Book Description
Citizen Sex is an exposition of the personal amateur sex site scene, and a study of the Amateurs featured on it. Most Amateurs pretend to lead "normal,""respectable"lives. To much of the general public, even to the sex-positive and sexually active segments of it, those who expose themselves on the Internet, Amateurs included, belong in the same category as hookers, exotic dancers, and professional porn actresses. That is, they are thought to merit less than the normal amount of respect, and are altogether aberrant. The present book, on the other hand, takes the position that Internet Amateurs, while perhaps not role models to be emulated by all, are decent people who are as worthy of respect and consideration as any one else. While they certainly differ from the official societal norm, the import of their aberration is in the eye of the beholder. The book is intended for the general reader interested in the passing social scene, as well as for those who are already Internet adult site fans. Citizen Sex has three Parts. Part One describes the Internet Amateur scene.
The women of the personal amateur Internet are the subject of Part Two. A number of amateur women are profiled in depth in individual case studies. An analytical summary concludes Part Two. It discusses, and attempts to answer, the questions, "What leads an apparently mainstream woman to become an adult star on the Internet?"and "To what extent is an Internet Amateur a 'Girl Next Door'?"
Part Three takes up issues, be they legal, moral, sexual, or social, pertinent to the interplay of personal amateur sites with society in general. Among the issues discussed are legal problems, health, swinging, bisexuality, and masturbation.
Excerpted from Citizen Sex: The Girl Next Door on the Adult Internet by Barry Klar. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Questions
What conclusions can we draw, and what patterns can be found, from the focus group profiles (Chapters 2.1-2.26), and other related investigation? Do Internet Amateurs have their own common characteristics? Or does a group of Amateurs look pretty much like a group of women selected at random?
What can we say about the kind of woman who becomes an Amateur? Is she just "The Girl Next Door", except for an unconventional occupation or hobby? Or is she a different breed entirely?
How does a woman come out of the mainstream and become an Internet Amateur? How seamless is the transition? What impels the transition in the first place? Is sex the main issue, or is it secondary to other factors? Why would a conventional individual opt for such an unconventional life? Or wasn't she so conventional in the first place?
Fundamental Categorization
Scrutiny of the focus group established the existence of two distinct Amateur categories. Some Amateurs were wild, sexual, and daring, from childhood or early adolescence on. The rest were initially cautious, conservative, and risk-averse when young, only reversing in adulthood. Reversal may have been sudden or gradual, and may have occurred in the woman's 20's, 30's, or 40's. The first category we call Inevitables, the second Improbables. No one who knew a young Inevitable would be surprised at her Internet career. Conversely, anyone who knew a young Improbable would be shocked.
