This document summarizes an academic article about how young people construct social meanings and cultural norms surrounding sexting through a gendered lens. The summary explores: 1) Previous research found that sexting culture attributes more agency and legitimacy to young men's sexual practices, while young women face greater risks of shame and blame. 2) The current study interviewed 41 young people aged 14-18 to understand their individual experiences navigating these gendered dynamics. 3) The accounts of two young women are presented to show how they make sense of social expectations and negotiate risks of social shaming within sexting culture.

1. 1. Using a Microsoft Word document, please post one federal
and one state statute utilizing standard legal notation and a
hyperlink to each statute.
2. In the same document, please post one federal and one state
case using standard legal notation and a hyperlink to each case.
Rubric for Assignment submission
Criterion
Description
Points possible
Content
Student posts one federal statute.
Student posts one state statute.
Student posts one federal case.
Student posts one state case.
5
5
5
5
Citation
Correct use of standard legal notation
5 each
Total Points possible
40
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

2. Meanings of Bodily and Sexual Expression in Youth Sexting
Culture:
Young Women’s Negotiation of Gendered Risks and Harms
Emily Setty1
Published online: 31 August 2018
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer
Nature 2018
Abstract
The present paper explores how young people construct
gendered social meanings and cultural norms surrounding
sexual and
bodily expression in youth sexting culture. Previous research
suggests youth sexting is a gendered phenomenon in which
young
men are able to seek social capital through sexting, whereas
young women are subject to social shaming and harassment.
Drawing upon findings from group and one-to-one interviews
with 41 young people aged 14–18, I show how constructs of
risk,
shame, and responsibility operated along gendered lines. Young
people attributed agency and legitimacy to young men’s sexual
practices, whereas young women were disempowered, denied
legitimacy, and tasked with managing gendered risks of harm in
youth sexting culture. I discuss how young women negotiated
and navigated risk and shame and, in some instances, made
space
for safe, pleasurable sexting experiences despite and within
these narratives. The accounts of two young women, who shared
experiences sexting and social shaming, are presented to show
some of the ways young women make sense of social meanings
and cultural norms on individual and interpersonal levels. I
conclude that challenging gendered harm requires a
(re)legitimisation

3. of feminine sexuality and bodily expression away from
narratives of risk and shame.
Keywords Sexting . Young people . Gender . Sexism . Shame
Sexting is defined as the Bcreation and sharing of personal
sexual images or text messages via mobile phones or internet
applications, including Facebook, Snapchat, and email^
(Hasinoff 2015, p. 1). The phenomenon has attracted particu-
lar media attention, public concern, and research and policy
focus when practiced by young people, particularly those un-
der the age of 18 for whom the production and exchange of
sexual images is criminalised in the United Kingdom and
elsewhere under child pornography laws (Moran-Ellis
2012). Discomfort around Byouth sexting,^ as it is termed,
relates not just to its legal status, but also to broader, long-
standing social and moral anxieties around youth, sexuality,
and digital communication technology (Lee et al. 2013).
At the centre of the controversy about youth sexting is the
Bsexting girl,^ inappropriately engaging in sexualised self-
expression in response to the demands of boys and men
(Draper 2012; Hasinoff 2015; Karaian 2012, 2014). Young
women are often described as passive victims of a sexualised
cultural context that is compelling them to sext (Draper 2012).
Rarely are they afforded agency in their practices, nor their
bodily and sexual representations interpreted beyond con-
structions of naivety, risk, and shame (Hasinoff 2014, 2015).
Young men, meanwhile, are presented as inherently unable to
engage in sexting Bethically^ and as likely to pressure and
coerce young women to sext and, subsequently, to distribute
young women’s images around their peer group for social gain
(Herriot and Hiseler 2015). The present article centralises the
perspective of young people and examines the role of gender
in their practices and perceptions surrounding sexting. I ex-
plore the implications of gendered norms and meanings for

4. young women in youth sexting culture, and I discuss how
young women navigated gendered sociocultural constraints
on their bodily and sexual expression.
Previous research exploring sexting from the perspective of
young people reveals it is a gendered phenomenon. Although
young men and women may sext, statistically, at similar rates,
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0957-x) contains
supplementary
material, which is available to authorized users.
* Emily Setty
[email protected]
1 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Surrey,
Guildford,
Surrey GU2 7XH, UK
Sex Roles (2019) 80:586–606
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0957-x
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11199-018-
0957-x&domain=pdf
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2085-7963
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0957-x
mailto:[email protected]
there are differing meanings ascribed to their practices
(Lippman and Campbell 2014). There is little evidence from
previous research that the phenomenon is providing opportu-
nities for more diverse conceptualisations of sexual and bodily
expression, at least at the level of peer group practices and
perceptions (Albury et al. 2013; Coy et al. 2013; Dobson

5. and Ringrose 2015; Harris et al. 2013; Lippman and
Campbell 2014; Phippen 2012; Ringrose et al. 2012; Walker
2012). Nevertheless, alternative narratives and practices that
challenge the assumption that youth sexting is inherently
harmful and, by association, the reification of young women
as passive victims in sexting dynamics are present among
some of those who report engaging in the practice (see
Crofts et al. 2015).
Perceptions of Young Men and Women Who
Sext
Previous research suggests there are gendered double stan-
dards present in youth sexting culture. Young women’s sexual
and bodily self-expression can be met with slut-shaming and
abuse, whereas young men are lauded for engaging in sexting
and can obtain social capital through the unauthorised distri-
bution of images of young women in their peer group (Albury
et al. 2013; Coy et al. 2013; Harris et al. 2013; Phippen 2012;
Ringrose et al. 2012; Walker 2012). Among 12–18 year-olds,
Lippman and Campbell (2014) found that although sexting
was perceived as a normative and expected part of courtship
and sexual activity, there were negative judgments on young
women who sext as Bsluts.^
Risk and harm narratives dominate among young people,
in which gender inequalities are taken-for-granted and under-
pin the victim-blaming of young women who engage in
sexting and have their images distributed without their consent
(Bond 2010; Jonsson et al. 2015). Dobson and Ringrose
(2015) found that there are narratives of young women’s re-
sponsibility for harassment and breaking of trust by young
men is naturalised. They argue that young women seem to
have little B[legitimate entitlement] to digitally mediate sexu-
ality or express sexual desire^ (p. 11); instead, they are tasked
with managing the risk of unauthorised distribution by

6. young men. Young women who sext and encounter
harm can, therefore, be viewed as having no one to
blame but themselves for not foreseeing and taking
steps to avoid harm (Albury et al. 2013; Coy et al.
2013; Walker 2012). Salter (2015) found that these nar-
ratives are reproduced by young adult women who sext
and experience unauthorised distribution. They attribute
their experiences to personal failings and although they
may criticise men’s behaviour, they see the solution as
personal change, in particular abstaining from sexting.
Unwanted and Pressured Sexting
Pressure to sext, particularly on young women by young men,
is prevalent according to previous research (Albury et al.
2013; Coy et al. 2013; Crofts et al. 2015; Harris et al. 2013;
Lippman and Campbell 2014; McGraw 2013; Phippen 2012;
Ringrose et al. 2012; Walker 2012). Research reveals that
pressured sexting can be coercive and include blackmail and
threats, including toward young women who engage in
sexting but later decide that they do not wish to continue doing
so (Ringrose et al. 2012; Wolak et al. 2018). Young women
are, essentially, in a double bind in which they risk being
ostracised as frigid by young men if they do not agree to sext
but fear slut shaming if exposed as sexters in the peer group
(Renold and Ringrose 2011; Ringrose et al. 2012). Young men
also, however, come under pressure in youth sexting culture
(Walker 2012). The construction of sexting as an accomplish-
ment for young men can lead to pressure on them to adhere to
the demands of compulsory masculine sexuality by obtaining
and distributing the images of young women (Bailey and
Mouna 2011; Ringrose et al. 2012). Young men who refuse
to comply with such demands can experience homophobic
bullying (Ringrose and Harvey 2015).
Unwanted sexting through unsolicited image-sharing sim-

7. ilarly affects both young men and women, but previous re-
search suggests the meaning and experience of this is gen-
dered. Unsolicited image-sharing is the sharing of sexual
and nude/semi-nude images without the consent of the recip-
ient (Salter 2015). Angrove (2015) conceptualises it as a form
of sexualised cyber-bullying that damages the self-perceptions
of victims, who are most often young women. Salter (2015)
found that young adult women tend to conceptualise the prac-
tice as Bboys being boys^ and something they must just ig-
nore. In her study of young adults, Burkett (2015) found that
men also experience unsolicited image-sharing, but these men
did not construct it as threatening or report experiencing self-
doubt or offense as the women did. Bond (2010) found that
among teenagers, some young men felt obligated to keep un-
solicited images sent to them by young women private, so as
to protect their reputations. Rather than seeing themselves as
victimised, these young men constructed themselves as adher-
ing to a form of etiquette toward young women by not sharing
their images (Bond 2010).
Pleasurable Youth Sexting
Although gender double standards and victim-blaming feature
in youth sexting culture, it has been found that sexting encom-
passes a range of practices, some of which may be pleasurable
and positive (Crofts et al. 2015). Young people describe
sexting as varying along a continuum ranging from private,
consensual image production and exchange to non-
Sex Roles (2019) 80:586–606 587
consensual, harmful practices such as pressure, coercion, and
unauthorised distribution of images (Albury et al. 2013; Crofts
et al. 2015). Surveys reveal that the majority of sexting occurs

