The “Sextual” Double Standard: An Experimental Examination of Variations in Judgments of Men and Women Who Engage in Computer-Mediated Sexual Communication

The Role of Consent and Motivations in Sext Dissemination

“…While some find no gender difference (Clancy et al, 2019(Clancy et al, , 2020(Clancy et al, , 2021Walker & Sleath, 2017), others report that men are more likely than women to engage in dissemination (Gámez-Guadix et al, 2015;Garcia et al, 2016;Henry et al, 2017Henry et al, , 2019. Notably, as indicated above, prior research suggests that men are between three to four times more likely than women to have given permission for dissemination of their images (Clancy et al, 2020(Clancy et al, , 2021, which may reflect gendered sexual double standards internalized across adolescence and adulthood (Harvey et al, 2020;Ringrose et al, 2013Ringrose et al, , 2021, with greater opprobrium directed to women who are sexually assertive or active. Given that the majority (although not all) dissemination occurs between, rather than within, gendered groups, it is possible that rates of consensual dissemination may vary with gender, at least within cisgendered groups.…”