The Dick Pic: Harassment, Curation, and Desire

Abstract

The combined rise of digital photography and social media has expanded what might be considered photo worthy. Among the pouting selfies and food stuffs of the day exists the ubiquitous dick pic. The mainstream media generally focuses on dick pics of the unsolicited kind, which, negatively positioned, are commonly associated with heterosexual harassment. Considering the ubiquity of dick pics across apps and platforms, research on the topic nevertheless remains scarce. In this article, we examine the dick pic as an online communicative form, first considering how it manifests the ability to harass and then moving beyond this dominant framing to analysis of contexts where such images are collated, expected, and sought after. Through this analysis of dick pics as figures and actors of harassment, curation, and desire, we demonstrate the simultaneous tenacity and flexibility of their meanings in connection with the dynamics of consent and non-consent, intimacy and distance, and complex circuits of desire. We further address the role of platforms, apps, and app stores, via their community standards and terms of use, in shaping the nature, and presence, of dick pics, and discuss the affective and communicative functions that these affordances serve (or fail to serve). Our analysis of three key modes of engagement with dick pics demonstrates the ambiguity and multiple valences of the phenomenon addressed.

Reading for Realness: Porn Literacies, Digital Media, and Young People

“…In the literature we reviewed for all domains of healthy sexual development, a focus on digital media rarely extended beyond references to 'the internet' as simply generating greater access to porn. There is little to no reflection on digital cultures of sex and how pornography has changed and continues to change through dynamic media landscapes (Mercer 2017;Paasonen 2011;Paasonen et al 2019). As acknowledged by many media studies scholars, "Each new media has, in turn, changed what porn is and how it relates to its consumers" (Jenkins 2004, 2).…”

Understanding the social in a digital age

“…Although these areas may not be directly reflected in this Special Issue, they are an essential part of the broader agenda (see e.g. Burgess et al, 2016;Oakley, 2016;Paasonen et al, 2019;Szulc, 2018;Plummer, 2003). It is important to continue to challenge the presumption that 'the social' is a singular experience, or that specific manifestations of 'the social' can be normalized as central or neutral narratives, as realities are far more diverse.…”

‘A male dominance kind of vibe’: Approaching unsolicited dick pics as sexism

“…Indeed, the question of age is important in relation to any academic research on the topic of DPs, primarily because of the legal implications involved and the social concerns that are often raised when individuals legally defined as children create, share and receive private sexual imagery. 2 In addition to these two main subsets of the existing DP literature, some research has also stressed the important point that consensual heterosexual DP practices -adult or otherwise -can work as a means to express intimacy and/or desire (Paasonen et al, 2019). At the moment of this article being written, only one piece of research has explored the phenomenon of DPs in heterosexual relations exclusively from adult men's perspective, and this research is grounded in a survey that examines men's motivations for sending unsolicited DPs to women (Oswald et al, 2019).…”