8. between young people of a similar age and who are known to
one another (e.g., romantic/desired partners, friends and ac-
quaintances; Englander 2012; Ybarra and Mitchell 2014).
Surveys and qualitative research with young people suggest
they sext for a variety of reasons, including to build and main-
tain relationships, to demonstrate intimate connection with
others and for self-expression, as well as due to boredom
and a desire for risk-taking (Albury et al. 2013; Cooper et al.
2016; Lenhart 2009; Walker 2012). Survey respondents de-
scribe sexting as hot, exciting, arousing, safer (than physical
activity) and fun, but also damaging, harmful, and inappropri-
ate (Associated Press and MTV 2009; Lenhart 2009; National
Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and
Cosmogirl.com 2008). Youth sexting is not, therefore,
inherently harmful or pleasurable, and, for some, the
riskiness of it may give it meaning and shape motiva-
tion, for example through expressing trust (Crofts et al.
2015; Karaian and Van Meyl 2015).
Young people are likely navigating and negotiating broader
gendered sociocultural contexts in which social meanings and
cultural norms are actively and reflexively incorporated into
self-concepts and decision-making on individual and interper-
sonal levels, so sexism and inequality in the peer group may
not translate directly into their individual experiences (Crofts
et al. 2015). Among 11–18-year-old Finnish young women,
Neilsen et al. (2015) found that sexting facilitated experimen-
tation and expression, and participants reported pleasurable
experiences and feelings. Contrary to discourses of risk and
perceptions of harm as widespread and inevitable, the authors
suggest their participants’ practices B…offer tangible chal-
lenges to fear-based sex education discourses that frame girls
solely as victims of grooming and harmful conduct online^
(Neilsen et al. 2015, p. 480).
Notwithstanding, research suggests that young women

9. hold more negative perceptions of sexting than young men
do, although these perceptions may relate as much to mean-
ings surrounding the legitimacy of female sexual expression
and the risks of such expression as to experiences of harm
(Crofts et al. 2015; Klettke et al. 2014; Strassberg et al.
2014). There is evidence that sexting may represent a form
of relationship currency, which is an expected part of youth
courtship and dating rituals (Lippman and Campbell 2014).
Such expectations may particularly affect women. Burkett
(2015) found that young adult women, compared to young
adult men, spoke less about sexting being fun, pleasurable,
and spontaneous and more about it helping to build, maintain,
and demonstrate intimacy and connection in relationship—
suggesting women may conceive of sexting as a necessary
and expected part of fulfilling intimate relationships. Young
women, compared to young men, are also more likely to
report having sent an image in response to a request from a
partner, because of pressure, to prove commitment to a partner
or to get attention (Wood et al. 2015).
The Present Study
The broad purpose of the present study was to explore how
young people understand and experience sexting on
individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural levels. Crofts
et al. (2015) suggest it is important to distinguish the percep-
tions held by groups of young people (which may be negative
and gendered because they are based on the social meanings
and cultural norms circulating with the peer group) from the
situated, individual, and interpersonal experiences of sexters,
which may challenge, as well as reproduce, individualistic
notions of risk management and gendered norms and assump-
tions surrounding sexual and bodily expression. Due to ethical
constraints on hearing from young people directly about their
sexting practices, much previous research has concentrated

10. more on group-level perceptions of the phenomenon.
Understandings of how individuals navigate gendered mean-
ings in sexting are based more on studies with young adults
rather than teenaged young people (Burkett 2015; Crofts et al.
2015). In the present study, I spoke with young people aged
14–18 years-old about their practices and experiences sexting,
as well as the meanings and perceptions they shared as a
group. I thus filled a research gap by identifying how young
people produced gendered constructions of sexting, the ways
in which these gendered constructions shaped their sexting
practices, and how young women in particular sought to nav-
igate and negotiate gendered constraints on their sexual and
bodily self-expression.
The aim of my research was to explore young people’s
practices and perceptions surrounding sexting to understand
the social meanings and cultural norms underpinning their
sexting practices, in particular for the purposes of the present
article, with regard to gender and the implications—both
harmful and beneficial—for young women. Three questions
shaped the research and the analysis that underpins my work:
(a) What are young people’s practices and perceptions sur-
rounding sexting, particularly regarding ethical digital prac-
tices in terms of privacy and consent?; (b) What are the un-
derlying social meanings and cultural norms regarding
gender that shape these practices and perceptions?; and
(c) How are these meanings and value systems incorpo-
rated into young women’s self-concepts, practices, and
decision-making in sexting?
The primary contribution of my work is to centralise the
young women’s perspectives, who are often spoken for and
about in ways that can be pathologising, delegitimising, and
homogenising (Hasinoff 2015; Karaian 2012, 2014). After
outlining young people’s gendered constructions of youth

11. 588 Sex Roles (2019) 80:586–606
sexting and how these constructions underpin risk and harm
for young women, I discuss how the young women navigated
and negotiated gendered logics in their peer group and how
their practices and perceptions were shaped by broader mean-
ings and norms, even while, for some, they were resisting
narratives of risk and shame. I end by arguing for a more
positive conceptualisation of sexual and bodily expression
for young women beyond the restrictive constructs circulating
in young people’s sociocultural contexts that deconstructs and
disentangles notions of gender, risk, shame, and blame.
Method
Participants
Participants were recruited from two schools and four youth
clubs in a county in southeast England. These were straight-
forward places to access participants and enabled me to ex-
plore sexting within young people’s situated peer contexts
(e.g., Johansson 2012). The schools were in a relatively afflu-
ent, semi-rural area, and the participants were confident
and communicative. The youth clubs served a more di-
verse population and gatekeepers described attendees as
ranging from mainstream middle-class to those
experiencing deprivation, school failure/exclusion, men-
tal health issues, and learning disabilities.
The sample comprised 23 young men, 16 young women,
and two young people identifying as gender fluid. All identi-
fied as from a White racial background. Fully 29 described
themselves as heterosexual, five as gay/lesbian, three as bisex-
ual, two as pansexual, one as bi-romantic asexual, and one did

12. not specify. Most reported not having a disability, although
three stated they had a physical disability, six a mental disabil-
ity, 1 a learning disability, and 1 a sensory disability.
The sample was homogenous in terms of ethnicity, which
is perhaps unsurprising given the region of the United
Kingdom in which I conducted the study. This limits the gen-
eral applicability of the study and although generalisability is
not traditionally an aim of qualitative research, the findings I
discuss here should be considered reflective of the perspec-
tives of this particular group of participants. More young men
participated than did young women, which was due to the
greater willingness of young men to participate in the youth
clubs, perhaps reflecting young men’s greater confidence and
ownership over these spaces compared to young women (see
Laverty 2016). There was, therefore, a slight preponderance of
young men’s perspectives in the findings. However, the data
obtained from the young women was rich, and the one-to-one
interviews with young women who had experiences of sexting
were insightful, helping to balance the findings.
I was aware that more vocal, compliant, and confident
young people can be more likely to participate in research than
will others, particularly in school environments (Curtis et al.
2004). Nevertheless, I spoke with a range of young people and
each group, across the sites, was different and had varying
perspectives and ways of discussing the issues. Although not
generalisable, my findings represent diverse outlooks and ex-
periences while revealing common themes and meanings.
Measures
The research involved nine semi-structured, qualitative group
interviews and 7 one-to-one interviews. The group interviews
explored participants’ use of technology, meanings, and un-

13. derstandings of the ethics of sexting in terms of privacy and
consent, and practices and perceptions surrounding sexting
(see the group interview guide in the online supplement).
The groups formed at the schools were single-gender (two
male groups and two female groups), and in the youth clubs
there was one male group and four mixed-gender groups. I
had intended to form single-gender groups to create non-
censorious environments in which young people could speak
freely about their experiences and perspectives (see Curtis
et al. 2004). In the youth clubs, however, gatekeepers sug-
gested young people tend to congregate in friendship
groups and may consider it unnatural to be split by
gender. Resultantly, some groups were mixed-gender.
This arrangement meant I observed co-constructed
meaning in single- and mixed-gender settings, providing
broader insight into the phenomenon.
The one-to-one interviews were a two-way conversation in
which participants shared personal beliefs and experiences
sexting. In these interviews, I referred back to the group inter-
view discussions and asked participants whether they had any
personal experiences with what had been discussed and the
conversation flowed depending upon their perspectives. I had
an interview guide with broad questions, but tailored the
questioning to the participants (see the one-to-one interview
guide in the online supplement).
Procedure
I conducted the interviews alone in private rooms in the
schools and youth clubs. Gatekeepers supported me to recruit
participants. In the schools, gatekeepers advertised the re-
search and recruited the participants. I had intended to attend
the schools to recruit participants myself, but gatekeepers con-
sidered it more efficient, in terms of their time and resources,
to recruit participants themselves. Potential participants were

14. given information and contacted the gatekeeper if they were
interested. Once a suitable number were recruited, dates were
set for the group interviews. I first met the participants at the
time of the group interview; those who were content to be
interviewed one-to-one informed the gatekeeper after the
group interview and a date for the interview was arranged.
Sex Roles (2019) 80:586–606 589
All participants gave informed consent to participate in the
interviews (with gatekeepers assessing their competence to
do so).
In the youth clubs, I attended the evening sessions and
introduced myself and the study. Interested young people were
told to go to the private room in the youth club at the time of
the group interview that evening. The youth work leaders
were not content for the young people to be interviewed
one-to-one, so I only conducted group interviews in these
settings. In different ways, the gatekeepers at the schools
and the youth clubs imposed barriers to conducting the re-
search, but overall they were relatively flexible and content
for me to explore sexting with participants in an honest and
open way.
In the interviews, I introduced sexting to participants in an
open and non-presumptuous way. I was mindful of not mak-
ing any pre-judgments about sexting nor framing it as either a
positive or negative activity. I did not use the term sexting,
given young people tend not to use the term and consider it a
media-produced term used by adults (Albury et al. 2013;
Karaian 2012). I informed participants that I was interested
in their views and experiences regarding producing and shar-
ing personal sexual messages or images in which a person

15. may appear partly or fully naked, regardless of whether they
personally had ever done it themselves. The interviews were
audio-recorded and at the start, participants completed
demographic forms and chose pseudonyms. The study
and methodology received ethical approval from the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Ethics Committee
at the University of Surrey.
Reflexivity and Positionality
I was reflexive, considering data generated from research as a
joint production of researcher-participant interaction
(Huberman and Miles 2002). I was aware of my position as
a White, heterosexual young adult woman. I was particularly
mindful about inhibiting the young men and did not want to
appear as someone with whom they could not speak honestly
and openly. I did not censor their experiences, either as an
adult or as a woman. I found they engaged well and seemed
to appreciate discussing the issues with a non-judgmental,
open-minded, and supportive young adult (see Frosh et al.
2002). In general, I sought to reduce social distance and build
rapport between the participants and myself (Raby 2007). I
wore casual clothes, chatted casually with participants, and
took their perspective as a starting point for the interviews. I
treated them as knowledgeable experts and gave them control
over the content and direction of the discussion (Burman et al.
2001). Reflexivity is, however, more than a statement of
positionality or self-tellin’ (Skeggs 2004). Throughout, I
reflected upon the implications of the methods, values, biases,
and decisions for the accounts and knowledge generated, as
well as the potential voices that may have been excluded,
misinterpreted or misunderstood (King and Horrocks 2010).
Analysis

16. I was guided by symbolic interactionism as a theoretical
framework. Symbolic interactionism holds that individuals
act based upon the meanings of objects and actions in the
social world produced through interaction with one another
and handled in reflexive Binterpretative processes^ (Blumer
1969, p. 2). Symbolic interactionism enabled me to explore
how participants produced meaning in sexting in their local
peer contexts and how they reflexively incorporated meaning
into their self-concepts, decision-making, and practices. I was
interested both in the situated individual and interpersonal
experiences of sexting, as well as sexting as a phenomenon
in participants’ peer contexts in which sexting actors and by-
standers come together to make sexting meaningful in inter-
action with one another. In line with symbolic interactionism,
I conceived of the sociocultural, interpersonal, and individual
levels of meaning and experience as mutually shaping and re-
shaping one another (Jackson and Scott 2010). This enabled
me to explore how participants reproduced systems of mean-
ing to create established norms and standards, as well as how
they challenged and reworked meaning in their practices.
The analysis was intended to foreground the participants’
perspectives and experiences (see Charmaz 2014b). I was
guided by Charmaz’s (2014a) approach to grounded theory.
She describes it as building a theory from successive stages of
analysis in which participants’ experiences are understood in
abstract terms. Analysis was intended to create thick descrip-
tions of contexts, intentions, and processes of social actors. I
engaged in close reading of the transcripts before coding line-
by-line. Codes were initially descriptive and later interpretive,
in which I explored how participants spoke about different
issues and what was being constructed to develop categories
and themes. An a priori literature review gave me a full
picture of young people’s social worlds, and I brought
in concepts and literature to understand participants’ ac-
counts and the implications of the data (Blumer 1969;

17. Charmaz 1990). I was interested in how different con-
cepts explored in the literature were expressed and ex-
perienced by participants, not just whether they exist,
and I was open to new ideas and contradictions.
Data analysis was a continuous, iterative process. Analysis
took place soon after each interview, and each interview was
interrogated and informed subsequent data collection. I
shaped my approach and questions based upon emerging find-
ings to develop the codes, categories, and themes. I compared
between participants and research contexts (group and one-to-
one interviews) to explore how participants constructed issues
differently. Both types of interview revealed constructed
meaning and reflexive interpretive processes. In the groups,
590 Sex Roles (2019) 80:586–606
I observed how participants used language to designate and
co-construct meaning, as well as how they together engaged in
reflexive interpretative processes to jointly decide upon
courses of action. One-to-one, I observed how participants
drew upon wider systems of meaning to construct their self-
concepts and shape their decision-making and practices.
Results
The research revealed the presence of a heteronormative gen-
der dynamic in which participants constructed harm as arising
from the nature of masculine and feminine sexuality. I outline
the gendered meanings and norms surrounding sexting circu-
lating within participants’ peer contexts before discussing
how the young women negotiated and navigated these mean-
ings and norms within their perceptions and practices. The
findings suggest that youth sexting culture is characterised

18. by risk-aversion, shame, blame, and responsibility, in which
gendered meanings underpin harmful practices and shape vic-
tim-blaming. I observed young women positioning them-
selves in terms of these narratives and also challenging as-
sumptions of passivity and victimisation. However, even
where their accounts challenged the characterisation of
sexting as inherently risky and shameful, broader socio-
cultural norms and meanings intertwined with their
practices and perceptions. More information about the
young men and young women quoted here can be found
in Tables 1 and 2 summarizes the themes, their descrip-
tion, and prototypical examples.
Perceptions of Young Men’s and Young Women’s
Sexting Practices
In this section, I describe the role of gender in young people’s
constructions of sexting. Participants’ discussions revealed a
desire among young men to view and take pleasure in the
images of young women. The young men constructed this as
a Bnatural male reaction^ (John) and a typical practice within
male peer groups. Young women who sext, meanwhile, were
described as being seen as sluts and as of low status in the eyes
of others. Subsequent sections reveal how these meanings
underpinned harmful sexting practices and shaped how young
women negotiated youth sexting culture.
Whereas the depiction of youth sexting in public discourse
tends to show young women sending images to young men,
participants perceived young men to be sexting as frequently,
perhaps more so, than young …
eminism
&

19. sychology
F
P
Special Issue: Feminisms and Social Media
‘‘I can be your Tinder
nightmare’’: Harassment
and misogyny in the
online sexual
marketplace
Laura Thompson
City, University of London, UK
Abstract
On Instagram, the accounts Bye Felipe and Tinder Nightmares
feature screen-grabbed
messages of sexist abuse and harassment women have received
from men on dating
apps. This paper presents a discursive analysis of 526 posts
from these Instagrams.
Utilising a psychosocial and feminist poststructuralist
perspective, it examines how
harassing messages reproduce certain gendered discourses and
(hetero)sexual scripts,
and analyses how harassers attempt to position themselves and
the feminine subject in

20. interaction. The analysis presents two themes, termed the ‘‘not
hot enough’’ discourse
and the ‘‘missing discourse of consent’’, which are unpacked to
reveal a patriarchal logic
in which a woman’s constructed ‘‘worth’’ in the online sexual
marketplace resides in her
beauty and sexual propriety. Occurring in response to women’s
exercise of choice and
to (real or imagined) sexual rejection, it is argued these are
disciplinary discourses that
attempt to (re)position women and femininity as sexually
subordinate to masculinity
and men. This paper makes a novel contribution to a growing
body of feminist work on
online harassment and misogyny. It also considers the
implications for feminist theoris-
ing on the link between postfeminism and contemporary forms
of sexism, and ends with
some reflections on strategies of feminist resistance.
Keywords
online dating, sexism, postfeminism, sexual harassment, Tinder,
sexuality, new media
Feminism & Psychology

21. 2018, Vol. 28(1) 69–89
! The Author(s) 2018
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0959353517720226
journals.sagepub.com/home/fap
Corresponding author:
Laura Thompson, School of Arts and Social Sciences, City,
University of London, Northampton Square,
London EC1 HVB, UK.
Email: [email protected]
https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/journals-permissions
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353517720226
journals.sagepub.com/home/fap
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1177%2F09593535
17720226&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2018-02-08
Introduction
Rise of the Feminist Tinder-Creep-Busting Web Vigilante –
Olga Khazan (2014), The
Atlantic
This Woman Set Up an Instagram to Show the Shocking Truth

