Textual interaction as sexual interaction: sexuality and/in the online interview

In this article, I draw from my research into the users of a Nazi fetish Internet site to examine the potential sexualisation of the online interview encounter by informants and the implications for ethical research practice. Firstly, I consider how the process of talking about, and confessing, sex can be erotically charged. Moreover, since many of my participants were heavily invested in sadomasochistic sex, with the majority self-identifying as sexually submissive, I had to recognise that the online interview encounter, facilitated by the invisibility of the researcher and the researched, extended subject positions to these men that paralleled their erotic interests. Finally, further dilemmas arose because of the 'unknowness' and physical invisibility conferred by cyberspace since this potentially influenced the (mis)framing of the interview by some participants