Unsolicited Dick Pics: Online Sexual Harassment, Gendered Relations and Schooling

Abstract

Today, the “dick pic” (DP) has become a growing phenomenon among teens. This study is designed and constructed as a case study. Case study research aims to understand complex social phenomena, and to understand a case, it needs to be examined in relation to contextual factors relevant to that case. In the present paper, we focus on interviews with students in the 9th grade that were conducted in a lower secondary school (grades 7–9) located in an affluent area in Sweden. The students’ experiences of sexual harassment in the school are examined in relation to the school’s context, based on the perception that school violence is characterized by both school culture and the local context. Theoretically, the study draws from an intersectional analysis of gender and social class. The results reveal that receiving DPs is an everyday occurrence for girls. The most common way of handling the issue is to block the sender, but when the sender is a schoolmate, the girls in the study marked this by ignoring and not talking to the perpetrator. The students express unawareness that sending unsolicited pictures is a criminal act. This finding indicates the importance of preventing sexual harassment in school.