TY - JOUR

T1 - The emotional bystander

T2 - sexting and image-based sexual abuse among young adults

AU - Harder, Sidsel Kirstine

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Digital sharing of sexually explicit imagery is a social and emotional phenomenon with at least three actors: A sender of an intimate image who is sexting with a consensual receiver – and a third party, who might non-consensually view the image later. In this paper, third parties are conceptualized as bystanders and it is analysed first, how non-consensual sharing makes the bystanders feel and secondly, how sexters feel about the potential bystanders. Data consists of 25 interviews with 18–25-year old Danes, who had experiences with sending, receiving and viewing intimate images digitally. Their narratives are analysed using Arlie Hochschild’s sociology of emotions to understand how young adults work with changing and expressing emotions in digital intimacy. Findings suggest that bystanders experience non-consensual sharing situations as awkward, uncomfortable and ethically problematic ‘oversharing’. Rather than intervening, bystanders manage their conflicting feelings by resorting to ‘surface acting’. In sexting, ‘deep acting’ and cropping technologies are used to reduce the emotional harm of bystander viewing. The role of bystanders constitutes an important research gap in relation to the affective complexities of sexual image exchange. The paper’s findings are applied in a critical discussion of campaigns advising young people to ‘sext safe’ and ‘speak-up’.

AB - Digital sharing of sexually explicit imagery is a social and emotional phenomenon with at least three actors: A sender of an intimate image who is sexting with a consensual receiver – and a third party, who might non-consensually view the image later. In this paper, third parties are conceptualized as bystanders and it is analysed first, how non-consensual sharing makes the bystanders feel and secondly, how sexters feel about the potential bystanders. Data consists of 25 interviews with 18–25-year old Danes, who had experiences with sending, receiving and viewing intimate images digitally. Their narratives are analysed using Arlie Hochschild’s sociology of emotions to understand how young adults work with changing and expressing emotions in digital intimacy. Findings suggest that bystanders experience non-consensual sharing situations as awkward, uncomfortable and ethically problematic ‘oversharing’. Rather than intervening, bystanders manage their conflicting feelings by resorting to ‘surface acting’. In sexting, ‘deep acting’ and cropping technologies are used to reduce the emotional harm of bystander viewing. The role of bystanders constitutes an important research gap in relation to the affective complexities of sexual image exchange. The paper’s findings are applied in a critical discussion of campaigns advising young people to ‘sext safe’ and ‘speak-up’.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - sexting

KW - image-based sexual abuse

KW - bystanders

KW - emotions

KW - young adults

U2 - 10.1080/13676261.2020.1757631

DO - 10.1080/13676261.2020.1757631

M3 - Journal article

VL - 24

SP - 655

EP - 669

JO - Journal of Youth Studies

JF - Journal of Youth Studies

SN - 1367-6261

IS - 5

ER -