It leaked on the internet: women, technologies and rights amongst nudes and (possible) leaks

Author(s)

Beatriz Accioly Lins

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2019-12-06

Examining board members

Heloisa Buarque de Almeida; Maria Filomena Gregori; Jair de Souza Ramos; Carolina Parreiras Silva

• Advisor: Heloisa Buarque de Almeida

Abstract

This research aims to follow the ways in which the theme of unauthorized dissemination of erotic images of women online - or nude leaks - has been defined in the different contexts in which it is triggered, paying attention to the symbolic and classificatory disputes at stake in its construction as, simultaneously, a problem of internet times and in attempts to associate it with violence against women. Classification systems, in the form of category disputes, attempts to broaden and modify notions of violence and crime, controversial debates about gendered sexual morals and practices, different handling and meanings of new communication technologies, the role of laws and justice professionals in discussions about rights and women as well as the transgressive political-erotic potentialities of nudes, are involved in this project. Nudes describes the more or less common practice of recording and sending erotic images made possible by the recent popularization of digital communication technologies such as internet-connected smartphones, front-facing cameras and social networks. A result of the interactional and communicative potentialities of new technologies, it is also because of them that nudes can easily be spread and leaked out of the control of those who produced them, skyrocketing at unprecedented speeds and scales, with possible virulent consequences of moral condemnation, persecution and attacks to reputations. Leakages intertwine these images in multiple senses of satisfaction and enjoyment, as well as show that inherent in them is the (very real) risk of their unwanted propagation. Moving across varied (and sometimes contradictory) discourses, constructions, and perceptions about gender and sexuality, nudes plead for the expansion of what is considered permitted and desirable, disputing complex, fluid, and moralizing perceptions of gender and sexuality that hierarchize behaviors, sexual desires and moralities attributed to men and women. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/03866-4 - A Maria da Penha Law for the internet? Gender, sexuality, violence, and internet in the debates about revenge porn
• Grantee: Beatriz Accioly Lins de Almeida
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate