Prelims

Half Title Page

Sex and Social Media

Series Title Page

SocietyNow

SocietyNow: short, informed books, explaining why our world is the way it is, now.

The SocietyNow series provides readers with a definitive snapshot of the events, phenomena and issues that are defining our 21st century world. Written leading experts in their fields, and publishing as each subject is being contemplated across the globe, titles in the series offer a thoughtful, concise and rapid response to the major political and economic events and social and cultural trends of our time.

SocietyNow makes the best of academic expertise accessible to a wider audience, to help readers untangle the complexities of each topic and make sense of our world the way it is, now.

Poverty in Britain: Causes, Consequences, and Myths

Tracy Shildrick

The Trump Phenomenon: How the Politics of Populism Won in 2016

Peter Kivisto

Becoming Digital: Towards a Post-internet Society

Vincent Mosco

Understanding Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union

Graham Taylor

Selfies: Why We Love (and Hate) Them

Katrin Tiidenberg

Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online

Crystal Abidin

Corbynism: A Critical Approach

Matt Bolton

The Smart City in a Digital World

Vincent Mosco

Kardashian Kulture: How Celebrities Changed Life in the 21st Century

Ellis Cashmore

Reality Television: The TV Phenomenon that Changed the World

Ruth A. Deller

Drones: The Brilliant, the Bad, and the Beautiful

Andy Miah

Digital Detox: The Politics of Disconnecting

Trine Syvertsen

The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj

Endrosements

Tiidenberg and van der Nagel have crafted an engaging yet sophisticated introduction to the complexities of contemporary sexualities and social media. This book explores key theoretical concepts by means of concrete examples, foregrounding media users’ own accounts of their explorations of digital intimacy and sexual self-expression. It is lively and easy to read without oversimplifying the complexity of platform policies, local regulatory systems, and the ways sex and gender politics play out among social media users. This book will be invaluable for researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of sexuality and gender studies, health promotion and education, media studies and internet studies.

Kath Albery, Professor of Media and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

This is a wonderful book clearly outlining the ways that sex and social media increasingly intersect. It is both incisive and highly accessible and will be invaluable for scholars, students and all those with an interest in sex, society and media.

Feona Attwood, Editor, Porn Studies, Sexualities, and Professor of Cultural Studies Communication & Media, Middlesex University London, UK

Deep yet accessible, entertaining yet hugely informative, this book explores sex and social media in their startling complexity. It is compulsory reading for parents, educators, journalists, IT professionals and policymakers alike.

Susanna Paasonen, Professor of Media Studies, University of Turku, Finland

Title Page

Sex and Social Media

Katrin Tiidenberg

Tallinn University, Estonia

Emily van der Nagel

Monash University, Australia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2020

Copyright © 2020 Katrin Tiidenberg and Emily van der Nagel

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83909-409-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-406-4 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-408-8 (Epub)

List of Figures

About the Authors

Katrin Tiidenberg, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Social Media and Visual Culture at the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School of Tallinn University, Estonia. She is the author of Selfies: why we love (and hate) them, as well as Body and Soul on the Internet – making sense of social media (in Estonian). Tiidenberg is on the Executive Board of the Association of Internet Researcher and the Estonian Young Academy of Sciences. She is currently writing and publishing on sex, social media, visual social media practices, and digital research ethics. More info at: http://kkatot.tumblr.com/

Emily van der Nagel, PhD, is a Lecturer in Social Media in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University in Australia. She has been published in M/C Journal: A Journal of Media and Culture, Media International Australia, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, Internet Histories, and First Monday. Emily researches social media identities, platforms, and cultures. She tweets at @emvdn, and is online at http://emvdn.net/.

Acknowledgements

Writing a book across the very different time zones of Estonia and Australia, to a tight deadline, about a topic that twisted in our hands like a snake as social media platforms radically changed their rules and users outraged, was no small endeavor, but it has been an incredibly enjoyable and endlessly fascinating process.

We'd like to thank the amazing Association of Internet Researchers, the incredible conferences of which brought us together, allowed us to discover each other's work, and finally led to us collaborating on this book. We are grateful to our colleague Dr Alexandra James, who read and commented on the manuscript – thank you for your keen eye, your attentive comments, and your enthusiasm. We are also very grateful to our wise, open-minded editor Jen McCall, a self-professed “prude,” who nonetheless wanted our sex book. We love you Jen.

But more than anything we would like to thank our research participants – the fascinating, beautiful, brilliant, and kind people who gave us their time and their attention. You allowed us into your lives, your spaces, your communities. You welcomed us and talked to us. You showed us around and introduced us to others. Thank you! There would be no book, if it weren't for you, and we would personally be significantly more boring people. May the Patron Saint of Nudes always smile upon you. We will keep fighting for the right to be sexy on social media.

Further, Kat would like to thank the precious colleagues researching sex and the internet for the inspiration, everyone she's met at an academic conference who did not make a funny face when she said she's been studying nudes, and of course, her husband and her son, for so graciously living with a partner/mother who writes. All the time.

Emily would like to thank her PhD supervisors Esther Milne, Anthony McCosker, and Rowan Wilken, for their guidance and care as she researched social media pseudonymity and Reddit Gonewild for her thesis, and her family's love, support, and enthusiasm for her work over the years: her parents Leanne and Andrew; sisters Nicole and Jo; and partner Dan.