A tale of girl-sends-nudes-to-boy? Unscripting sexting in a Dutch school

Bibliographic Data

ID3626539
AuthorsWillemijn Krebbekx (0000-0001-5355-7951, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume33
Issue4
Pages375-385
Publication date2024-05-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09589236.2023.2242288
OpenAlexW4385658983
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited41

Most studies of sexting attempt to delineate its main characteristics, to define it and quantify its prominence and its effects. This article studies sexting within a specific ethnographic case. Based on an ethnographic case of a girl’s nude picture being disseminated in a secondary school in the Netherlands, this paper argues that sexting is scripted through media and scientific reports, influencing the way it comes into being and is dealt with in practice. The script emphasizes the girls’ responsibility in sending the picture, taking it to signal a lack of self-confidence, and emphasizes her guilt in its dissemination. On the other hand, it erases several elements, notably the different networks of friends that were tapped into by the actors, and the ‘economy of pictures’ that the picture was part of. Focusing extensively on the days immediately after the picture was spread, as well as on reflections on the event several months later, shows how the sexting script not only describes the phenomenon of sexting, but also prescribes how it is dealt with in practice, and, to a degree, how it produces sexting

Developmental psychology · Girl · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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