How to fight and put an end to the revenge porn

Just over a week has passed since the discovery of a new - terrifying - Telegram chat rekindled the debate on revenge porn. 

Once indignation, disgust and anger have passed, it is necessary to investigate with cold mind the deep reasons that have favoured the birth of this phenomenon, which is not limited only to the notorious chats, of which it is the worst expression, but which has real implications and effects on our society in general, still characterized by a strong patriarchal structure. What we need are solutions, concrete tools to face the phenomenon, a long-term plan to radically change the society in which we live. 

nss G-Club spoke (virtually) about revenge porn, the Internet and tools to defend ourselves with Silvia Semenzin, an activist for Virgin and Martyr and a researcher in digital sociology at the University of Milan, who last year dealt with the issue of revenge porn on Telegram.  

#1 The debate that has ignited on the theme of revenge porn and digital rape has simply brought to the front page a question that has never really been resolved, but that every time it returns it seems to arouse great clamour and indignation. It almost seems that we don't remember - or want to forget - the previous ones ...

More than anything else, it seems that we have not yet managed to collectively conceptualize digital rape as a form of massive violence against women. The problem with talking about 'revenge porn' is that up to now people had the impression that it was a 'private' problem between two people, that it was the only revenge of an ex against a girl, who may be in deep down some guilt had it. What these groups on Telegram show us instead is how the non-consensual sharing of intimate material is part of structural and systematic violence against women, the result of a culture still strongly patriarchal and based on the domination of men over the body of women. 

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#2 As women, this is an issue that affects us very closely, which rightly makes us angry and mortifies us. But together with us, shouldn't men also be wondering about the phenomenon and understanding why they are driven to this behaviour?

Violence against women is a problem of everyone, without distinction. In these days I have finally started to hear male voices discussing the topic, and this is good because it breaks that 'bubble' that exists between those who talk about these topics and somehow it reaches people who until before did not understand why they should care. When making a speech about gender roles and the characteristics associated with "being male" or "being female" it is necessary to make a speech as inclusive as possible. We have to talk about masculinity. Because even men need to understand that gender role do not only hurt women, but they also hurt them.

#3 What are the concrete tools that we women have to defend ourselves from this phenomenon?

If we become victims of non-consensual sharing of our intimate material, today we can report. With article 612-ter CP, in fact, this practice has also become a crime in Italy. If this happens to us, we can then complain to the postal police by attaching the screenshots of the conversations. However, I advise you to avoid joining these groups to browse or look for your own photos, because you can end up being among the suspects. In the case of non-intimate photos of us (e.g. taken from social networks), you can appeal to the laws on privacy and the right of the image. The fact that the photo is 'public' on a social network does not entitle anyone to take that photo and use it to humiliate them. 

#4 When it comes to revenge porn, the question of nudes, of hot photos - but not necessarily - that girls post or send often comes up. In this sense, there seems to be a clear rift even among the women themselves, who in many cases criminalize the other women who send this type of photo, as if to say, you asked for it.

Victim shaming is a classic when we talk about the non-consensual sharing of intimate material. The habit of making a speech of the type 'covered, censored, protected or otherwise you went to look for it' is itself a product of patriarchal culture. Many women are victims of this same culture, but because sensitivity for gender equality is not associated with biological sex. There may be feminist men and male chauvinist women. We have all been socialized to the idea that the female body is something to hide, and that female sexual freedom should be criminalized. In this way, we feed into a culture that accepts gender-based violence as an inevitable phenomenon of society. Instead, we must strive to overturn the discussion and direct it more towards the idea that everyone should feel free to express themselves, self-represent themselves and tell themselves as they see fit. A woman must have recognized the right to feel pleasure, to show her body, to want to have sex. We are not just victims and taxable persons. We must demand that our intimate life stop being the object of external judgment on our moral integrity, intelligence and validity. 

#5 In those famous Telegram chats where there are many who send photos, there are just as many who remain passively in those chats. What is it that stops these people, in most cases men, from leaving those groups, from denouncing what's going on?

Many people are in there just to browse. The taboo that still revolves around female sexuality attracts the external glances of the curious, and the fact that the intimate material has not been shared with the consent of the subjects portrayed increases the desire to witness something prohibited. In my opinion, the point is that we have not yet been able to see all of this as a form of violence, because we think that just by looking we don't do so badly. Instead, it is precisely the chain mechanism that is established that leads women to be ashamed so much that they even go so far as to commit suicide. Many of these guys think they are joking and playing because deep down they wouldn't hurt a fly in real life. Hannah Arendt called it 'The banality of evil'. These gestures are performed by men who are not necessarily violent or rapists but are also very normal people, victims of strong rape culture. The existence of these chats has so far been very normalized: it was thought to be "something that males, bombers do". This is why we need to re-discuss the concept of 'feeling man', because if to feel like a man and to make friends you need to use the female body as a bargaining chip then there is a problem. 

#6 Do you think that the Internet, and in this specific case of anonymous and protected chats, have amplified the behaviours that already existed or that created new ones? Together with the dominant culture, how much has the Internet (and the freedom it has provided us) influenced and continues to influence our sexuality, especially male sexuality?

The Internet creates nothing: at best it provides a space for violence to spread, expand and, from a certain point of view, become more visible. In the research that I carried out together with Lucia Bainotti, we investigated precisely how the architecture of a platform like a Telegram intersects the dominant culture, coming to the conclusion that even the specific actions allowed by a platform can be considered 'gendered'. The fact that Telegram provides the possibility of creating huge groups or hiding behind a pseudo-anonymity, in fact, allows some groups of men to perpetuate gender-based violence in a more systematic way, even going as far as automating it as in the case of bots. In this sense, if we talk about 'gendered affordances' we mean that those functions can also change based on gender: for example, there are no groups of 60 thousand women who humiliate men by sending their intimate photos. It all starts from socialization, from culture. And if we understand this, then we also understand that the problem is not Telegram or the type of functions it offers: the problem is above all in the use made of it, and which is caused by problems deeply rooted in society.

#7 As you have written and told several times, it is a cultural phenomenon, the result of the culture of rape, which objectifies and sexualises the female body. As far as we know it will be a long process, what can we actually do to change? 

To change a culture it takes patience. Cultural instruments act more slowly, but they know how to be extremely more effective than just the search for punishment and censorship of behaviour. In dealing with these issues for a long time now, I have noticed much more public attention on the problem this time, and maybe not everyone has talked about it in these terms, but I think many people have realized that this is a serious problem. But we are not done yet, indeed, perhaps we have just begun. We must continue to talk about it without ever getting tired because we need to generate political interest to push on school programs that include sexual and emotional education, and digital education. Education starts with schools. But even those involved in communication should begin to pay more attention to the terms they use, the way they talk about gender-based violence and the stories they decide to deal with. Rather than focusing on the personal stories of the victims by sensationalizing, we should talk about how these men come to feel authorized to compete in certain acts.