Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Online Communities and the Broader Misogynistic Landscape

Abstract

This article offers an in-depth examination of user motivations and misogynistic online cultures drawing on data collected from two websites that openly condone the sharing and viewing of non-consensually shared sexual images. Analysed using a feminist lens, findings show significant cultural differences and motivations for engagement across the two websites indicating that these online spaces should not be understood as homogenous. Findings also demonstrate the increasing 'pornification' of these images as they are marketed, traded, and used as commodities. The article also considers how we might contextualize non-consensual image sharing within the broader misogynistic landscape and how male peer support theory and digital criminology can help to understand current, and future, forms of online misogyny.