Habits of Leaking: Of Sluts and Network Cards

Abstract

This essay attempts to disable the “ruinous” logic that has fueled recent slut-shaming on Web 2.0 by making visible the ways in which our machines are promiscuous—routinely “leaking.” The authors present the leak as a habit so as to disrupt the illusion of privacy and sealed subjectivity that enables the possibility of being a “victim” of slut-shaming, revenge porn, and similar dangers of Web 2.0. They argue that blaming the user for leaks only detracts from the systematic vulnerabilities of Web 2.0. The essay looks at the pernicious practice of “ruining” young, white, female subjects through the circulation of naked or sexual images of them. This habit not only exemplifies the linking of subjectivity, privacy, and whiteness but also the way in which the online subject is figured as open, vulnerable, and perhaps asking for it—that is, traditionally female. The essay argues that rather than call for bubbles of privacy that seal off online subjects, as if to prevent their leaking or sluttiness, the inherent promiscuity of new media must be embraced.

Punishing ‘Revenge Porn’: Legal Interpretations of and Responses to Non-Consensual Intimate Image Distribution in Canada

“…Rather than siding with a particular framing of NCIID, I argue for a contextual non-essentialist 4 reading of individual cases and provide critical analysis of the stakes and hazards of taking up particular framings in law. In Chapter 4, I further support the argument for a non-essentialist and contextual understanding of NCIID by demonstrating that, contrary to the belief that all victims of NCIID are "ruined" (Chun and Friedland 2015) by this act, the harm of NCIID is experienced in a variety of ways (i.e. as relatively harmless).…”

“…While relying prominently on feminist theory, I am careful not to utilize feminist theories dogmatically and to bring in additional theoretical approaches (e.g. queer theory) when dynamics arise in primarily utilize theories of digital technology (Mayer-Schonberger 2009, boyd 2011, Baym 2010, Chun andFriedland 2015, Bivens andFairbairn 2015) and photography (Hand, Persistent Traces 2016, Hand, Ubiquitous Photography 2012, Sontag 2003 deriving from science and technology studies and communication studies to attend to the impacts and interpretations of technology in NCIID cases. These theories are hugely important to the study of NCIID as they allow for a critical examination of how the affordances of digital technology and our changing relationship to images in the digital age have impacted experiences of and responses to NCIID.…”

“…For instance, a cohort of scholars have combined theorizations of digital technology and sex-positive feminism to critique the ways that both youth sexuality and technology use are regulated in responsibilizing reactions to "sexting" and digital forms of sexual violence (Karaian 2012, Bivens and Fairbairn 2015, Milford 2015, Hasinoff 2015. Similarly, Chun and Friedland (2015) provide a distinct example of how to bring theorizations of digital technology and feminist theorizations of sex positivity to analyze understandings of and responses to NCIID, as they argue for an understanding of NCIID that rethinks the "boundary between private and public" by questioning popular assumptions regarding sexual privacy and data privacy (5).…”

“…Karaian 2014, Chun and Friedland (2015), and Hasinoff's (2015) theoretical approaches were particularly impactful on the framework used here. Their deeply critical and interdisciplinary theorizations of consensual and non-consensual intimate image distribution were integral to the kinds of questions I was able to ask and the assumptions about NCIID that I was interested in troubling from the early stages of this research.…”

Executions: power and expression in networked and computational media

“…Further important questions for those working with building such oppositional infrastructures involve the notable quality of "leakiness" in networked technologies for connecting and sharing, a leakiness that has both powerful and potentially dangerous effects (Chun and Friedland 2015). As technologically-informed activist movements of recent years have continually experienced, a transmission and its signal is always at risk of being intercepted or reverse-engineered in ways that can be traced back to its source.…”