Queering Sexting and Sexualisation

Abstract

Recent Australian research on ‘sexting’ (the production and exchange of naked and semi-naked digital pictures) has observed that formal legal and educational discourses have failed to fully account for young people's understandings and experiences. While there is a proliferation of scholarly and popular texts focusing on the risks that sexting might pose to young (heterosexual) women, there is a relative absence of academic, educational or popular discourse acknowledging same sex-attracted young people's participation in cultures of creating and sharing pictures via dating and hook-up apps. This article draws on focus-group interviews with young people in Sydney (aged 18–26) to present alternative accounts of sexting, and reflect on same sex-attracted men and women's strategies for negotiating safety and risk within online and offline sexual cultures.