The rhythms of shame in digital sexual assault: Rhythmic resistance and the repeated assault

Abstract

The non-consensual distribution of intimate images is a highly mediated kind of sexual violence. This article shows how data persistence and shareability constitute victim experiences of digital sexual assault as ‘repeated assaults’; as recurring instances of exposure and shaming facilitated by mediated rhythms and circulation. I also show how the participants of this study, young women victimised by digital assault, managed to create stability and resist the rhythms of their assault by modifying their social media presence and politicising their experiences.

Activist Participation in Academic Systems Three autoethnographic case studies of academic-activist positions in knowledge-work

“…Drawing on influential feminist works by Sara Ahmed (2017), Audre Lorde (1987), andBassett et al (2020), Signe argues for a researcher position motivated by rightful activist anger as a driver in research that has the potential to positively influence society (Uldbjerg, 2021a). This researcher position, which is motivated by the pursue of social change and driven by activist anger, is very similar to the activist-academic position described here.…”

“…Since her time in the student grassroots organisation (Et Andet Universitet), she has been involved in numerous other activist groups and projects; from refugee rights activism and volunteer work at asylum centres, to feminist community work and protesting. In recent years, her activism has primarily been focused on prevention of sexual violence (especially with the grassroots group Ikke ÉN Mere), and she recently wrote her PhD dissertation on digital sexual assault, working within a participatory and activist methodological framework (Uldbjerg, 2021a(Uldbjerg, , 2021b.…”

Sexualized, platformed female bodies in male online practices

“…For these boys and young men, the thrill seems to lie in getting close to the girls and young women as subjects and human beings through their imagery, but then transforming them into something else, destroying their agency and subjecthood, reducing them to "cunts" and "breasts", "whores" and "sluts", objects to be used and discarded -and thereby exhibiting and fantasizing about themselves as male and powerful and dangerous, strong and brave in their ability to transgress boundaries of all sorts. Meanwhile, these processes strongly aff ect the young women and girls depicted, who become objects of such abusive and violent assaults -not just once, but continuously, Penille Rasmussen and Dorte Marie Søndergaard Article: Sexualized platformed female bodies in male online practices as their imagery is reposted, reshared, and reevaluated (for analyses of these processes, see, e.g., Bates, 2017;Mortensen, 2020Mortensen, , 2021. However, this is something that seems to be given very little -if any -thought by the male participants in the online fora.…”