Revenge Porn: Making a Living Screwing You

Tweet Imagine that you start dating someone, and you and your partner consensually decide to have sex… something that is pretty standard in a relationship. Now, imagine that your partner interprets your consent to have sex with them, as consent for also having sex with all of their friends. While most people would be shocked and appalled by this suggestion, this is exactly the logic of revenge porn advocates, a sickening phenomenon that is taking the internet by storm.

Revenge porn is pornography where sexually graphic images of individuals are distributed without their consent (Citron & Franks, 2014). It includes images obtained without consent or images obtained with consent, but within the context of a private relationship. However, the most common form of revenge porn is when an individual submits an intimate (typically naked) photo of their ex-partner to exact revenge.

The fact that revenge porn exists may come as a shock to most people, but there is an alarming amount of victims sharing their stories. In 2007, a man distributed DVDs showing his ex-girlfriend performing sexual acts, putting them on random car windshields, along with her name and phone number (Citron & Franks, 2014). Holly Jacobs, another victim, had an ex hack her Facebook to post explicit images of her, as well as sent them to various revenge porn websites and her employers (Salter, Crofts, & Lee, 2013).

At this point you may be wondering what kind of person would start such a dehumanizing version of revenge. We can give credit to Hunter Moore, founder of the website “IsAnyoneUp,” where he encouraged people to submit sexually explicit images of themselves or others (Levendowski, 2014). IsAnyoneUp featured more than just nude images, and usually included the victim’s name, social media accounts, and contact information. Soon after its launch it was receiving 35,000 submissions a week, and making more than $13,000 a month in advertising revenue, setting the stage for many other websites similar to it (Stroud, 2014). These websites allow visitors to leave comments, which tend to be sexual, crude and insulting, and to make matters worse, a few of the sites ask victims for money to remove the photos.

As one can probably guess, victims are typically traumatized after finding their intimate photos and personal information on these websites. Victims of revenge porn have lost educational and career opportunities, have had to change their names, and have experienced real life stalking and harassment (Franklin, 2014). A victim describes the impact as follows, “Due to this act, I have had to legally change my name, stop publishing in my field (I am a PhD Student), change my e-mail address 4 times and my phone number 3 times, change jobs, and explain to human resources at my school that I am not a sexual predator” (Salter et al., 2013). To make matters worse, victims are met with little sympathy as they seek help. The police are often unable to charge the distributor as the images were not stolen but shared, and the FBI claims these cases should be handled solely by lawyers as they don’t threaten national security (Franklin, 2014). To top it all off, outsiders argue victims created their own situation by taking and sharing these photos, labelling these victims as stupid and slutty (Laird & Toups, 2013).

There are currently only two cases where a person has been jailed for posting revenge porn online (Salter et al., 2013). Yes, you heard that right, only two! In 2010, a man was convicted in New Zealand for hacking his ex-girlfriend’s Facebook to post a nude photo of her, after changing her privacy settings and password (Salter et al., 2013). The following year, a 20-year-old Australian man was sent to jail for 6 months after uploading naked photos of his ex onto Facebook. At this point, you may be wondering why there hasn’t been harsher consequences for not only those who produce these sites, but for the bitter ex partners who submit these photos.

One of the biggest problems with revenge porn is the limited punishment options. Unfortunately, these websites are legally protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the United States, which protects freedom of expression and innovation on the internet (Stroud, 2014). This section says that no provider or user of an interactive computer service will be treated as the publisher of any information provided by another person (Stroud, 2014).  Since revenge porn websites are publishing material that was given to them by others, Section 230 protection applies and will render nearly any lawsuit for stalking, harassment, defamation or invasion of privacy dead on arrival (Levendowski, 2014). Although revenge porn seems like a straightforward issue that should easily be penalized, the complex mix of privacy interests, online anonymity, free expression and policies concerning internet regulation calls make it a more complicated issue (Levendowski, 2014).

