Sidsel Kirstine Harder defends her PhD Thesis at the Department of Sociology

Profile picture
Sidsel Kirstine Harder

Candidate

Sidsel Kirstine Harder, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen

Title

"Images with Nudity and Consequences"
Social Situations, Pleasures and Harms in Sexting, Image-Based Abuse and Pornography

Assessment Committee

  • Associate professor Poul Poder, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen (chair)
  • Associate professor Lara Karaian, Carleton University, Canada
  • Professor Stevi Jackson, University of York, UK

Host

Head of the PhD Programme Bente Halkier

NOTE! The content and discussion in this PhD-defence will necessarily engage with explicitly sexual language, images, and video. Much of it will be emotionally and intellectually challenging to engage with.

Time and place

25 March 2022, 1:00 PM
University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Social Sciences
Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, CSS 1.1.18.

Prior to the defence a paper copy of the dissertation is available for reading at the Department of Sociology in room 16.1.23.

After the defence, the department will host a reception in room 16.1.62 at approx. 4 PM.

Summary

This PhD-dissertation explains young adults’ digital exchange of sexual images as an everyday phenomenon by the application of a sociological framework consisting of mainly interactionist theories. By focusing on emotions, stories and scripts, I explain how digital sexual conduct is learned through both culture, interaction, and introspection.

I contribute by nuancing previous research through the analysis of multiple data: namely surveys, interviews with sexters and documents from recent Danish police cases of nonconsensual sharing of sexual images. I discuss the ethical reflections, which have been ongoing thoughout my research in the complex field of digital sexuality and abuse.

The five articles find that

  • pornography is filtered out of sexting but into image-based abuse
  • nonconsensual sharers (fail to) manage feelings of shame
  • the emotional dilemmas of digital bystanders have a key impact in digital exchange of sexual images.

My main findings demonstrate the nuanced meaning in young adults’ experiences with sexting and image-based sexual abuse, which combine pleasure and harm, shame and desire, the mundane and the risky. In responding to these new practices, I suggest that policy-makers integrate insights from porn studies, a focus on bystanders and experiment with restorative justice.