22. of Being a Woman
Online – Jo Barrow (2014), Buzzfeed UK
‘Bye Felipe’ Is the Best New Instagram Account for Your Gross
Online Dating
Messages – Lane Moore (2014), Cosmopolitan.com
In October 2014, the Instagram account Bye Felipe was created
with the aim of
‘‘calling out dudes who turn hostile when rejected or ignored’’.
Run by Alexandra
Tweten, a white American woman in her mid-20s, Bye Felipe
exposes the harass-
ment and sexism women experience online by posting
screenshots women send her
of verbal abuse, unwanted graphic pictures (‘‘dick pics’’) and
crude sexual solici-
tations received from men over online dating platforms, and
sometimes other social
media sites. Two years later, Bye Felipe has amassed over
430,000 followers and
expanded into a feminist campaign which includes a website, a
podcast, a petition
for Facebook to implement anti-harassment policies and comedy
events held in
Los Angeles (see bye-felipe.com, 2016).
As the headlines above demonstrate, media coverage tends to be
highly
receptive towards the Bye Felipe phenomenon and enthusiastic
about the idea
of calling out and shaming ‘‘Tinder creeps’’ and their ‘‘gross
messages’’. A
number of articles frame this practice as part of a broader social

23. trend (e.g.
Krueger, 2015; Weiss, 2015), covering it alongside other highly
popular
Instagram accounts like Tinder Nightmares, which has an
impressive following
of 1.6 million people, and a book of the same name. Tinder
Nightmares is the
creation of Elan Gale, who reportedly started the account
because he ‘‘hates’’
online dating and wanted to ‘‘make fun of it’’ (Parkinson,
2015). Although it is
not billed as a feminist account and is open to submissions from
both sexes,
most of the ‘‘nightmares’’ it features are sexist messages
women have received
from men.
These Instagrams help expose the pressing and otherwise
privately experi-
enced issue of harassment and misogyny on online dating
services (Hess &
Flores, 2016; Shaw, 2016). With the introduction of apps like
Tinder, online
dating has soared in popularity in recent years and there are
concerns that
women and sexual minorities are exposed to sexually aggressive
behaviour in
these spaces, such as ‘‘cyber flashing’’ (Thompson, 2016) and
even sexual assault
committed with the aid of dating apps (Hopkins, 2016), at an
unprecedented
scale. Despite the potentially grave consequences and extensive
public discussion
of this issue, it has attracted surprisingly little academic
attention (although see
Hess & Flores, 2016; Shaw, 2016). This study provides novel

24. insight into sexist
harassment of women on dating apps by analysing screen-
grabbed messages
posted on Bye Felipe and Tinder Nightmares. It explores what
discursive
forms misogyny takes in these exchanges, and how the men
attempt to position
themselves and the feminine subject in ways that reinforce
traditional gender
70 Feminism & Psychology 28(1)
hierarchies. The analysis presents what I have dubbed the ‘‘not
hot enough’’
discourse and the ‘‘missing discourse of consent’’ and unpacks
these to reveal a
marketised logic in which a woman’s ‘‘worth’’ in the online
sexual marketplace
is rooted in patriarchal ideals of feminine beauty and sexual
propriety. Noting
that online dating affords women an increased level of choice
and control in
finding potential dates, I argue that harassment on dating apps
may constitute a
form of gender discipline, with some men responding to shifting
gender politics
with overt misogyny.
Online dating: Gender politics in the sexual marketplace
First I explore how the metaphor of the sexual marketplace has
become a dominant
discursive framework for making sense of – and hence shaping
– contemporary

25. heterosexual relations and online dating communities.
Academics were among the
first to openly theorise (heterosexual) relationships as an
economic exchange that
follows the laws of supply and demand (for a review, see
Ahuvia & Adelman,
1993). The theory posits men and women act strategically and
rationally, weighing
up what kind of valuable ‘‘goods’’ they can exchange and what
they can ‘‘afford’’ in
return for desired relationships, amidst a wider market of
potential competitors.
Proponents of this view extend on evolutionary psychological
accounts of sex and
gender, contending that ‘‘men and women play different roles
resembling buyer and
seller’’ (Baumeister & Vohs, 2004, p. 339). Female sex is
considered to be an
exchange for male social resources (e.g. wealth, status) and thus
key factors affect-
ing a woman’s ‘‘currency’’ in this sexual marketplace are her
sexual attractiveness
and (imagined or real) number of previous sexual partners.
As recent feminist critiques of evolutionary psychology point
out (e.g. Farvid &
Braun, 2014; Garcı́a-Favaro, 2016), this metaphor is predicated
on traditional
gendered assumptions about the ‘‘male sex drive’’, where men
are considered nat-
urally more interested in heterosex (particularly casual sex)
than women are, and so
will actively pursue heterosexual interactions. Women, on the
other hand, are
positioned as passive recipients of men’s sexual attention and
need only to

26. accept or refuse such offers. In other words, women are
depicted as the products,
men the consumers.
Research suggests people of both genders do often use market
metaphors to
describe their dating activities, both in ‘‘traditional’’ and online
settings (e.g.
Ahuvia & Adelman, 1993; Smaill, 2004). For example, studies
have found online
dating described by participants as ‘‘a bit like shopping’’
(Couch & Liamputtong,
2008, p. 273) and ‘‘shopping for the perfect parts’’ (Heino,
Ellison, & Gibbs, 2010,
p. 437). In a study by Frohlick & Migliardi (2011, p. 83) on
middle-aged women’s
experiences of online dating, one participant was quoted as
saying: ‘‘for men, it’s
like being in a candy store, a kid in a candy store. They just
move from one woman
to the next’’. As the majority of online dating services are
structured according to
marketing principles, these platforms arguably represent an
embodiment, or visual-
isation, of the sexual marketplace. On a dating site or app, one
constructs a profile
and then scrolls or swipes through a near continuous stream of
other profiles to
Thompson 71
‘‘match’’ with desirable others. Scholars studying the
technosocial dynamics of
online dating platforms argue this action – along with the

27. application of search
terms or preferences to sift through the vast pool of profiles –
constructs the
dating subject as the one who controls, selects and manipulates
potential
matches (David & Cambre, 2016; Roscoe & Chillas; 2014). It is
argued then
that online dating ‘‘radicalises the demand that one find for
oneself the best
bargain’’ (Illouz, 2007, p. 86).
Illouz (2007, p. 81) further claims that the fixity of the profile
picture(s) means
‘‘beauty and the body are ever-present’’ and locked ‘‘in a
competitive market of
similar photographs’’. Online daters become hyperaware of
their physical appear-
ance and its social capital and through the body are made to
compete with others.
This idea resonates with Foucauldian-inspired theorisations of
social media as an
‘‘omnopticon’’: a mode of surveillance where ‘‘the many watch
the many’’
(Jurgenson, 2010, p. 376). Gazing at other’s dating profiles
whilst simultaneously
being gazed at may thus produce a particular kind of self-
monitoring, where one
judges the self against others and so determines one’s
corresponding market value.
As both men and women use these image based interfaces to
seek heterosexual
relationships one might assume the omnoptic gaze works
equally both ways and
produces the same power effects. However, according to the
tenets of the sexual
marketplace, physical attractiveness is considered more central

28. to women’s
‘‘worth’’ in the market than it is for men (Baumeister and Vohs,
2004). Recent
feminist literature has also highlighted how women’s bodies are
particularly scru-
tinised across new media (e.g. Dobson, 2013; Salter, 2016),
with Gill (2008a, p. 442)
contending that women ‘‘are subject to a level of scrutiny and
hostile surveillance
which has no historical precedent’’.
In addition to these traditional scripts, the online sexual
marketplace is also
animated by an ostensibly gender neutral and permissive
orientation towards
casual sex. The permissive discourse, a product of the so-called
sexual revolution,
depicts both men and women as having a potential desire for
casual sex (Hollway,
1989). This contemporary understanding of casual sex as an
‘‘egalitarian, fun and
free endeavour’’ (Farvid & Braun, 2014, p. 124) is enjoined
with the postfeminist
notion that – presumed to be now liberated – the contemporary
(young) woman
can and should embody a sexually confident and adventurous,
‘‘up for it’’ femin-
inity to demonstrate her empowerment (Gill, 2008b; McRobbie,
2004). Most popu-
lar (and free) dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid and
PlentyofFish present and are
typically perceived as ‘‘hookup apps’’ (e.g. David & Cambre,
2016; Shaw, 2016).
Although these platforms are not only used to seek casual sex
(see Sumter,
Vandenbosch, & Ligtenberg, 2017), they have garnered a

29. reputation as ‘‘meat
markets’’ and as the online equivalent of the ‘‘seedy nightclub’’
(Race, 2015).
Consequently, having a profile on a dating app may be
construed as indicating a
desire for casual sex, and there are anecdotal reports of some
women using ‘‘dis-
claimers’’ like ‘‘not dtf’’ (‘‘down to fuck’’) on their profiles to
try to mitigate this
perception (see Khazan, 2014).
72 Feminism & Psychology 28(1)
Online misogyny and gendered violence
In recent years, sexual harassment and abuse of women on
social media and other
online public spaces has become increasingly visible. A
growing body of research
has examined misogynistic behaviour in such spaces as video
games (Salter &
Blodgett, 2012), Twitter (Hardaker & McGlashan, 2016), online
communities of
Men’s Rights Activists and Pick-Up Artists (Banet-Weisner &
Miltner, 2016), news
comment sections (Garcı́a-Favaro & Gill, 2016) and ‘‘lad’’
social media accounts
like UniLad (Phipps & Young, 2015). A number of researchers
have detected a
patterned quality to the kinds of abuse women receive online.
Jane (2014) and
Salter and Blodgett (2012) note one recurring theme revolves
around verbal attacks
on women’s appearance (‘‘fat’’, ‘‘ugly’’, etc.). Sexualised and

