I think the best way to positively change the “slut culture” we have today is for parents and other adults to be more willing to honestly share the wisdom they have rather than just sharing recriminations. Adults give advice on other subjects, like friendship, scholastics, and whatnot, it makes no sense to me that most teens have no one to talk to about an issue as important as burgeoning sexuality.

@Shira – you’re absolutely right – I apologize for not including that caveat. I’m generally careful to footnote that correlation doesn’t equal causation, but I failed to do so here. Thanks for calling me on it.

Re: laws – as a media company, we typically don’t/can’t take a position on policy, no matter how ridiculous it may be – or how much i’d personally like to. Rather, we work to amplify young peoples’ voices in the dialog. We’re starting to do that now and have much more planned (on the sex offender laws, which are much more complicated than you’d think, cyberbullying vs. 1st amendment rights, etc.). With only 22 minutes at our disposal for the special — and a-lot to cover — we didn’t really have the real estate to delve deeply into the broader debate about laws here. We are actively stoking that debate across the social web though.

@Ronan, I’ll agree that sexting is nothing new as a general concept, but i’d argue that technology has fundamentally changed the dynamics here as it has elsewhere (see: file sharing/music, youtube/video, etc.). It’s the difference between linear and logarithmic. I don’t know of anyone who’s ever committed suicide because a nude polaroid got out. A Thin Line is especially geared towards high school-aged youth (14-18). We’re focusing on sexting as part of the campaign because it’s opened up new avenues for pressure, control, harassment and humiliation. It’s part of this broader set of issues born from the profound impact communications technology and constant connectedness are having on how we live. We have nothing to gain from worrying parents; our goal with the campaign is to be a resource to and advocate for young people.

Thanks again to everybody who has chimed in. I wouldn’t be here engaging in this conversation if I didn’t care — and really want to hear — what you think about the special and campaign.

-Jason

A good book to consider reading more on the topic of gender based disparity in the sexual and social development of children into adulthood is “SLUT! Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation” by Leora Tanenbaum (http://www.amazon.com/Slut-Growing-Female-Bad-Reputation/dp/1888363940)

That being said, it’s a brutal invasion of privacy when these private pictures are shared, but it’s a risk that you know full well in advance. If you’re comfortable enough with your body and sexuality to make them digital and send them, you have to accept that there’s a chance they could be passed on and be comfortable with that.

It’s ridiculous though about the girl who wanted to fight because her naked pictures were on “her” man’s phone. It’s just so unnecessary and disrespectful to the girl whose pictures they were.

Here’s to Nancy for forging new ground w/The Line Campaign and for explaining that shifting cultural norms is not a simple, linear project (see her comment just above mine). She says it well; I won’t repeat what she says. Just to say, “yeah, what she said.”

To Jason, your points are well taken. I’m not picking sides here. I’m saying I’m glad to see robust dialogue. REALLY glad. But I need to add caution.

You cite the following data:
“- those who have sent nude photos are 4 times more likely to have contemplated suicide”

Presented this way, it might lead a reader to assume sexting causes suicidal tendencies. There can be unknown and additional variables, and correlation is not the same as causation. PLEASE be very careful in how you frame the data. I’m a social scientist PhD. This is what we do. We scold people in public for sloppy use of data. I do so w/respect.

But you also cite this …
“- regardless of how ridiculous the law is, if you send a nude photo of yourself – and you’re under 18 – you can be charged with child pornography.”

Why stop there? If this is a ridiculous law, then dig deeper into the issues. It’s not enough just to say “the law is ridiculous.” We’ve had lots of ridiculous laws and we don’t simply let them stand. (Well, sometimes we do, but that’s another convo for another day.)

Oh, and P.S. — all these issues getting hashed out here? This is *exactly* why I’m working on my next book, Pleasure and Peril: Questions About Sex From the Bed and Beyond. Look for it! We need it.

I want to jump into the conversation. Everyone’s passion and comments reflect how much MTV is a part of our lives. It is woven into our cultural fabric, and to chime in as a girl of the 80′s, something incredibly influential to my notions of female sexuality.

I’m don’t think anyone thinks the Sexting Special produced by “A Thin Line” was driven by the desire to exploit young people. The frustrations expressed regarding exploitation and ideology, are probably directed at MTV’s programming in general – videos, reality series, Spring Break, etc. From the outside, MTV appears as one big entity, although I’m learning that there are different campaigns, efforts, philanthropy and “pro-social” initiatives living under the big umbrella.

I can only speak for myself, but I will always push for more accountability, and diverse voices representing youth sexuality, the dangers, the excitement and the responsibility. It is complex territory, and always a struggle and challenge to treat it as such.

I can’t wait to see how “A Thin Line” continues to unfold, push boundaries and raise awareness.

Thanks.

