“Tailored pornography”

Abstract


 
 
 Drawing on 17 qualitative interviews with women aged 18–22, this paper explores how sexting practices are related to views on and uses of pornography. While pornography was found to be an important reference point for participants in their sexting, sexted images were actively tailored to differentiate themselves from porn in three ways. First, private images were to be less explicit and more realistic in terms of content. Second, unlike pornography, which was seen as one-sided, sex- ting relied on reciprocity and intimacy. Third, participants were careful to explicitly state what they were consenting to when sexting and, although a few were turned on by coercive fantasies found in porn, they clearly demarcated such experiences from those they wanted in their sexting relationships. This paper examines women’s active engagement with pornography to extend our understanding of the relationship between sexting and mundane media use, specifically in this case pornography.
 
 

Sexualized, platformed female bodies in male online practices

“…Th e tendencies concerning material produced and exchanged among adults are also recognizable among young people. Harder et al (2020), for example, emphasize how young people also imitate pornography. Although the material they produce may appear less explicit, the imagery often travels across digital spaces and becomes associated with multiple meanings depending on the normative discourses of the contexts and communities within these spaces (Rasmussen & Søndergaard, 2020).…”

What is visual intimacy?

“…Several studies argue that sexting can be part of regular sexual activity, an extension of an existing sexual relationship, e.g., as a pleasant anticipation, a compensation for the physical absence of a partner in a long-distance relationship, or a prelude to a relationship or hook-up (see, e.g., Harder et al, 2020;Weisskirch & Delevi, 2011). Importantly, studies also stress that sexting can be an activity between friends, a joke, or a practice used during a moment of bonding or exploring sexuality (Albury, 2015;Albury & Crawford, 2012;Th orhauge & Bonitz, 2020).…”