30. gendered slurs (slut,
whore, bitch) are also ubiquitous (Jane, 2014; Megarry, 2014).
Finally, sexual
harassment and violence – whether threatened or referred to in
‘‘jest’’ (e.g. rape
jokes) – may be considered one of the defining features of much
online misogyny
(see Phipps & Young, 2015). Jane (2012, 2014) has observed
that rape and sexual
assault are often framed as ‘‘correctives’’ to conduct harassers
have taken issue
with, such as publicly voicing feminist opinions online.
As Banet-Weisner and Miltner (2016) argue, much of the public
discussion and
debate on this topic centre on technological or legal
explanations, including ano-
nymity or inadequate legal and policy frameworks for dealing
with ‘‘trolls’’. I agree
with their assessment that, whilst these may be contributing
factors, at the root of
these forms of online harassment is a societal problem with
sexism alongside
racism, homophobia and other marginalising discourses (Citron,
2014). In other
words, much online harassment is an extension of oppressive
power structures
which encourage violence against minorities and provide the
social tools for it to
flourish.
Of particular relevance to this analysis are those sexual
discourses which con-
tinue to perpetuate a vision of heterosexuality that positions
women as subordinate
to men and responsible for servicing male sexual ‘‘needs’’ (e.g.

31. Farvid & Braun,
2014; Garcı́a-Favaro, 2016; Gill, 2009). Through the male sex
drive discourse, men
are understood to be more interested in heterosex than women –
often voraciously
so – and thus an insistent, even aggressive, style of male sexual
agency is considered
normal and desirable (Hollway, 1989). ‘‘Naturally’’ more
resistant to sex, women
are considered to need some persuasion and indeed may even
enjoy being over-
powered by men. This trope downplays the need for mutual and
affirmative con-
sent, providing the ‘‘cultural scaffolding’’ (Gavey, 2005;
Jackson, 1978) for
gendered sexual violence – what some feminists call a ‘‘rape
culture’’ (Keller,
Mendes, & Ringrose, 2016) – wherein violence against women
is cast as unremark-
able, inevitable and even excusable.
Sexual violence may manifest online, for example, as gender-
based hate speech,
non-consensual sexting and pornography or online sexual
harassment and cyber-
stalking, and cause physical and psychological harms to the
female target just as
Thompson 73
‘‘real’’ as offline violence may (Henry & Powell, 2015).
Furthermore, some women
may suffer secondary victimisation if the abuse is public, as the
sexual double

32. standard ensures (at least some) women’s bodies are open to
readings of sexual
promiscuity. The subject may therefore be depicted as
‘‘deserving’’ of abuse and the
capacities of the Internet used to further harass her (Dodge,
2016; Salter, 2016).
Critical feminist perspectives have long posited that sexual
harassment and vio-
lence are forms of discipline or attempted social control (see
Kissling, 1991), and so
it is often presumed online harassment has a similar function.
For example, some
argue that intensified (or at least increasingly visible)
outpourings of online mis-
ogyny or ‘‘toxic masculinity’’ in recent years may be explained
by the emergence of
a ‘‘popular feminism’’ over social media and heightened
awareness of feminist
interventions and women’s successes that is understood by some
as a threat to
masculinity/men (e.g. Banet-Wesiner & Miltner, 2016; Garcı́a-
Favaro & Gill,
2016; Phipps & Young, 2015). Furthermore, Nussbaum (2010)
theorises hateful
and objectifying speech aimed at female public figures (such as
celebrities) operates
as ‘‘shame punishment’’: an attempt at ‘‘conferring on the
object a spoiled or
stigmatised identity, a compromised status’’ (p. 68). The
motivation for this pun-
ishment, Nussbaum proposes, is ‘‘ressentiment’’, an emotion
inspired by feelings of
weakness and powerlessness relative to another (often sustained
by norms of mas-
culinity), which results in attempts to put down the other and

33. gain power over
them.
Butler’s (1997) work on hate speech and gender as a form of
discipline provides
further theoretical grounding to this argument. Developing the
Althusserian notion
of interpellation, Butler (1997, p. 18) theorises that subjectivity
is constituted
through language and thus hateful language ‘‘enacts its own
kind of violence’’ as
it ‘‘works to constitute the subject in a subordinate position’’.
Subjects can thus
mobilise sexist and other oppressive discourses try to ‘‘remind’’
the Other of their
marginalised status and deter them from ‘‘overstepping’’ the
boundaries of their
social category. Butler’s framework is also useful for making
sense of resistance, as
the concept of interpellation provides the possibility that hateful
speech may not be
‘‘successful’’ in producing hurtful effects if it fails to position
the subject as
intended.
At present, this connection between online harassment and
disciplinary dis-
course is often only implied or assumed, and detailed
examinations of the contexts
in which it occurs are relatively rare. This paper provides an
empirically grounded
exploration of how, in response to women’s exercise of choice
and sexual agency
over dating apps, some men may attempt to enforce traditional
gender–power
relations through sexual harassment. Through a discursive

34. analysis of harassing
message exchanges I demonstrate how traditional scripts that
equate ideal femin-
inity with passivity and a slender, attractive body and
masculinity with aggressive-
ness and dominance may be reconfigured or reasserted. This
work comes from a
larger project which is further examining women’s experiences
of, and responses to,
misogyny on dating apps. In the analysis here, I do not explore
the women’s replies
in the messages in depth, although it is clearly vital to theorise
women’s resistance
as well. For those interested in reading further on this point, I
point to Shaw’s
74 Feminism & Psychology 28(1)
(2016) work on how posts on Bye Felipe are interpreted and
discussed by Instagram
communities and Hess and Flores (2016), who examine how
women counter-dis-
cipline men’s ‘‘toxic masculine performances’’ through Tinder
Nightmares.
Data, methods and approach
The analysis is based on online dating messages between men
and women which
have been posted on the Instagram accounts Bye Felipe and
Tinder Nightmares.
Both accounts crowdsource their material from other social
media users who
submit screenshots of their message exchanges to a monitored

35. email address.
There were several reasons behind choosing these two accounts
out of similar
Instagrams such as Feminist Tinder (which was running at the
time of data collec-
tion but has since been deleted). First, both the relative
popularity and considerable
receptive media coverage of both Bye Felipe and Tinder
Nightmares suggest the
types of messages they post are clearly recognisable to many
online daters and
resonate with their experiences. Second, because Tweten and
Gale crowdsource
their content, their posts are varied and represent a wide spread
of experiences
compared to accounts like Feminist Tinder, which focus only on
the administrator’s
experience of online dating. Lastly, as explained in the
introduction, Bye Felipe and
Tinder Nightmares have different stated aims which I felt made
for an interesting
analysis considering the remarkable similarities in the content
they post. Whilst
researching these accounts is clearly not the same as
researching dating apps them-
selves, I argue they are still a legitimate and interesting object
of academic inquiry
as they provide insight into (a subset of) private online dating
messages that would
otherwise remain hidden and unavailable to researchers. Social
media now mediate
and make visible much of social life, and so provide unique
opportunities for
digital social research (Hand, 2014).
The data corpus consists of 526 posts, spanning from when the

36. accounts were
first created (both in late 2014) up until 1 April 2016. Posts
were collected in image
form and transformed to text transcriptions using image-to-text
recognition soft-
ware, which were then uploaded to a qualitative analysis
programme. I used an
inductive coding process, with initial readings of the corpus
used to generate a
basic coding framework which took notice of the harassing
episode, its antecedent
and how women responded. Alongside coding, I used computer-
assisted word
analysis to identify key words and explore their contextual use.
Finally, I organised
the data into discursive themes, paying attention to recurring
statements, motifs,
turns of phrase and characterisations. Turn-taking in the
messages is marked
with the letters ‘‘A’’ and ‘‘B’’. Spelling and grammar is
retained from the original
posts, however emojis have been omitted due to limitations in
document
compatibilities.
I characterise my approach to discourse analysis as a
psychosocial one, influenced
by critical and feminist poststructuralist theoretical perspectives
(e.g. Gill, 2008a,
2008b; Scharff, 2015; Wetherell, 2014), Gill (2008a: 45) that
define psychosocial
research as the attempt ‘‘to understand and intervene in the
relationship between
individual and society, between subjectivity and culture,
between self and ideology’’.

37. Thompson 75
Feminist poststructuralist scholarship, which draws on
Foucauldian theories of
power, posits that this link between the ‘‘inside’’ and the
‘‘outside’’ is constituted by
discourses which provide different ‘‘ways of seeing’’ and
‘‘ways of being’’ (i.e. subject
positions) which individuals can take up and mould their
subjectivity in relation to
Gavey (1989). Informed by the critical tradition, such work
advances a deconstructive
approach to discourse and language where sets of statements
and social practices are
examined for the taken-for-granted, socially shared assumptions
they rest upon to
explore how power and privilege operates – at the heart of
subjective experience
(Hall, 2001). From a feminist perspective, my analysis is
focussed on the social pro-
duction of gender and, specifically, how femininity comes to be
socially disciplined (see
Bartky, 1990; Butler, 1997). In the sections that follow, I
unpack the binary, sexist
constructions around masculinity, femininity and heterosex
which underpin harassing
messages on Bye Felipe and Tinder Nightmares. Furthermore,
drawing on Butler’s
(1997) theorising on injurious interpellation, I explore how
harassers (attempt
to) socially locate themselves, as men, in a dominant position in
online dating inter-
actions and women as inferior and sexually objectified through
hateful speech.