A few solutions have been put forward to help victims of this act get some justice, including amending Section 230, or pass new laws with hefty penalties for revenge porn uploaders and traffickers (Citron & Franks, 2014). However, as some of you may be aware, changing the law is not an easy process. Because of this challenge, another suggestion has been put forward: using copyright law as protection. Since the majority of revenge porn images are selfies, and copyright laws protect original work, reproducing revenge porn victim’s copyrighted images is illegal (Levendowski, 2014). Revenge porn victims do not need to register their copyrights or hire a lawyer. Victims only need to submit their name and signature, identify the image, provide links to the material, and a written verification that the use is unauthorized (Levendowski, 2014). It is unfortunate that using copyright is the only solution thus far, but it is a step towards justice.

Revenge porn accomplishes nothing. It is quite pitiful, and if people consider it their right to post an image of an ex that broke their heart, then something is wrong with society. With that being said, there are a number issues that revenge porn highlights. First off, it ties into the issue of consent, as many individuals argue that these women should not be sending provocative images if they do not want people to see them. However, this completely conflicts with the parameters of consent, because when we consent to do something in one situation, it is not generalizable to other situations.

Another question is: who is responsible in these situations? While many people argue that it is the ex-lover who is sending in these pictures, the blame has also been extended to include the creators of revenge porn sites and the victims themselves. So who is to blame? Is it the person who sent these intimate photos of themselves in the first place? Is it the bitter ex-lover who needed a way to get back at their ex-partner? Or is it the creators of these sites that use “revenge” as a way to make money? Many argue that the fact the image was initially consensual robs the victim of their innocence—in other words, they brought this on themselves by participating in sexual expression (Slane, 2013). This line of reasoning also calls into question everything we understand about trust and respect in an intimate relationship. It makes perfect sense to trust your partner enough to send “sexy” images. However, if we blame the victims who “should have known better,” then what does this say about trust? Should we always be skeptical of our partners?  Revenge porn also reifies the issue of a “double standard”, whereby society has different reactions to a situation depending if the person is male or female. Revenge porn punishes women for engaging in activities that men undertake with minimal negative (and often positive) consequences (Franklin, 2014); women are told they are stupid or slutty for taking these pictures, whereas men are met with praise.

Hailey Ward, BAH Psychology, Queen’s University

References

Citron, K. D., & Franks, A. M. (2014). Criminalizing Revenge Porn. Wake Forest Law Review, 49(345). Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2368946

Franklin, Z. (2014). Justice for revenge porn victims: Legal theories to overcome claims of civil immunity by operators of revenge porn websites. Cal. L. Rev., 102. Received from http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/calr102&div=41&g_sent=1&collection=journals

Laird, L., & Toups, H. (2013). Victims are taking on 'revenge porn' websites for posting photos they didn’t consent to. Aba Journal, 99(11), 1-10.

Levendowski, M. A. (2014). Using Copyright to Combat Revenge Porn. NYU Journal of Intellectual property & Entertainment Law, 3. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2374119

Salter M., Crofts, T. & Lee M. (2013). Beyond Criminalization and responsibilisation: Sexting, gender and young people. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 24. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/4585975/Responding_to_revenge_porn_Gender_justice_and_online_legal_impunity

Slane, Andrea. (2013). Sexting and the law in Canada. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 22(3). http://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/cjhs.22.3.C01

Stroud, S. R. (2014). The dark side of the online self: A pragmatist critique of the growing plague of revenge porn. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 29(3). Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08900523.2014.917976

When You Have Pain “Down There” During Pregnancy …

Imagine for a second what your life would be like without Google (scary thought, isn’t it?). If you’re a university student, you can probably attest that much of your existence relies on Google, the almighty search engine that we use to look up pretty much everything from “restaurants near me”, to song lyrics, to even ourselves (everyone has done it at least once). But, perhaps one of the most common uses of Google is to search our symptoms of something that is ailing us. If you’re like me, you’ve perfected the art of the Internet self-diagnosis. The search starts off innocent enough, but next thing you know, 20 minutes have passed and you’ve spiraled into a black hole and conclude that you may be dying.