Among 14-24 year olds*
- 1 in 3 have sent or received a nude photo online or on their cell
- 60% of those who have sent a nude photo have been pressured to do so
- those who have sent nude photos are 4 times more likely to have contemplated suicide
- regardless of how ridiculous the law is, if you send a nude photo of yourself – and you’re under 18 – you can be charged with child pornography.
- 25% of teens/young adults have considered what they do online/on mobile could have legal repercussions.

These are the facts, nationally. Sadly — and I wish this was the case — there’s nothing freakshow about either Ally or Phillip’s stories. We gave them a platform to tell their stories. We pushed to have Ally’s ex-bf included, but he refused. We didn’t editorialize on who was right/wrong or which laws were good/bad. We just told the story and left it up to the audience to decide.

I can respect and appreciate members of THE LINE Campaign not feeling the special, having the perspective that we didn’t push the boundaries enough, believing that we should have more deeply explored issues of accountability, etc. These are all legitimate criticisms. But I flatly reject the offensive charges that some pernicious “ideological underpinnings” and interest in “using” young people as entertainment drove the creative of the special. Saying we got it wrong is one thing. Jaundiced barbs are something else.

Again, Sexting in America doesn’t exist in a vacuum. A Thin Line is in its infancy (just over 2 months old). We have, and are building out more, campaign spots and elements that address pressure to sext, forward vs. delete, sexting-triggered digital harassment and much more. We’re going to partner with young people across the country to address all of these issues and social pressures for some time to come. We’re never going to point fingers. Maybe that’s a philosophical difference, and one we’ll never be able to reconcile with members of this forum.

1 q and 2 comments:

@Marilla – if you had the camera and access to our editing bay, how would you have introduced more accountability into the special? I’m really curious to hear specific feedback on how you would have approached this.

@Melissa

- Folks (us included) are having this conversation all across the social web, not just here on whereisyourline.org. As a result of the special, we’ve seen tens of thousands of posts and comments in the last few days (and incidentally, this is the first time we’ve seen the “victim blaming” charge). We’re not arrogant enough to believe it *has* to happen on MTV.com, though it’s happening there, as well as on AThinLine.org, facebook.com/athinline and elsewhere.

- Please don’t twist my words. I said the only way you can fully inoculate yourself from the potential ill effects of sexting is to not send the pic. Not that the *best* thing girls can do is not send the pic. The former is a statement of fact, the latter an opinion. You and every young person in the country are entitled to their opinion on sexting — we’re not telling you it’s right or wrong. I mean, it makes perfect sense, right? (youth+hormones+broadcast device in pocket). But you can’t argue with the fact that once you press send, the matter is permanently out of your control. Stopping sexting isn’t our goal. Serving up resources and info that help members of our audience have healthy relationships and make the best decisions for themselves is. But based on the tone of your post, it’s clear you’re going to see what you want to see in this.

-Jason

*Research.AThinLine.org

It’s why they can’t host that conversation that’s really the disconnect I see here. On the one hand, MTV has been getting a hard time since day 1 for promoting teen sex. On the other hand, when MTV tries to get real about teen sex — what real people really face — It focuses only on the most over-the-top stuff, in ways that feel more like a freakshow than anything from our reality. I know there doesn’t have to be a hard line there — the truth is, we do learn a lot from MTV’s idea of reality, even the videos MTV didn’t show (Justify My Love — never forget).

Here’s what’s messing with your ability to have this dialogue — the way you approached sexting isn’t all that different than how adults approach MTV’s “bad” influence. Of course tv can’t make us sluts. Or give us a bad reputation. But since some people insist it can, what can we do? We can’t change their opinion. But I know what you’d prefer us to do is to accept that they are wrong — not to say, Well, sluts, we may as well stop watching just in case, right?

When you use real issues that real people face as entertainment, and then tell us we should have learned something, you’re using us. When you don’t listen when young people say, you got it wrong, it only reinforces that.

To then try to say you don’t have a stand, you only want to start a dialogue — but that really the best thing girls can do is just “not send the picture” — how is that not a stand? It’s as disconnected from reality as the parents who tell us not to have the sex we are having.

You do have a stand. When you let the slut-shaming go when it serves your interest, when you don’t show how it’s the abusive actions of those who show the photos off as trophies to be the real problem, you are telling girls the problem is them.

What’s worse, you have helped make a world where taking your clothes off as a girl doesn’t damage your rep — it makes it. (For some girls, anyway. Do you want to go there, too?)

You invoke the golden years of AIDS awareness on MTV — Madonna calling for safer sex (and to vote!) and all those Keith Haring cartoons — yes, for a minute, MTV was a lifeline for isolated kids whose parents elected a president who couldn’t even say AIDS. But with the sexting campaign, MTV has produced something that only reinforces what scared parents want to hear, that insults your core audience in the process. And it looks like you figured you could afford to. It is parents who pay the cable bill.