Navigating, challenging, and contesting normative gendered discourses surrounding women’s pornography use

‘It’s nice to be appreciated’: Understanding heterosexual men’s engagements with sexting and sharing Dick Pics

“…Oh yeah it's nice. Yeah it's like affirming I guess and it does affirm the kind of relationship that I have with the person, and yeah it does feel nice to have positive reactions.**************** Interviewer: Does it make you feel sexy, particularly when you get a positive response back? Jacob: Yes it does, the feedback is important for that feelingSexual objectification also enables a validation of women’s desires and sexual subjectivities, particularly in challenging longstanding narratives about women’s sexuality that paints them as only interested in emotional intimacy and romantic connection (see Marques, 2018, 2019; Neville, 2015, 2018; Tolman, 2000; Waling, Forthcoming; Waling and Pym, 2019): Nick: I was going to say especially like my last partner was a lawyer so she’d be in court and I’d send her a cheeky photo and she’d really enjoy that sort of stuff, so it was that risqué sort of behaviour Interviewer: And how did those make you feel? Nick: Attractive, and wanted, I think, was a big one Interviewer: And is that really important for you? Nick : Yeah definitely, especially in sort of like, in a relationship yeah definitely that feeling of to be wanted by the person that you're seeingMen like Nick describe positive reactions when engaging with partners in the practice of sexting. Again, as mentioned earlier, these men do not explicitly acknowledge, though they describe it, that sexting also serves their purposes, to be validated, to be assured.…”

“…We approach this work from an emotionally reflexive perspective (Holmes, 2015; Waling, 2019a), which looks at how men make sense and interpret their erotic engagement online. This aim is to allow space for multiple interpretation of the text, including recognition that sexting practices can be consensual (Crofts, 2015; Stanley et al., 2018), that some women may enjoy receiving erotic texts or pornography in a consensual manner (Marques, 2018, 2019; Neville, 2018) (despite the shame, judgement and stigma many women experience as a result of this (Parvez, 2006)) and that heterosexual men’s engagement with erotic imagery may not always occur through the lens of violence or machismo (see Beasley, 2015; Monaghan and Robertson, 2012; Robertson and Monaghan, 2012).…”

“…Sexual objectification via sexting can thus be considered a relational act, and for some, a positive affirmation of being desired: Interviewer: Does it make you feel sexy, particularly when you get a positive response back? Jacob: Yes it does, the feedback is important for that feeling Sexual objectification also enables a validation of women's desires and sexual subjectivities, particularly in challenging longstanding narratives about women's sexuality that paints them as only interested in emotional intimacy and romantic connection (see Marques, 2018Marques, , 2019Neville, 2015Neville, , 2018Tolman, 2000;Waling, Forthcoming;Waling and Pym, 2019):…”

“…This is perhaps unsurprising, as this leads back to social conditioning regarding the focus on what men's bodies can do rather than the physical look of the body as desirable (Smith, 2002). However, it enables a broader consideration of women's pleasure, and how they may also enact and engage in voyeuristic and visual-based forms of arousal (Marques, 2018(Marques, , 2019Neville, 2018).…”

‘Damn, Channing Tatum can move!’: Women’s accounts of men’s bodies and objectification in post-feminist times

“…Women’s use of pornography has also been of interest to scholars keen to challenge narrow critiques of female sexuality and of pornography as used solely by men. This research has demonstrated the tensions women experience negotiating the heterosexist features of mainstream heterosexual pornography (Marques, 2018, 2019). For instance, Ciclitira (2004) found that women struggled to reconcile feminist anti-pornography discourses with the pleasure of viewing pornography.…”