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Abstract
This study is an effort to provide an insight into the identity of women who carry a social stigma as
“temptresses” in cyberspace. The purpose of this study was to investigate the identity and social space of such
temptresses in cyberspace by using qualitative research methodologies. Data were collected from cyberspace by
means of participatory observations. The researcher signed up to enter such cyberspace, from which samples were
drawn for the study. The researcher’s identity was established and confirmed as a continuously active member to
prevent being removed from the membership list. Conversations and message exchanges between other cyberspace
visitors and temptresses representing voluptuous female figures were recorded and occasionally followed up by
additional chats between the researcher and such temptresses, who constituted the principal source of data.
Obtained data were then analyzed to find out abut the representation of temptresses as presented in cyberspace and
also between the researcher and other cyberspace visitors. The situational context made it possible to see things
from more different angles, the concepts of identity, space, and rhetoric were incorporated in the analysis. The area
under study was Camfrog and Hi5 cyberspace, which maintained very popular social networks. Materials for
presenting temptresses were studied as appropriate to type of media, involving the use of text, graphics, audio,
video, symbols, etc., whereby ideas, beliefs and values were reflected and visit durations were shown.
The findings indicate that temptresses in cyberspace were presented in a wide variety of ways and they
evoked very dynamic images, constantly changing in response to the prevailing influences on thought and belief
systems and social values at the moment, involving mutual dealings in cyberspace such as business transactions,
relationship development, expression of special interest, etc. The representation of temptress had been created
through ongoing cumulative and repetitive processes of selection, elimination, competition, negotiation and
socialization. Temptresses in the Camfrog and Hi5 cyberspace could be divided into two types: 1) ideal temptresses;
and 2) non-ideal temptresses. Temptresses could also be categorized according to their purposes into 3 groups: 1)
commercial temptresses; 2) self-assertive temptresses; and 3) avant-garde temptresses. The representation of such
women was a way to maintain their social standing or space. As each space has its unique advantages and
disadvantages, the representation of women therefore varies accordingly.
To conclude, the representation of temptresses in cyberspace is an expression of another role of women in
a public forum, where an association between “identity” and “space” can be observed. Relationship in the virtual
community can eventually lead to relationship in the real community, reflecting a similar set of ideas, beliefs, values
and ideologies, creating a new social space for such cyberspace temptresses, thrusting them into limelight, and
inevitably linking them into modern society.
Keywords:
Temptresses, Representation, Cyberspace
