Stereotyped gender roles and scripts in digital dating abuse: Narratives from an Italian high school

Abstract

This study analyses teenage narratives of digital dating abuse (DDA) by focusing on how the sense-giving processes of social media usage practices interplay with sexist stereotypes and gender scripts. The theoretical framework draws upon gender-oriented studies on DDA and upon literature on gender and technology, which accounts for the mutual shaping relationship between gender-based social norms, and user negotiations with social media affordances. We carried out seven focus groups in Rome with 43 high school students aged 14 to 16. Responses show that, although both girls and boys perpetrate and suffer DDA on social media, participants interpret it according to gender scripts and classify users based on sexist stereotypes. Findings also reveal that perception of the seriousness of DDA is blurred by the combination of gender scripts and the meanings attached to social media usage practices. DDA is likely to be tolerated unless it has concrete fallout offline, where abuse is tangible.