For me, sometimes Googling my symptoms helps to alleviate these worries, and I end up feeling better knowing that whatever is afflicting me has also happened to someone else in the past. However, sometimes this fury of searching can also leave me feeling more anxious than when I started. But the bottom line here is that the Google search usually DOES have a possible explanation for our symptoms (even if we don’t like what it has to say), right?

But what if it didn’t? What if you resorted to the Internet to search for a possible explanation for your symptoms, but there was no solution? What if you didn’t see anything come up with your search? What if there was no information on the pain or symptom that you were experiencing? You might think “oh, I’ll just go see my doctor about this and it will be fine”. But what if your doctor also has no explanation for the pain you’re experiencing? What if you are otherwise physically healthy, and they have no explanation for the pain you’re experiencing?

Up until recently, this was the case for women who experienced vulvar and genital pain during pregnancy. If you typed in anything to do with “vulvar/vaginal/genital pain in pregnancy” in Google, you wouldn’t get much that popped up as a result. That’s another scary thought, isn’t it? To be pregnant and experiencing pain and not knowing how or why it’s occurring – not to mention the lack of information on the Internet that could ease your anxieties.

Thankfully, things are changing: there is a lot of work is currently being done to improve our understanding of pain experiences of women during pregnancy, and sexuality during this period more generally. As a part of a larger study at Dalhousie University [3], we wanted to get a snapshot of what women’s pain experiences were like at the half-way mark of their pregnancy (around 5 months gestation). Over 700 women who were pregnant with their first child responded to our survey.

The first question we wanted to answer: how common is genito-pelvic pain and pain during intercourse during pregnancy? * Genito-pelvic pain can be defined as pain experienced in the genital or pelvic region.

• Out of 712 women, 9.1% were experiencing genito-pelvic pain. The majority of these women reported that their pain began during their pregnancy, and occurred spontaneously during certain daily activities. For women with pelvic pain, it most often occurred while sitting and walking; for women with genital pain, it most often occurred during sexual activities involving penetration.

• Only 320 women answered our question on pain during intercourse, but of those who did, approximately two-thirds (66%) reported experiencing pain during sexual intercourse. It can be estimated that approximately 7-12% of non-pregnant women experience pain during intercourse [4,5], so the rates that we saw are quite a bit higher than what we would expect the see in the regular population.

Second, we wanted to answer the question of whether certain predictors (like depression or sexual distress) were associated with the presence and intensity of genito-pelvic pain and pain during intercourse.

Screen Shot 2017-10-03 at 10.26.17 AM

• As outlined in the table above, of the 320 women who answered both measures of genito-pelvic pain and pain during intercourse …

  • Approximately 57% reported pain during intercourse alone

  • Approximately 8% of women reported both pain during intercourse and genito-pelvic pain

  • Approximately 2% of women reported just genito-pelvic pain

  • Approximately 33% of women reported neither type of pain.

  • Women who had higher levels of sexual distress, higher levels of depression, or higher intensity of non genito-pelvic pain were more likely to report pain (either pain during intercourse or genito-pelvic pain)

  • Having greater sexual distress and intensity of non genito-pelvic pain were each linked with higher pain intensity during intercourse

  • Greater intensity of non genito-pelvic pain also predicted (1) experiencing genito-pelvic pain and (2) genito-pelvic pain intensity.

What do these results mean? First of all, only 1/3 of participants in this study did not experience genital or pelvic pain of some sort at the half-way mark of their pregnancy. This seems like a pretty small proportion, doesn’t it? The reassuring aspect of these findings is that if you happen to be experiencing this pain, you are certainly NOT alone! The even better news is that there is preliminary evidence to show that this pain resolves for many people [6]—of course, more research needs to be done to figure out how this happens, and for whom. One thing that you can do to help? Try to find ways to reduce your pain-related anxiety.

