The currency of images: risk, value and gendered power dynamics in young men’s accounts of sexting

Abstract

This paper examines contemporary gender relations among young people by taking young men’s experiences with and understandings of “sexting” as a case in point. Based on a focus group study with university undergraduate men in Melbourne, Australia, we analyse what is seen as having value and what is seen as constituting a risk when engaging in sexting, and how this is perceived as different for men and women. We demonstrate how value and risk are closely intertwined in the focus group discussions and how the body is central in the production and negotiation of both these dimensions. This is made particularly clear in the two ‘figures’ that participants described as embodying the perceived risks; “the creep” and “the slut”. This paper illustrates the w ays gendered bodies and sexual value are central to the ways ‘double standards’ operate in sexting and persist in contemporary gender relations.