpected home to these fantasy avatars: In Linden Lab's Second Life, a virtual world with no set rules, an estimated 30 percent of in-world commerce is related to sexual activity. "We didn't plan it that way at all," said Linden Lab programmer Aaron "Phoenix" Brashears. "But people love the novelty of it. You can be whatever you want -- a dragon or a fox or a dominatrix. There's no formula and the possibilities are endless." (Newitz XXX Games). Some of the attraction to this world of fantasy mimics the attraction of real life sexually free experiences: for instance, researchers on prostitution argue that "men are attracted to paid sex because they desire sexual acts they cannot receive from their partners; they are able to have sex with a larger number of sexual partners; they are attracted to specific physical characteristics; they like the limited emotional involvement; and they are excited by the illicit nature of the act" (Monto 77). Prostitution even has its echoes within virtual worlds: part of the economic foundation of the Second Life universe relies on paid escorts working out of various clubs. Fantasy loves, paid for or otherwise, are no new preoccupation. We lust for the manicured men and women who gleam down at us from the television screen, for the impressive athletes who perform for our entertainment, for the boy in class who we never speak to but who radiates attractiveness from the distance. Most of these lusts go nowhere: they are diversions for the mind: the same fantasies evoked by a quiet hour spent reading anything from a romance novel picked up in a supermarket to a classic love story by Shakespeare. These loves might set the tone for what we look for when it is time to make a real match, but mostly they simmer quietly underneath the surface and give us something to hope for and dream about. A cyberlover is separated from us by the same barriers. Cyberlovers lurk beyond the computer screen, acting out parts and offering truths that may or may not be windows to their realities. Are they any more real counterparts to us than the fantasies who wait in the television or in the pages of a book?
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