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Adolescence
Teen Girls Are Sent Unwanted Images of Male Genitalia More Often Than Anyone Thought
Many girls view unwanted sexual images as a thing you just have to get used to.
Posted September 29, 2021 Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
Key points
- A number of recent studies have explored the frequency of young women receiving unsolicited photos of men's genitalia.
- At least half of young women have received such pictures, but in 90 percent of cases they were unsolicitied or unwanted.
- Teen girls report pressure from boys to reciprocate receiving pics with their own nude photos, even if the boy's photo was unwanted.
“Dick pic” is a colloquial term that describes men sending photos of their genitals through texts, social media DMs, or dating apps. Though the term has been making the rounds for a while, its use increased with widespread media coverage of the downfall of politician Anthony Weiner. His downfall was precipitated in part by revelations that he had been sending such pictures and other sexually explicit messages to a variety of women (and one 15-year-old girl).
Although dick pics might seem an odd topic for academic research, a number of social scientists have studied the experiences and expectation of those who receive such photos (or videos), and those who send them. One recent survey found that among UK women ages 18-36, 46% had received one, with 9 in 10 reporting that the pic was unwanted. Nearly all of those who reported receiving an unsolicited pic say it first happened before they were 18. In a different survey of U.S. adult singles, over half of respondents indicated they had received a pic, and among those who had received one, 90% had received an unsolicited pic.
A sizeable minority of teenagers engage in sexting, with approximately 8% reporting that they have received a nonconsensual sext. Consistent with this survey finding, a study of Canadian teens found that it was common for teenage girls to receive unsolicited “dick pics” from classmates. One girl in the study explained that receiving these pics happened so often that she and her friends joked about making “a collage of all the dick pics we got in the last three years” as a cover for a high school graduation scrapbook. Teen girls in Sweden have also reported that receiving unwanted pics is an “everyday” phenomenon.
Though not all such pics are unsolicited or unwanted, research suggests that girls tend to experience receiving the pics as intrusive and unwanted. A UK survey found that women who receive pics most commonly describe them as “gross” or “stupid,” but 44% of men who send the pics indicated they believed women would find the images “sexy.” Among U.S. women, the most common reactions to receiving unwanted dick pics were feeling “grossed out” and “disrespected.” Similarly, a study of Danish secondary school girls found that these young women often felt disgust when receiving unsolicited pics. The girls described the experience as akin to seeing pornography unexpectedly and unwillingly.
In a recent study of 11-to-18-year-old girls in the UK, researchers interviewed adolescent girls about their experiences receiving dick pics. Seventy-six percent of the girls reported receiving one. The girls indicated that these texts were typically unwanted and unsolicited. Nonetheless, the girls conveyed that they found it difficult to officially report these messages (either in an app or to school or other authorities). Instead, they tended to ignore the messages or block the sender (particularly if the sender was a stranger). In Snapchat, taking a screenshot in order to report the image notifies the sender that a screenshot has been taken. Many of the girls worried that doing so might inadvertently signal interest to the sender of the pic, a concern that contributed to their hesitation to report these messages.
According to the girls in the study, dick pics were often from complete strangers, but friends and “semi-known” people (e.g., boys at a girl’s school whom she did not personally know, or friends of friends from neighboring schools) also sent unsolicited pics. Strangers who sent such pics tended to take advantage of Snapchat or other social media accounts without full privacy functions enabled. On Snapchat, girls would often turn off privacy settings and accept unknown contacts in order to build their “streaks” on the app. This opens the door to older men accessing these girls’ social media accounts and sending unsolicited dick pics, or even masturbation videos.
Around 70% of the girls in the UK study explained that they had also been asked by a boy or man to send nude photos. In fact, the girls indicated that dick pics were often sent to convince a girl to send nude photos of herself in return. One girl described it this way: “They’ll send one and be like, now it’s your turn.”
Complicating the issue further, the girls told researchers that some boys actually send “fake” dick pics – images the boys find of other men’s genitalia online. In this way, a boy can try to initiate a trade with a girl for nude photos of her without the vulnerability of sending an actual photo of his own body. To make matters worse, the girls reported that if they did not send nude photos back in a trade, boys would sometimes retaliate by starting a rumor that the girl had sent them nude images. This pattern is consistent with the frequently identified sexual double standard for girls vs. boys. As one teen girl put it, “Boys it’s like a trophy, for girls it’s like shameful to share.”
Researchers and activists have drawn several conclusions from these types of studies. Some argue that unsolicited dick pics should be viewed as “cyberflashing” – a type of sexual harassment mediated by technology. Indeed, many young people seem not to understand that sending these types of images frequently falls in the domain of criminal activity.
Others have focused on the need to transform online youth culture with an emphasis on the importance of consent, and have demanded easier ways for young people to report non-consensual sexually explicit messages. It’s also important that “cybersafety” training focus on those who send nonconsensual sexual images, not just on those who receive them. By placing the onus on girls to cope with these types of messages, we ignore the need to teach boys not to send unsolicited sexual images or messages in the first place.
Facebook image: sipcrew/Shutterstock