There is evidence to suggest that pain-related anxiety (such as fear of pain, and escape/avoidance of activities that may induce pain, etc.) may worsen genito-pelvic pain symptoms in the early postpartum period [6]. If you notice that you’re worrying about painful experiences (both at present and in the future), try to identify the specific negative thoughts surrounding pain that produce anxiety or distress (for example, “the pain is terrible and I think it’s never going to get any better”); once you identify these negative thoughts, try to shift your focus to more positive internal self-statements [7]. Another suggestion is to do your best to learn more about your specific pain condition so that you can reduce the likelihood of distorting your perceptions about your own health [7]. It’s also common to experience sexual distress [8] and concerns in pregnancy [9,10], but this distress may be making your pain worse as well. Similar to what was mentioned above, identifying the specific negative sexual thoughts that are causing you distress and working to reframe these negative thoughts into positive ones may help reduce the impact of this distress on your pain experiences.

Now, these finding may seem a tad bit discouraging but the good news is that researchers out there (including some here in the SexLab) are working hard to better understand the pain experiences and sexual functioning of women during pregnancy and postpartum. Not only that, but we’re also working hard towards putting this research out in the community so that more individuals (who, like me, Google their symptoms) can more easily access the answers to their health-related questions!

Afterthought. I refer to the Internet or Google throughout this post as sources of information, but it’s very important to know where your information comes from in order to make informed judgments on the accuracy and legitimacy of the information you’re consuming. Always pay attention to the author (or authors) of an article, the author(s)’ credibility, the date of the article, the types of sources that the author cites, and the source of the information itself (e.g., institutional or governmental websites, etc.). Consult https://studyclerk.com/blog/media-literacy to learn more!

Kayla Mooney M.Sc. Student (Clinical Psychology)

[1] Bartellas, E., Crane, J. M. G., Daley, M., Bennett, K. A., & Hutches, D. (2000). Sexuality and sexual activity in pregnancy. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynacology, 107, 964-968. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2000.tb10397.x [2] Pauleta, J. R., Pereira, N. M., & Graça, L. M. (2010). Sexuality during pregnancy. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7, 136-142. doi: 0.1111/j.1743-6109.2009.01538.x [3] Rossi, M., Mooney, K., Chorney, J., George, R., Pukall, C., Snelgrove-Clarke, E., & Rosen, N. O. (in prep.). Prevalence and predictors of dyspareunia and genito-pelvic pain in women 18-24 weeks pregnant. [4] Harlow, B. L., Kunitz, C. G., Nguyen, R. H., Rydell, S. A., Turner, R. M., & Maclehose, R. F. (2014). Prevalence of symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of vulvodynia: Population based estimates from 2 geographical regions. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 210, 40.e1-40.e8. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2013.09.033 [5] Harlow, B. L., Wise, L. A., & Stewart, E. G. (2001). Prevalence and predictors of chronic lower genital tract discomfort. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 185, 545-550. doi:10.1067/mob.2001.116748 [6] Glowacka, M., Rosen, N., Chorney, J., Snelgrove-Clarke, E., & George, R. B. (2014). Prevalence and predictors of genito-pelvic pain in pregnancy and postpartum: The prospective impact of fear avoidance. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 11, 3021-3034. doi: 10.1111/jsm.12675 [7] Gatchel, R. J. & Neblett, R. (2017, April 12). Pain Catastrophizing: What Clinicians Need to Know. Practical Pain Management. Retrieved from https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/other/co-morbidities/pain-catastrophizing-what-clinicians-need-know [8] Vannier, S. A. & Rosen, N. O. (2017). Sexual distress and sexual problems during pregnancy: Associations with sexual and relationship satisfaction. The Journal of Sexual Medicine. [9] Beveridge, J. K., Vannier, S. A., & Rosen, N. O. (2017). Fear-based reasons for not engaging in sexual activity during pregnancy: Associations with sexual and relationship well-being. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology. doi: 10.1080/0167482X.2017.1312334 [10] Schlagintweit, H., Bailey, K. & Rosen, N. O. (2016). A new baby in the bedroom: Frequency and severity of postpartum sexual concerns and their associations with relationship satisfaction in new parent couples. The Journal of Sexual Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.08.006.