The book is a guide to the ways women use, experience and cash in on the Internet, as well as a critical analysis of the empowering and oppressive aspects of these experiences, according to a press release.
"It grew out of work I was doing and personal experience," Ray said.
"There was a two-prong approach to it - it was a personal interest of mine and an academic interest of what the Internet means in women's sexuality."
Ray, who has a bachelor's degree in Cultural Studies from Eugene Lang College and a master's degree in American Studies from Columbia University, started working as a researcher at New York's Museum of Sex during her senior year in undergraduate school. She is also executive director for a magazine by and for adult film workers called "$pread."
"The Internet creates lots of opportunities for women to explore sexuality and connect with other people," Ray said.
Ray said that although the book focuses on women and their experiences, men often show up at her lectures and book signings among a diverse audience of women ranging in ages and Internet experience.
All good, right? That's what I thought too until I got to page 249, a section on "fucking machines." So defined (quoting now from the book):
Whereas most vibrators are compact, handheld, battery operated, and designed to enhance a woman's relationship with her clitoris, fucking machines are large, indiscreet, and loud, and most of them are designed solely to thrust dildos in and out of whatever orifice they encounter.
Still, whatever turns you on. That's not what bothers me. This is what bothers me:
For straight men, the images on [a Fucking Machines] site represent a kind of ideal; they're able to watch girls be penetrated and fucked without the nuisance of having to look at another man's penis.
I resent that. Maybe for homophobic men with a fetish for turbine engines, that's some sort of ideal, but I can assure you it's got nothing to do with mine.
(my ideal starts out with slow dancing to Aaron Neville with Amber Benson or a young Janet Fielding, but that's another post)
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