Men sending pictures of their gender is a common form of sexual harassment. A new study carried out in several Nordic countries shows the driving forces behind it: Some want compliments on their penis, others "punish" the women and many hope to get laid.
In a new and comprehensive study commissioned by the organization Nordic Digital Rights and Equality Foundation (Nordref), researchers have investigated why men send unwanted pictures of their genitals, so-called dick pics. The study wants to prevent them from being sent to people who don't want them, because unsolicited cock pictures are illegal and classified as sexual harassment, which can result in fines or imprisonment for a maximum of two years, according to the police.
The study showed that the reasons for sending the images varied, but also that the majority of the senders were unknown to the recipient. And often the images or videos with sexual content appear completely without warning in a casual chat conversation.
Many who sent the pictures hoped to get sexy pictures back, others hoped that the recipient would want to have sex with them. Some men were so proud of their penis that they wanted others to share it, while others hoped to receive compliments on their genitalia. The picture was also a way of saying that they were interested in the recipient. So as a way of flirting.
Nordref conducted the study in Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, and it is based primarily on reviews of court documents from all three countries.
Sending dick-pics to women as punishment
The organization's chairman, Thordis Elva, says that many men in Iceland justified their sending by saying that they were "just flirting". Sometimes the women are dehumanized by the men sending pictures to 20-30 women, hoping to get pacifiers from a couple of them.
- It will be like a mass mailing where they don't care how they are received by the other 90 percent who don't react. The men don't sit and think about the psychological impact it has on the women who receive them. They think purely selfishly that someone might send a picture back, and that it will then be sexy, says Thordis Elva.
But there were even more reasons why dick pics were sent. Among other things, that the recipient's signals were misunderstood and that some people try to send pictures of their penis. Others thought it was fun, and some thought it gave them a sense of control over who they send the pictures to.
Most Swedish men sent pictures to "test their friendship". So to see if they could take the friendship with a girl friend to a romantic or sexual level. For Thordis Elva, it indicates that they do not have the ability to approach women romantically and sexually without becoming criminal. She thinks that if you want to get close to a woman, you have to talk to her with respect, and learn to flirt in a good way.
Six percent of men stated that they sent dick pics with the aim of "punishing" women or asserting their masculinity. One reason was that the men did not like feminism, and that the images were therefore a way of punishing the women for trying to take power away from them.
What do you think about so many men texting women they don't know?
- Men have different reasons for behaving like this, but we have had a shift in norms on the internet. We have a lot of porn and porn damaged men and boys have got a twisted view of how to communicate their sexuality. Because the same men understand that you don't pull your pants down at Ica, so this shift in norms has not happened in other parts of society, says Thordis Elva.
The study is to be used for preventive measures, then mainly aimed at men under 30, as they most often commit digital abuse against women they have been romantically involved with, or interested in.
The police: That's what you should do if you get an unwanted dick pics
If you get an unwanted picture of your penis, you should always report it to the police, says Johanna Lopez, group leader at the Regional IT Crime Center West. And they have a good chance of identifying who is behind the account that sent the picture.
- If you send dick pics to one person, you've probably sent them to more. Even if you don't reach the goal in one case, we might do it in the third because then there is additional information that we can connect to the same person. If we can link a suspect to a criminal act, there are good conditions for a conviction.
When reporting, documentation is important to the police. Johanna Lopez says that you should document as much as possible. Take screenshots of everything, even of any conversation you had before the pictures arrived. You must also note which forum you are in and the sender's username. Bring all the
information as if the suspect.
If the sender is completely unknown, the username is also important, but not the display name, because it gives them nothing as you can change it yourself.
Her advice is: Do not reply to the sender, block the person and document everything for a police report.
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