38. ‘‘Not hot enough’’: Female value in the sexual marketplace
The most common type of insult in the data corpus were those
that targeted a
woman’s appearance. Most of these cases appeared after a
woman had ignored a
message or communicated disinterest, even politely, and hence
the majority came
from Bye Felipe (which focuses on the theme of hostility after
rejection). The type
of refusal (i.e. ignoring the message or responding with a no)
seemed to make little
difference to whether the woman was verbally abused or not.
Tweten (2015, p. 200)
refers to this conundrum as ‘‘damned if you do reply, damned if
you don’t reply’’.
These insults most often referred to the woman’s weight, with
the word ‘‘fat’’
appearing repeatedly:
Extract 1
Yesterday – 1:16PM
A: You’re a cutieðwhen are you going to give me an eye exam?
Just now!
A: Whatever. . .you’re not all that anyways. You can actually
afford to drop some
weight with that fat upper pussy area.
B: Cutie to fat? Guess someone DOES need their eyes checked

39. (Bye Felipe)
Extract 2
A: Wanna fuck
6:11PM
B: No thanks
7 mins ago
76 Feminism & Psychology 28(1)
A: Auto correct messed up.. I meant you’re a fat fuck wanna eat
at golden corral I’ll
even be romantic snap chat a pic of you to my friends while you
dunk a pork chop in
the chocolate fountain while you go into diabetic shock
(Bye Felipe)
The word ‘‘fat’’ carries with it particular gendered connotations
when aimed as
an insult against women, given the centrality of weight to
disciplinary femin-
ine norms. Slenderness is deeply tied to images of desirable
femininity and seen
also as a hallmark of self-restraint and control (Bartky, 1990).
The fat woman is
thus the antithesis of appropriate femininity: repulsive,

40. excessive and out of con-
trol. In these examples then, the man labels the woman’s body
or body part/s as
‘fat’ in an effort to position her as stigmatised, undesirable and
unattractive, and
take back or refute his sexual interest which she has not
reciprocated. Sexual
rejection may be particularly threatening to some men’s
performance of mascu-
linity, as traditional sexual scripts exhort men to establish
dominance over
women and take control of negotiations of heterosex (Jackson,
1978).
Therefore we may read these men’s insults as attempts to gain
the upper hand
in the exchange by countering the suggestion he found the
woman desirable and
so deny she has any erotic power over him and, potentially,
other men (see
Denes, 2011; Farvid & Braun, 2014, for a similar discussion on
‘‘negging’’).
The next extracts provide further insight into how ‘‘fat’’ was
wielded as an insult
against women who did not reply to messages:
Extract 3
A: [text break] myself. . . Txt me, much easier
Jan 11, 2016, 9:27 AM
A: Babe
Jan 27, 2016, 8:15 AM

41. A: Babe you’re like super chubby. . .. Fat and playing hard to
get with a guy like me?
You got to be fucking kidding me lol
Feb 1, 2016, 12:11 AM
A: I’m super horny. . ..
(Bye Felipe)
Extract 4
A: I know a great place near me that sells good pizza late
A::)
A: And I have a beard
Nov 6.2015. 1:29 AM
A: LoI or not
Nov 6. 2015, 7:49 AM
B: I’m not interested. Best of luck!
Nov 6. 2015, 11:48AM
Thompson 77
A: Your fat though
A: You should be desperate

42. (Bye Felipe)
In these extracts, the men construct female appearance as the
determinant of how she
‘‘should’’ respond to his advances, drawing on the body-as-
capital tenet of the online
sexual marketplace (Illouz, 2007). The unspoken ‘‘truth’’
behind assertions that a fat
woman ‘‘should be desperate’’ is that, because a woman’s
physical attractiveness
(supposedly) dictates …
Journal of Sociology
2017, Vol. 53(2) 271 –284
© The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1440783316662718
journals.sagepub.com/home/jos
Liquid love? Dating apps, sex,
relationships and the digital
transformation of intimacy
Mitchell Hobbs
University of Sydney, Australia
Stephen Owen
University of New South Wales, Australia

43. Livia Gerber
Macquarie University, Australia
Abstract
In Liquid Love Zygmunt Bauman argued that the solidity and
security once provided by life-long
partnerships has been ‘liquefied’ by rampant individualisation
and technological change. He
believes internet dating is symptomatic of social and
technological change that transforms modern
courtship into a type of commodified game. This article
explores the experiences of users of
digital dating and hook-up applications (or ‘apps’) in order to
assess the extent to which a digital
transformation of intimacy might be under way. It examines the
different affordances provided by
dating apps, and whether users feel the technology has
influenced their sexual practices and views
on long-term relationships, monogamy and other romantic
ideals. This study shows that dating
apps are intermediaries through which individuals engage in
strategic performances in pursuit
of love, sex and intimacy. Ultimately, this article contends that
some accounts of dating apps
and modern romantic practices are too pessimistic, and
downplay the positives of ‘networked
intimacy’.
Keywords
Courtship, dating apps, hook-up apps, relationships, sexual
behaviour, social media.
Corresponding author:
Mitchell Hobbs, Department of Media and Communications,
University of Sydney, John Woolley A20,
Manning Road, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia.

44. Email: [email protected]
662718 JOS0010.1177/1440783316662718Journal of
SociologyHobbs et al.
research-article2016
Article
mailto:[email protected]
http://sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
http://doi.org/10.1177/1440783316662718
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/jos
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1177%2F14407833
16662718&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2016-09-05
272 Journal of Sociology 53(2)
A ‘digital revolution’ is under way with regard to dating,
courtship and modern romance.
Unlike previous generations, single adults today, particularly
those living in large metro-
politan centres, have a seemingly endless variety of potential
romantic and sexual part-
ners available through the social networks and algorithms of
their smartphones. Indeed,
the internet has become a powerful ‘social intermediary’. It has
partially displaced the
role of traditional ‘matchmakers’, such as family, friends and
community leaders, as well
as the matchmaking function once commonly performed by
classified ‘lonely-hearts’
columns and dating agencies (Ansari, 2015; Quiroz, 2013;
Slater, 2013). Traditional sites
and locales for meeting singles, including schools, universities,
pubs, clubs and work-
places, have also been partially displaced, with the internet

45. increasingly allowing people
to meet and form relationships with people with whom they
have no previous social ties
(Rosenfeld and Thomas, 2012). Data from the Pew Research
Centre in the United States
shows that 15% of American adults have used online dating
sites or mobile dating appli-
cations (henceforth ‘dating apps’) with this usage steadily
increasing each year (see
Smith, 2016). The trend is even higher among same-sex couples,
with approximately
70% having met their partner online rather than through a face-
to-face introduction
(Ansari, 2015; Rosenfeld and Thomas, 2012: 530). Dating
websites and apps are now
commonly seen as a socially acceptable and advantageous
means of meeting a long-term
partner (see Smith and Anderson, 2016).
Mobile dating apps are particularly important to modern
courtship and sexual activity,
as they offer experiences that are distinct from those provided
by dating websites. Indeed,
the increased usage of dating and hook-up apps, as opposed to
dating websites, lies in the
their tactile functionality and mobility. Popular dating apps like
Tinder, and its many
clones, use a photo-driven design tailored for smartphones.
Users are shown photos of
nearby individuals and can swipe right to ‘like’ and left to
‘dislike’, with mutual right
swipes resulting in a ‘match’ and the ability to begin a
conversation. According to two of
the founders of Tinder, Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, the app
was designed to challenge
and supplant online dating websites by offering a more fluid

46. experience (Stampler, 2014).
Tinder was designed to ‘take the stress out of dating’, being a
type of ‘game’ that requires
less time and emotional investment to play (Stampler, 2014).
This design philosophy is
reflected in the features of the software, where people’s profiles
are similar to a deck of
playing cards, and love, sex and intimacy are the stakes of the
game. Of course the bur-
geoning popularity of dating apps raises questions regarding
their influence on courtship
practices and coupling, and whether they might also affect
expectations and desires.
In Liquid Love, Zygmunt Bauman (2003, see also 2012) argued
that the twin forces of
individualisation and social change have ‘liquefied’ the solidity
and security once pro-
vided by romantic partnerships and family structures. Bauman
(2003) specifically identi-
fies ‘computer-dating’ as symptomatic of what he calls ‘liquid
love’, arguing that it has
transformed romance and courtship into a type of entertainment
where users can date
‘secure in the knowledge they can always return to the
marketplace for another bout of
shopping’ (2003: 65). Implicit in Bauman’s ideas is the
suggestion that life-long monog-
amous partnerships are being eroded by the proliferation of
extensive ‘networks’ of
romantic possibility (Bauman, 2003: xii).
This article seeks to explore whether dating apps are facilitating
‘liquid love’ by exam-
ining the influences and augmentation provided by digital
dating apps. In particular, this

