Media Matrix: Sexing the New Reality

This critique explores the effect of today's global media on contemporary ideas and experiences of sex, screen, identity, and representation from Sex and the City to discussions of sexuality and the self, from Breillat's film Romance to Harlequin romances, from reality TV to cyber porn, and from celebrity to censorship. The changes brought about by new forms of representation and reality are explored, and the media's ambiguous relationship to radical change in the way sexuality appears on screen is questioned. Such questions as Has reality TV affected the way viewers think about sex and relationships? Now that pornography has entered the mainstream, can we still say porn offers an alternative view of sex? Does Sex and the City really challenge every taboo known to society? and Why do women enjoy writing slash fiction? are addressed. Also examined are the breakdown between public and private and the question of what constitutes the true representation of sexuality and the self in the new global public domain.