The Kinder Gap: What About Alt.Sex?

Too many Americans think that “personal freedom” is 80 cable channels and letting the government take care of all their wants and needs. -- C. D. Tavares

Alt.sex is a collection of Usenet newsgroups. There are a number of them. One of the most popular is alt.sex.stories, where people post stories about sex, and read stories about sex, and complain about stories about sex. Within the last year there have been a number of offshoots from alt.sex.stories: alt.sex.stories.hetero (bedtime stories for homophobes), alt.sex.stories.incest (the family that plays together, stays together), and alt.sex.stories.moderated (a newsgroup that seems to be moderated by a prude, since nothing ever gets approved).

Outside of the “alt.sex.stories” hierarchy, the alt.sex hierarchy is for the discussion of sex, making fun of sex, and grossing out the mundanes. Alt.sex.bestiality (motto: happiness is a warm puppy), alt.sex.bestiality.barney (happiness is a warm purple dinosaur), and alt.sex.necrophilia (happiness is a cold human?) are examples.

To read one of these newsgroups, find an Internet provider that carries them. Most do--even the commercial bulletin board systems do, judging from the amount of spam that arrives from America On-Line. If it’s a Unix provider, you’ll need to use a Unix newsreader. I recommend “trn”, in which case you would type “trn”, press return, and then type “g alt.sex.stories” (for example).

If you are getting your Internet service via a PPP connection, the best free Macintosh newsreader is probably “NewsWatcher”. On the IBM side, it’s probably “Free Agent”. Both of these can be found at the various shareware archives.

These stories all the written word. There are no pictures, there is no sound. It helps to have an imagination. Most people do, however, once they leave the television behind.