47. investigation explores the extent to which the networks of
romantic possibility offered by
Hobbs et al. 273
dating apps may be eroding traditional ideals of monogamy,
commitment and the notion
of romantic love. As there is to date limited research
specifically on dating apps, this study
aims to be an exploratory investigation that identifies the
various affordances and trans-
formations provided by the technologies, with the intent of also
highlighting areas in need
of further research. What follows is a brief review of the
existing literature and the study’s
methodology, and then a more in-depth exploration of emerging
patterns of usage and
their potential social consequences.
Literature review
Several bodies of literature inform this investigation. The first
is the sociological
research on love, relationships and sexuality. As has been
documented by Anthony
Giddens (1991, 1992), throughout the 20th century, social
change and an increased
emphasis on equality and self-discovery drove a ‘sexual
revolution’. Technological
developments in contraception freed sex from its intrinsic
relationship to reproduction.
Likewise, feminism drove a radical transformation of the
personal sphere. Giddens
(1992) argues that relationships in late modernity are

48. increasingly reflective of the ‘pure
relationship’, an ideal type where a relationship is based on
sexual and emotional equal-
ity and continues only for as long as both parties derive mutual
satisfaction. According
to Giddens (1992), the development of a pure relationship is
related to further changes
in the personal sphere, especially the emergence of ‘plastic
sexuality’ and ‘confluent
love’. Plastic sexuality refers to the greater sexual freedoms
provided by modern socie-
ties. Giddens (1992: 2) states:
Plastic sexuality can be moulded as a trait of personality and
thus is intrinsically bound up with
the self. At the same time – in principle – it frees sexuality from
the rule of the phallus from the
overweening importance of male sexual experience.
Confluent love, on the other hand, refers to love that is active
and contingent, and is
distinct from the ideal of ‘romantic love’ in that it is not seen as
something that is ‘forever
after’ but lasts for as long as both remain invested in the
relationship. Pure relationships
do, then, offer the potential for partnerships which prize
intimacy and happiness above
other social or cultural concerns; albeit these relationships are
potentially less durable
due to their ‘contingent’ nature.
The idea that relationships in the modern world are less durable
than those of previous
generations has also been explored in the work of Ulrich Beck
and Elisabeth Beck-
Gernsheim (1995, 2002). In The Normal Chaos of Love, Beck

49. and Beck-Gernsheim
(1995) argue that marriage and family life have become more
‘flimsy’ due to rapidly
changing social values. Unlike previous generations, people
today are confronted with
an endless series of choices as part of constructing, adjusting,
and developing the unions
they form with others. They suggest that there is a slight
unravelling in the bonds of
romantic couple relationships because people are seemingly
aware that their partnerships
often do not last and are therefore wary of investing too much
into them. This ‘risk aver-
sion’ leads people to invest more in themselves, and in a range
of other relationships,
especially friendships. Despite an increasing tendency towards
individualisation, Beck
and Beck-Gernsheim believe that people still idealise love.
Throughout one’s life-course,
274 Journal of Sociology 53(2)
relationships begin, dissolve and begin again in an endless
pursuit of true love and fulfil-
ment (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 1995, 2002).
As noted earlier, Bauman (2003) believes computer dating is
symptomatic of ‘liquid
love’. His thesis concerns the frailty of human bonds in an age
of rampant individualisa-
tion, consumerism, and rapid social and technological change.
Bauman (2003) argues
that virtual relationships are increasingly supplanting more
fixed and inert ‘real’ relation-

50. ships, and that the widespread usage of mediated
communication is leading individuals
to think more of transient connections than life-long
partnerships. Dating is being trans-
formed into a recreational activity, where people are seen as
largely disposable as one
can always ‘press delete’ (Bauman, 2003: 65). These themes are
present in the more
recent work of Sherry Turkle (2011), who, in Alone Together,
argues that ‘these days
insecure in our relationship and anxious about intimacy, we
look to technology for ways
to be in relationships and to protect us from them at the same
time’ (2011: xii).
Academic studies specifically on online and mobile dating
approach the topic from a
number of angles. Ellison et al. (2006: 430) found that online
dating profiles are created
to represent an ideal-self, yet in the face of imminent offline
interaction ‘individuals had
to balance their desire for self-promotion with their need for
accurate self-presentation’.
Couch and Liamputtong (2008) report that their participants
strategically ‘filtered’ out
whom to meet face-to-face by scrutinising interactions and
images to assess the authen-
ticity of their potential partners before engaging in sexual
activities. As a result, some
studies have found that sexual networks are expanded through
the use of digital technol-
ogy, leading to an increase in the number of sexual partners and
casual encounters, while
others have noted that many individuals use this technology
with the intention of finding
a long-term partner or ‘soul mate’ (see Barraket and Henry-

51. Waring, 2008; Couch and
Liamputtong, 2008; Goluboff, 2015; Meenagh, 2015). The
research literature shows that
these dating intermediaries have been especially important in
increasing the number of
romantic possibilities for ‘thin markets’, such as gays, lesbians
and middle-aged hetero-
sexuals (see Blackwell et al., 2015; Race, 2015; Rosenfeld and
Thomas, 2012).
Despite the recent academic attention paid to online dating,
there are several areas in
need of further development. There is to date very little
literature on dating apps as a dis-
tinct social phenomenon, with much of the literature focusing
instead on dating websites
and the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter to pursue romantic and
sexual opportunities. Moreover, much of the literature has
focused on risk and sexual
health matters (Landovitz et al., 2012; Prestage et al., 2015;
Rice et al., 2012), and comes
more from a psychological or health studies perspective than a
sociological paradigm. As
such, the following discussion seeks to address some of the gaps
in the academic literature
by exploring the experiences and perspectives of users through
sociological theories on
networks, technology and the micro-politics of everyday
interaction. Specifically, this
study seeks to highlight how users feel these technologies might
have impacted social
constructions and ideals, such as commitments to monogamy
and long-term relationships.
Methodology and sample

52. This is a mixed-methods investigation consisting of an online
survey and in-depth inter-
views. The online survey was initially broadcast via the
Facebook and Twitter accounts
Hobbs et al. 275
of the authors to their network connections (an initial audience
of over 4000 people).
The invitation was then subsequently ‘shared’ and ‘re-tweeted’
by willing network con-
nections, and so on, in a ‘snowballing’ fashion. While the
‘snowball method’ can have
epistemological limitations with regard to generating
statistically significant represent-
ative samples, the research method is nevertheless capable of
collecting data indicative
of broader social patterns and trends, especially when the
survey reaches a broad cohort
of participants (see Atkinson and Flint, 2003; Denscombe, 2010:
37; Neuman, 2011:
268–9).
The Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of the
University of Sydney gave
approval to the project (Project No: 2015/716) in October 2015.
This study’s information
statement, along with a control question, made it clear that only
‘present and past users
of dating and/or hook-up applications’ were able to complete
the survey, and that their
privacy would be protected. The survey consisted of a
combination of open-ended,

53. multiple-choice and Likert-scale questions and took
approximately 20–25 minutes to
complete. Conducted between October 2015 and January 2016,
the survey had a total of
365 respondents, of whom most, but not all, answered all
questions.
Detailed demographic information was collected from the
research participants.
Approximately 80% of the respondents were Australian, but 14
other nationalities were
also represented in the survey data. With regard to gender
identification, 58% identified as
female, 40% as male, 0.5% as transgender, 0.5% as ‘other’ and
0.5% ‘prefer not to say’.
The sexuality of the participants varied, with approximately
73% identifying as ‘hetero-
sexual’, 13.5% as ‘gay or lesbian’, 8% as ‘bisexual’, 1% as
‘asexual’ and 3% ‘as not
belonging to any of these categories’. The relationship status of
participants was also
diverse, with 55% being ‘single/never married’, 21% in a
‘relationship but not living
together’, 13% ‘married or in a domestic partnership’, 7.5% as
‘divorced or separated’,
3.5% as ‘polyamorous’. In regards to the age of the participants,
11% were 18–22 years of
age, 35% were 23–7 (the largest cluster), 25% were 28–32 (the
second largest cluster), 18%
were 33–7, 2.5% were 38–42, 8% were 42–9, and 1% were 50+.
The socioeconomic status
(SES) of participants was also sought through a series questions
on income, education and
occupation, with most respondents providing responses that
classified them as belonging
to the broad ‘middle/upper middle SES’ grouping, with the

54. ‘average’ participant being a
university-educated, white-collar professional in the early
stages of their career.
Survey participants could self-select to participate in a follow-
up in-depth, semi-
structured interview by sending an email to an account
exclusively established for the
investigation. The first six individuals to express interest in
participating in an in-depth
interview were selected to take part in the study. The
interviewees included three women
and three men aged between 24 and 34. The majority of
participants identified as hetero-
sexual, with one interviewee identifying as lesbian. At the time
of the interview, four
persons were single, and two were in a relationship. All
participants resided in Sydney,
New South Wales, and their educational levels varied from
undergraduate to postgradu-
ate qualifications.
The majority of the in-depth interviews were conducted in
participants’ homes in
November 2015. To maintain participants’ anonymity, they
were assigned pseudonyms
in all transcriptions. The interviews sought to further explore
issues and themes that
emerged from the survey, including the different tactics used by
participants in finding a
276 Journal of Sociology 53(2)
date; their opinions regarding the potential social consequences

