Teen Talk About Sexting: What it Reveals about Gender Practices
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2012-05
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Abstract
In recent years, the topic of sexting has risen to the fore in the public mind, and, in particular, concerns that teenagers are engaged in this practice. In this paper, we will report on a three-state, mixed-method, interdisciplinary, and comparative study of teens and adults views of sexting, which was funded by the US Department of Justice. Specifically, we will be discussing selected areas of the qualitative research data collected from 123 youth, who participated in a total of 20 focus groups in Massachusetts, Ohio, and South Carolina. In talking with teens about their views regarding sexting, we found teens acting out powerful expectations and beliefs about males and females (our data did not include any youth who identified as Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual or Transgendered). The topic of sexting, which sits at the intersection between acceptable and unacceptable expressions of sexuality, was a powerful means of unearthing territories of ambivalence in teens’ gendered relationships. In this presentation we will examine selected areas of our qualitative research data that we feel have particular relevance to considerations of teens’ practice of gender as it emerges through discussions of sexting. These areas are: 1) teens definitions of sexting; 2) teens views of sexting, which we describe as falling on a continuum from mutual benefit to self interest to intent to harm; 3) the ways boys and girls describe the motivations of sexting as it is related to gender. The discussion of the data lays the groundwork for an exploration of potential theoretical lens through which to view the issue of sexting as it serves as a locale for the understanding of teens gendered practices.
Description
Paper presented at the Eighth Annual International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry
May 16-19, 2012, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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