Eroticism and romance in the virtual age. Seduction is based on innuendo, not exhibition
Eroticism and romance in the virtual age. The world of relationships, especially emotional, love and sexual relationships has changed, adapting to new spaces and times…
Today’s virtual society is characterized by a radical change in the concept of intimacy, which has moved from a private and secret dimension to a public dimension, to be displayed at all costs and without shame, and thus by the prevailing need to appear more than to be.
It is in this sphere, more than any other, that the world of relationships, especially affective, loving and sexual ones, has changed, adapting to new spaces and times.
And it is certainly no coincidence that on the Web there is an infinity of alternative realities, now symbolic, where anyone can replace his or her dreams by bringing to life in an avatar or nickname all those drives and desires that he or she could hardly consciously and easily express in his or her normal daily existence.
A life often interrupted by real problems that, before the advent of the computer, were diluted in other ways, by devoting oneself to reading a book or turning on the television, but that today can be sublimated through active participation in a story in which everyone is both director and protagonist.
And so men and women of all ages, social classes and cultural levels enter these virtual spaces and realize what is called a “false self”, that is, a kind of mask whose purpose is to hide and protect the real self, where the deepest and most fragile center of the personality is hidden.
But these parallel worlds are not only places of intimacy between friends, but also centers of love relationships and eroticism.
In fact, the Internet is just one big container where you can find the answer to all kinds of needs, from the most futile and extravagant to the satisfaction of basic needs such as the search for romance or sex.
In fact, there are many who meet, court and fall in love, finding it extremely exciting and transgressive to flirt with complete strangers they have never met, who, usually after seeing photos of which they are often unsure of the authenticity, and a decidedly captivating profile that is usually marked on the fake self, brazenly flaunt unbridled desires and shameless erotic fantasies.
And here, the daily emotional and especially sexual routine with a flesh-and-blood partner, with moods, scents, but also feelings that are inseparable for a real and concrete human being, is experienced with much more fatigue, monotony, and even boredom, because even if in this new form of communication the body is the great absentee, being used for momentary sexual pleasures divorced from feelings, virtuality is still able to determine special situations with a high visual and erotic impact.
A magical atmosphere characterized by images and messages that wink, allude and provoke without the possibility of physical contact.
Eroticism and romance in the virtual age. Seduction is based on innuendo, not exhibition…
Elements that, paradoxically, have the power to increase desire, to evoke erotic fantasies never before experienced, and to open up new horizons in which sexual nonchalance, the enhancement of all forms of seduction, curiosity, and the state of mental and emotional arousal play a decisive role.
After all, it is no secret that eroticism is based primarily on what is imagined and not on what is shown.
Seduction is based on innuendo, not exhibition, and a loose dress makes you dream of beautiful legs more than a miniskirt that shows them.
Moreover, if in the nineteenth century even the ankles were eroticized and gave rise to countless fantasies, today everything is so exposed that there is no room for fantasy, except for that which is related to the imagination of something that is better left completely hidden.
During my visits to these “alternative” worlds, I have more than once found myself collecting the confessions of people betrayed or abandoned by non-existent lovers, perhaps never seen or heard of outside of virtuality, men and women whose absolutely ethereal appearance, which favors an immediate projective process, accentuates this strange form of desire and falling in love, but as long as everything remains confined to the dreamlike sphere of virtuality, there is no real danger of disillusionment.
The real problem, on the other hand, can only manifest itself when a certain falling in love survives the immediacy of the moment and is transported into the real.
In this case, the effects can be truly devastating.
The transition of the relationship from the virtual to the real can profoundly undermine an excitement born of a mental process based on the concretization of a fantasy, and thus incapable of coping with any disappointment, and in the event that what was imagined was even minimally different from what was revealed, the erotic desire would disappear in direct proportion to how it had been manifested.
