sexting

Ish wrote a couple of weeks ago about a 13 year old girl who committed suicide after the repercussions of what started off as a harmless "sext" became public knowledge to her school, her teachers and her parents. I think she summarizes quite nicely that had it not been for the negative reactions of her school and her parents, and the shaming that transpired, this girl probably would not have killed herself. I doubt anyone of her friends told her, "Hey, it's ok. So you sent a naked text of yourself to john doe, you shouldn't be ashamed...it's just nudity...and it's just a body. Something most people have seen before, because hey whaddya know, they have one too."

Ish also discusses the laws that surround things like this, i.e. is it considered underage pornography, what do we do about the non-consensual spreading of the message etc...

The following quote, I feel, sums the situation up nicely:

As Veronica Arreola said on her Twitter, while the media insists on calling this a “sexting-related suicide,” it’s much more accurately referred to as a “slut-shaming suicide.” Because the photograph she sent is not what drove this poor girl to kill herself — the non-consensual spreading of the photograph, and the subsequent reaction that her classmates and all adults in positions of authority had to it seems to absolutely have been what drove her to despair. And that is a truly vital distinction to make if we actually care about the fact that a 13-year-old girl is dead, and why.

via: sexisnottheenemy : thecurvature