Cybercrimes
Doing gender: A digital ethnography of image-based abuse perpetration.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the non-consensual taking, creating, or sharing of intimate images, as well as threats to share intimate images. While considerable research has examined the nature, scope, and impacts of IBSA, comparatively little is known about perpetration. Drawing on a digital ethnography of 47 different websites, this article explores how users “do gender” through the online sharing of non-consensual intimate images. Using thematic analysis, we examine interactional dynamics that produce, reinforce, or reinvent gender norms within online digital spaces. We argue that IBSA is a homosocial practice that is embedded in ritualistic objectification and othering. These relational gender practices not only bestow social capital and sustain group cohesion, but they also normalize intimate image abuse and foster the emergence of other forms of gendered violence. This study highlights the need for more nuanced accounts of IBSA perpetration that attend to the social interactions among online users.
Relevance
“Rather than isolated acts of deviance, IBSA [image-based sexual abuse] emerges as a digitally mediated social practice, shaped through shared rituals, homosocial bonding, and community norms that valorize dominance, control, and the degradation of women and other marginalized groups.”
“This study reframes IBSA not merely as an act of individual violation, but as a collectively enacted and normalized communicative practice of doing gender. These insights underscore the need for further research that connects interactional performances to the wider political economies of digital culture, including the influence of pornography, platform capitalism, and global misogynistic networks.”
“In addition to fostering cultural change around gender, prevention efforts must address intersecting systems of inequality and growing patterns of social disconnection (including those linked to poor mental health). Prevention must also focus on mobilizing bystander intervention to disrupt the distributive flow of non-consensual imagery, and promoting digital and porn literacy, positive sexuality, harm reduction, and affirmative consent.”
Citation
Henry, N., Vowles, C., & Beard, G. (2026). “Doing gender”: A digital ethnography of image-based abuse perpetration. New Media & Society, 28(4), 1571-1591. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251356604
