Re-faced and Pornified— A Visual, Narrative Analysis of Sexual Scripts in Police Cases of Image-based Abuse

Abstract

This article analyses police cases to argue that image-based sexual abuse should not be understood as only happening to women who have shared risqué image of themselves. Anyone could have sexual images shared without consent, because all digital images can be pornified by the addition of sexually explicit iconography. Pornography is important to research visually because porn is a sexual script that can be used to alter any image from everyday and/or intimate to abusive. The research field on nonconsensual sharing of intimate images has abolished the term ‘revenge porn’ as contributing to victim blaming: Image-based sexual abuse is not caused by any acts justifying ‘revenge’. However, the relevance of the concept of ‘porn’ may have been too hastily dismissed.