Literature Youth & Sexuality Exam B
Lecture 3
Naezer, M., & van Oosterhout, L. (2021). Only sluts love sexting: Youth, sexual norms
and non-consensual sharing of digital sexual images. Journal of Gender Studies, 30(1),
79-90.
This article contributes to scholarship that shifts the focus to perpetrators, by investigating
young people’s motives for distributing other people’s sexual images without their consent.
The analysis demonstrates that non-consensual image sharing is a layered, heterogenous
problem that is deeply embedded in present-day social norms regarding gender and sexuality.
Present day popular and scientific discourse about non-consensual image sharing is dominated
by a stereotypical sexting script of ‘when-girl-sends-nude-picture-to-boy’. In this script,
produced for instance through media and scientific reports, a girl sends a sexual (nude) picture
to her boyfriend, the relationship ends, and the boy shares the picture with others out of
revenge. The dominance of this scripts makes other scenarios invisible.
In fact, hardly any of the cases we discussed with research participants fitted the stereotypical
script. Incidents differed widely in terms of context and motives for sharing, the kind of
images that were shared, how and with how many people the images were shared, and the
consequences for the victim. With regard to context, the protagonists were sometimes ex-
lovers, but they were also friends, acquaintances and people who were unknown to the maker
of the image. Furthermore, perpetrators were not just boys, but also girls. Victims on the other
hand were mostly girls in this study.
Context: motives for non-consensual image sharing
Revenge
‘Tension’ that sexual image may evoke in youth (most of the time shocked)
To reinforce friendships
Discussing and learning about sexuality
Regulation of other people’s sexual behavior (‘teaching’ someone else not to send
those pictures by sharing them)
Popularity
This diversity in young people’s motives demonstrates that young people who distribute other
people’s images do not necessarily act from malevolent intentions. This is not to say that the
,consequences may not be disturbing, but the general lack of bad intentions is an important
nuance that helps to address the issue in a more balanced way.
Scenarios differ not only in terms of their context and motives, but also in terms of the kind of
images that are shared, how and with how many people the images are shared, and the
consequences for the victim. The intensity of the images may influence young people’s choice
to either share it or not. There is an distinguishing between materials that were originally
shared within a long-term relationship and materials that were shared outside of such a
relationship. Scenarios also differ in how and with how many people the images have been
shared. Often young people feel like ‘everybody’ has seen the image, when is it more limited
than thought. Scenarios can be different in terms of consequences.
While scenarios of and motives for non-consensual image sharing differ, gendered sexual
norms and taboos played an important role. General taboos:
Nudity and sexuality
This taboo, together with the ‘newness’ of nudity and sexuality for young people, contributes
to sexual images becoming interesting, exciting, and/or shocking, which makes young people
more eager to (non-consensually) share them.
Sexting
Sexting is seen as a shameful activity that is only undertaken by weak, insecure, desperate
and/or stupid people (girls). Very negative opinions about sexting.
This lack of understanding, which is embedded in present-day negative discourse about
sexting, facilitates non-consensual image sharing: it makes it easier to share other people’s
images without their consent and to blame the victim for it. Current negative attitudes towards
sexting not only facilitate, but even encourage non-consensual image sharing.
Victim-blaming
‘In the end, it’s the person who made the picture who is responsible’
These norms and taboos regarding sex and sexting are highly gendered, and sexual double
standards played an important role in research participants’ experiences.
,Gendered evaluations of ‘sexual’ images makes girls more vulnerable for becoming a victim
of nonconsensual image sharing, as her pictures are judged as more sexual, and therefore
more ‘interesting’ to share.
Girls judged harsher than boys for making and sharing sexual images of themselves, and girls
were often confronted with slut-shaming and stigmatization. Because of this, girls’ images
cause more upheaval than those of boys. This adds an intensity to girls’ images that makes
girls extra vulnerable not only to non-consensual image sharing, but also to victim-blaming
and slut-shaming.
For boys, gendered sexual norms encourage them to obtain and share girls’ sexual images in
the heteronormative ‘digital market place’ of sexting. This is consistent with a longer tradition
of boys’ and men’s (hetero)sexuality being regarded as more natural, acceptable and
uncontrollable than that of girls and women; a myth that legitimizes sexual violence
committed by boys and men.
Gendered sexual norms provide a context where boys can perform hegemonic masculinity
through (non-consensual) image sharing, which has come to be regarded as a marker of
heterosexual prowess. For girl perpetrators, gendered sexual norms provide a context where
they can perform normative chaste femininity by non-consensually sharing other girls’ images
and claiming not be as ‘slutty’ as the victim. For boy perpetrators, even if their behavior was
judged by peers as morally wrong, it was often excused by the age-old adage that ‘boys will
be boys’, which further protects boys who non-consensually distribute girls’ sexual images.
, Lecture 4A
Cense, M., & Ruard Ganzevoort, R. (2019). The storyscapes of teenage pregnancy. On
morality, embodiment, and narrative agency. Journal of Youth Studies, 22(4), 568-583
When young women become pregnant, they use social norms and discourses, opinions and
moral judgements of family and friends, their sense of self and their ideas about their future,
and the embodiment of being pregnant to give meaning to their pregnancy, which eventually
leads to the choice for an abortion or teenage motherhood.
First, they negotiate the meaning of getting pregnant. Here, three discourses are often
prevalent:
The discourse of being young and ignorant - often linked to romance of first love and
losing control
The discourse of individual responsibility and failure - often linked to being foolish,
feeling ashamed and guilty
The discourse of destiny - expressing the role of fate
Then, they negotiate the right choice (abortion or motherhood).
Viewing motherhood and getting pregnant as a gift, and thus keeping the baby
The right of children to grow up in good circumstances, and thus sometimes seeing
abortion as the better option - often linked to the feeling of being too young
In line with this notion of not being able to look after a child, the participants shared
narratives about not (even) being able to look after oneself and the effects of having a
baby on their own wellbeing and that of the child
The three moral discourses discussed here together build a storyscape of responsibility in
which the key question is how one can responsibly cope with the situation.
Then, the bodily experiences of being pregnant sometimes played a role. Sometimes, hearing
the heartbeat or feeling the baby kick changed women’s mind from getting an abortion to
keeping the baby, or instead it could lead to uncomfortableness if it reminded women of
earlier bodily intrusive experiences (such as sexual assault).
Lastly, the opinions of others often also weighed heavily on the decision. In some cases,
women followed the opinion of these people (boyfriends, parents, friends), but sometimes
they chose differently because that felt right to them (reflecting agency).
There are many stories possibly shaping the choice that young pregnant women make.
