Department of Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Cult Health Sex. 2023 May;25(5):617-632. doi: 10.1080/13691058.2022.2080866. Epub 2022 Jun 8.
Sexting has generated considerable public and professional interest with concerns centring on young people, and potential harms to mental and sexual health. Little research thus far has explored the practice among adults and none has focused on the cultural norms relating to the emotional experience of sexting across different ages and genders. We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of adults aged 18-59 years in Britain on the role of digital technologies in participants' sexual lives. In this paper, we draw on the accounts of 34 people with experience of sexting. We identified three main themes in participants' accounts related to the emotional aspects of sexting: (1) trust, (2) desire/intimacy and (3) shame. Under each theme, we identified motivations, 'feeling rules', and examples of 'emotion work' relating to the self, the other and the dyad. We conclude that there are shared cultural norms that constitute what appropriate sexting should feel like. Interventions aiming to minimise harms arising from sexting need to build on commonly held cultural conventions regarding the 'rules of the game' concerning feelings as well as behaviours.
发送色情短信引起了公众和专业人士的极大兴趣，主要关注的是年轻人，以及对心理健康和性健康的潜在危害。迄今为止，很少有研究探讨成年人的这种行为，也没有研究关注与不同年龄和性别的人发送色情短信的情感体验有关的文化规范。我们在英国对 18 至 59 岁的不同成年人进行了 40 次半结构化访谈，探讨数字技术在参与者性生活中的作用。在本文中，我们借鉴了 34 名有发送色情短信经验的参与者的描述。我们在参与者的描述中确定了与发送色情短信的情感方面相关的三个主要主题：（1）信任，（2）欲望/亲密，（3）羞耻。在每个主题下，我们确定了与自我、他人和二人关系有关的动机、“感觉规则”和“情感工作”的例子。我们得出的结论是，存在着共同的文化规范，构成了适当的发送色情短信应该是什么感觉。旨在尽量减少发送色情短信带来的危害的干预措施需要建立在关于情感以及行为的“游戏规则”的共同文化传统之上。