55. of the technology; their
satisfaction and dissatisfaction with different variants of the
software; and whether users
felt the technology had influenced their sexual practices and/or
led to stable and fulfilling
relationships. It is to the views and experiences of both the
interviewees and the survey
participants that we now proceed.
Analysis and discussion
Is Tinder ‘tearing society apart’?
One of the initial provocations for this study arose from the
claims of Bauman and others
regarding the flimsy nature of modern relationships, along with
claims of the emergence
of a technology-driven ‘hook-up culture’ as found in myriad
opinion pieces published in
mainstream newspapers or news sites, such as a widely read
New York Post piece titled
‘Tinder Is Tearing Society Apart’ (Riley, 2015). However, what
the data collected for this
study suggest is that traditional views on dating, relationships
and monogamy are still
largely prevalent. At best, dating and hook-up apps could be
said to augment courtship
and sexual practices, while also fitting into an ensemble of
social media technologies that
operate as ‘technologies of the self’ (Foucault, 1988) – an idea
returned to below.
While survey participants used a number of different dating
apps, Tinder was by far
the most popular platform with 84% of survey participants
having used it. OKCupid was

56. the second most widely used dating app (used by 30%),
followed by Happn (20%) and
Grindr (16%) (the latter of which is targeted towards gay and
bisexual men). For most
users, these apps are attractive due to their ease of use and
suitability for modern life-
styles. Indeed, 66% of survey respondents agreed with the
proposition that these apps
afford them ‘a feeling of control’ over their romantic and sexual
encounters, while 87%
believed that apps allowed them ‘more opportunities to find
prospective partners’.
With regard to questions exploring ‘expectations of use’ and
‘sexual activity’, 55% of
the survey participants reported that they primarily use dating
apps to find dates and 8%
reported that they use the apps merely to seek non-sexual
friendships. In contrast, only
25% of survey respondents reported that they use the apps
‘primarily to find sexual
encounters’. Of those survey respondents who indicated that
they were in a relationship,
10% said that they had used the technology to engage in a
sexual affair, with a subse-
quent question revealing that most felt that they would not have
‘cheated’ on their part-
ners had the apps not made it so easy to do so.
However, despite the small number of respondents using the
technology for a sexual
affair, only 14% of respondents reported that they were ‘less
inclined’ to seek a monoga-
mous relationship since using dating/hook-up apps, while 72%
said that they were just as
inclined to seek a monogamous relationship since using these

57. apps. Moreover, a further
14% said that they were more inclined to seek a monogamous
relationship since using
these apps. These are significant findings that undermine the
‘Tinder is tearing society
apart’ thesis and arguments concerning the ‘liquidity’ of
traditional norms and ideals, as
many individuals are using the technology with the intention of
finding a long-term
partner.
Further survey questions sought to canvass users’ feelings
regarding app-enabled
dating/hook-ups versus those found in a physical face-to-face
environment. Asked
whether they would prefer to find love via an app or in a
physical environment, 61% of
Hobbs et al. 277
participants said that they would prefer to find love via a
traditional face-to-face encoun-
ter, while 38% said that they did not have a preference. Asked a
similar question in rela-
tion to finding a sexual partner, 48% would prefer to find a
sexual partner in a face-to-face
encounter, while 42% had no preference and 11% responded
that they would prefer to
find a sexual partner through the use of apps. The disparity
between these results is
reflected in the opinions found during the interviews. Some
interviewees felt uneasy
about telling others in their family and friendship networks that
they used dating apps,

58. while others believed the technology is increasingly seen as a
‘legitimate’ means of
meeting a partner (a finding supported by Pew Research data –
see Smith, 2016).
Hook-ups, desire and desirability
While data collected for this study suggest that dating apps are
not giving rise to a ram-
pant hook-up culture that is supplanting monogamy or long-term
relationships, both the
survey responses and interviews revealed that some individuals
are using the technology
to engage in casual sexual encounters. Indeed, many of the
interviewees believed that the
apps gave them an unprecedented ability to find sexual partners
without requiring them
to engage in further social interaction. For example, Alice, a 34-
year-old single mother,
found that Tinder allowed her to control her sexual encounters
in such a way that they
could occur in the small timeframes in which she was free for
such encounters:
I’d just write ‘sex?’ so that was very direct, and it seemed to
work for me, and then everyone
knew where they stood … as a single parent you’re so socially
isolated [and] you’re financially
just screwed [and] it’s really tough, so you’re trying to see as
many people in the shortest
amount of space and then you’re trying to use up the time that
you have to yourself, which is
not that often.
She found that the app allowed her to establish clear
expectations and boundaries,

59. informing sexual partners that they could not stay overnight, as
she did not desire further
commitment.
Alice also discussed the ways in which Tinder allowed her to
get over a painful break-
up not long after her child was born, and to work through
feelings of rejection and feeling
undesirable. She believes ‘matches’ on dating apps are a form
of social validation regard-
ing desirability, which could have a positive impact on one’s
self-esteem. She believes
that this affect allowed her to engage in a satisfying sex life:
[Using Tinder to find sex] was part of my journey.… I liked the
way that I could make men
behave in a way that traditionally women have behaved.… I felt
like I was in complete control
of everything and I just wish more women could experience that
and not feel bad about
themselves and their bodies. So that’s what the dating apps did
for me…. I got my power back.
In many ways Tinder acted as a ‘technology of the self’
(Foucault, 1988) through which
Alice could facilitate the construction and mastery of a self she
longed for – desirable
and sexually active – and also played a therapeutic role in
helping her heal the pains that
she felt due to her ex-partner leaving her. Foucault’s (1988)
identification of the role of
‘technologies’ as related to self-care through self-knowledge
leading to improving or
mastering the self has led to recent works that conceptualise
social media technologies

60. 278 Journal of Sociology 53(2)
similarly to technologies of the self (see Bakardjieva and
Gaden, 2012; Bosch, 2011;
Marichal, 2012; Owen, 2014; Sauter, 2014).
Other interview participants, while not necessarily enjoying the
same level of sexual
engagement as Alice, discussed the ways in which Tinder and
similar apps allowed them
to quantify their desirability through the number of matches
they received. For instance,
Alexander, a 27-year-old man who identifies as heterosexual,
observed that there is a
degree of vanity and superficiality at play in using these apps:
‘it’s based purely on your
looks [so] it’s quite flattering I guess if [you] get a match …
it’s very vain’. Alexander’s
views were also reflected in the opened-ended survey questions,
with many individuals
mentioning both their awareness of the superficial nature of
matches based on profile
photos, as well as the emotional pleasure of being categorised
as a desirable match by
other users.
However, in the open-end survey questions, a small number of
mostly male, hetero-
sexual respondents expressed frustration regarding a lack of
potential ‘matches’. As one
respondent commented: ‘The 10% of highly attractive people
fucking all the time make
the rest of us feel bad’, while another remarked: ‘Everyone is
copping a root but me’

61. (colloquial Australian-English referring to a lack of sexual
activity). In short, much like
meeting in face-to-face settings, those individuals who conform
to society’s dominant
ideals regarding attractiveness, are better positioned to exploit
the affordances provided
by expanding digital dating networks.
Broadening the romantic net(work)
Tinder, as a form of social media, allows for a significantly
expanded social network to
form. While networks facilitated by social media can be global,
they tend to coalesce
around geographical proximity (Westcott and Owen, 2013). This
is especially the case
with dating apps, where the goal of most users is to move from
mediated communication
to ‘real-world’ dating and intimacy. Amy, a 25-year-old woman
who identifies as hetero-
sexual, and who is in a relationship with a man she met on
Tinder, initially used the app
to find opportunities for sexual and romantic encounters from a
broader social network
than that of her existing friendship group. Her motivations for
using Tinder were:
Probably more for hook-ups in in the beginning…. It was just
about meeting new people as
well I guess. Not with the intention of making friends, but it
was kind of just getting out and
meeting different sorts of guys to the ones that I’ve hung out
with in my social circle in the past.
While Amy admits that Tinder did eventually lead to a
monogamous and fulfilling

62. relationship, overall her experience of dating through the app
was not entirely satisfying:
‘if I had to say like how many good dates did I have versus how
many of the bad ones I’d
definitely had more average to bad ones’, but that this
corresponded with the nature of
the platform in that Tinder was ‘literally just opening like the
possibilities wider’.
Alice similarly suggested that the majority of the dates she had
via Tinder were less
satisfying than those she had previously had as a result of
dating sites like E-Harmony
and RSVP, although she did have more dates as a result of using
Tinder. Alice suggested
that this disparity arose because of the purely physical
attraction between Tinder users
leading to a ‘match’, while dating sites suggested compatibility
based on ‘parameters not
Hobbs et al. 279
based on simply aesthetics’, which was a ‘drawback’ as ‘being
matched with someone on
an aesthetic basis meant that I found people to be quite boring,
or didn’t connect with
them maybe mentally or intellectually’. This discussion
highlights that more research is
needed into the role played by algorithms as romantic
intermediaries.
Many of this study’s participants also mentioned that dating
apps allowed them to

63. pursue multiple ‘matches’ simultaneously. Amy admitted to
texting …