Sexting and the politics of the image: when the invisible becomes visible in a consensus democracy

Abstract

Sexting is a highly contested form of image production, particularly when it involves people under the age of 18. Adolescents who are legally prohibited from making pornography are deciding to generate and distribute new forms of sexual material. Public responses to sexting reveal that the dominant image of adolescent sexuality is maintained by heteronormative structures. The educational, legal and social action against sexting is aimed at protecting this dominant image. This article argues that sexting's visualization of age, race, class and gender ruptures ‘consensus democracy’ – the space of appearance of the people. This rupture occurs because adolescents have increasing access to the means of making and sharing their own images, entirely independently from the system that purports to speak for them. The impact of sexting goes beyond issues of adolescent sexuality; it raises fundamental questions that may redefine how representation relates to notions of the real and the body.

Keywords:

• sexting
• pornography
• Rancière
• distribution of the sensible

Notes

1. This article can only discuss the visible edge of sexting as all other forms of adolescent sexting are illegal and not able to be studied. The article only addresses the politics of the images which are visible, although it does suggest some possibilities for the potential meaning of the assumed existence of the much larger category of sexts which are not visible to the broader public or researchers. The vast majority of sexting presumably remains invisible, either because it never escapes the nexus of the producer/consumer (which importantly can be the same person), because they are successfully censored once they reach the public realm of images, or because they are not of sufficient prurient interest or concern to the public and are therefore ignored.

2. As Lounsbury, Mitchell, and Finkelhor (2011) point out, statistics on sexting are very unreliable. One of the reasons why adolescent men are often reported as sexting less then adolescent women may be because of the framing of these images. Adolescent men who take and share naked images with other men may not be defined as examples of sexting. See note 5.

3. The terminology used in this article specifically avoids the use of the word ‘girl’ or ‘boy’ in relation to sexting because of the connotation these terms bring up. I have used adolescent male or female in an attempt to neutralize the issue, but these terms are not entirely adequate and point to a serious lack of vocabulary for discussing childhood and adolescent sexuality.

4. This article continues the bias towards analyzing sexts as being produced by adolescent women precisely because that is the bias in the sext which is made visible. It is important here to note that images of naked adolescent men exist both outside heteronormative frameworks and entirely within them. While the public edge of sexting remains sensationalized images of adolescent, white women, there are at least as many images of adolescent men which are circulated. These images are usually framed as non-sexual despite the display of genitalia. They are heteronormative in the sense that they are homosocial. They are an accepted part of male display towards other males. While the sexual nature of these images is undeniable, what is important is the performance involved to prove that these images are not sexual (usually framed as a joke). This category of display of genitalia seems to more easily apply to adolescent men than women, in that the slightest hint at female genitalia is usually associated with an explicit sexual content. The specific analysis of adolescent male sexts, as well as more broadly homosexual, lesbian, intersexual, transsexual and bisexual sexts, is an important task, but it is not the focus of this article.

5. This is not a new approach to censoring through the radical visualization of white, middle-class women. Marsh's (1985) study of Pre-Raphaelite paintings showed how it was newly formed middle-class women who were charged as the keepers of Victorian morality. The narratives of Pre-Raphaelite paintings are surprisingly similar to the campaigns against sexting, with tales of the suicide victim, the pariah, the ‘slut’ and the economically destitute women resulting from early heteronormative sexualized behaviour. Men were excused as being unable to avoid temptation, or symbolically too moral to be tempted (as the father, husband, teacher and politician).

6. Analogue media such as polaroids, VHS and Super-8 film did offer the potential for uncensored image making (Albury and Crawford 2012); however, the free, invisible and easily transferable nature of digital images on mobile devices allows for the rapid development of adolescent pornography outside the public realm of images. It should be noted that sexually active adolescent women have always had a public appearance; adolescent pregnancies are a constant symbol contracting the heteronormative narrative. However, this article addresses the ability to produce and distribute images independently from adult censorship and mediation.

7. It is important to note that the statistics on sexting are unreliable (Lounsbury, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2011). Sexting does occur, but any attempt to quantify it precisely is impossible.