Nerve.com: Think About Sex
By Charisse Massay
I was quite impressed by the diversity of nerve.com which is the
electronic version of a print magazine. It serves as a forum for any
sex questions that any one might have. The main page is set up in
a very basic fashion, allowing the viewer to scan all departments
and what the highlights of the day are. There is a "photograph
of the day" as well as "position of the day". The "position
of the day" seems to define this website. It gives its consumers
everything they could possibly need to understand sex and sexuality.
The topic of sex is a very broad category and I'm not certain of how
to make it any more specific.
There are a few regular columns including "The Secret Life of
Kitty Lyons" which is mostly out-of-the-way fantasies. Although
some of the things that she fantasized about were not in my repertoire,
it was nice to know that there is an outlet for these mental wanderings.
There are other columns such as "The Science of Sex," "Views
and Reviews" (sexuality in the media; books, television and movies),
"The Lisa Diaries" and "This Week in Sex" which
I found to be an amusing column about sex in the news. There were
also featured articles which included topics such as bikini waxing,
critiques about sex shops and "Surrender the Pink," an article
about the esthetics of a vagina.
Although a lot of the articles deal with issues pertaining to women,
the male constituent was not forgotten. It seems to me that most of
the people logging onto nerve.com are women but the site is not gender
based at all.
Other textual parts of the website included personal essays sent in
by members of the nerve community. Most of the essays dealt with overcoming
sexual constraints held by the author. One was written by a "male
whore" on how he became involved in the profession at the age
of 42. Another was written by a female psychiatrist with a patient
who voluntarily had himself castrated. Poetry and fiction were other
member-produced sections. Although the topics were diverse, the subject
was always around sex and how the act, the idea and the emotions involved
affected the authors.
The photography, at first, seemed to be a lot of thin Caucasian women
in sexy* poses; I accessed these while scanning through the archives
of the "photo of the day." I was somewhat disappointed until
I registered for a password and gained access to all of the galleries.
I found an amazing variety of people, poses and situations, all of
which were "sexy."
There is a distinct nerve.com community where members can access personals,
are given email address and web pages, and can chat with other people
who are interested in sex. Although I did not visit any of the chat
rooms, I got the feeling from the website itself that the content
of the chat rooms would not necessarily include lewd and vulgar conversation
but rather curious people wanting to discuss their feelings about
sex and sexual encounters with other interested folks.
Another feature of nerve.com is Nerve Radio, a streaming audio radio
station. The music did not seem to fit in any vein but rather had
a theme of liberation. Artists included U2, Radiohead, Bjork and Billie
Holliday. An eclectic collection of music but nothing overly special.
I ended up searching through this website for approximately an hour
without even realizing where the time went. The content nerve.com
is interesting to anyone who is fascinated with sex or gender issues.
It seems that all visitors to this website will find something that
they find intriguing. The best part is that the website seems to address
all questions that anyone might have had about sex but was too afraid
to ask. I highly recommend this site if you are interested in sex,
any type of sex to any degree.
*Although the meaning of sexy changes with each person, I speak in
the general sense.