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If You Are Sexting Do It Right

By August 25, 2019May 4th, 2021No Comments

Have you sent nude pics or messages of sexual connotation to your partner recently? No? The chances are you do not know what you are missing out on. However, if you are sexting, do it right. Using technology in this purpose can add a special flavor to your relationship. Nevertheless, it can also make your life more difficult and make you vulnerable and exposed. Therefore, think twice before you start.

The Research

The University of Arizona has conducted research on this subject. The research included more than 1,000 college students with the average age of twenty. Generally, they concluded that women are more likely to sext than men. The reasons are various. The drive to do it, in most of the surveyed cases comes from the need to feel desirable. You may say that this is no news. Ever since the dawn of men, a woman has been perceived as a seductress.

Freedom of Choice or Pressure

We should not forget that many females worldwide encounter bullying or harassment, even blackmailing with photos, info or any kind of more-or-less compromising material. Female bodies have been sexualized in the media to extremes, making them women’s primary assets.

Women fought for centuries to achieve the status and liberties that men had. Once this had happened, it appears women have put themselves in a situation that draws them way back to the beginning.

We may call this freedom to do whatever we want. And this is the most frequent underlying reason stated in the research. Above 70% of women have claimed to have sexted at least once. The participants also stated that they sexted in order to keep their partners interested, or to turn them on. The exact percentage is 73% of women and 67% of women. However, what we think is a bit more concerning is the percentage of women who did it to satisfy the request of the recipient. Namely, 40% of women felt some kind of pressure to do it.

This detail puts things into a whole new perspective. We may have the freedom to do whatever we want to. If so, why do we let ourselves be pressured or harassed?

Positive Effects of Sexting

The lead researcher on this project, Morgan Johnstonbaugh reportedly stated:

 “Women might find sexting to be really empowering because you can create a space where you feel safe expressing your sexuality and exploring your body.”

Good for those women! We applaud them, honestly! There is nothing more liberating than exploring your own sexuality and accepting it. Still, the in-depth analysis of the research shows that the concept of sexting to gain empowerment is rather paradoxical and complicated for women. For all other women out there, who do it for alternative reasons, we have a few thoughts we wish to share.

Advice on sexting

Sharing sexually explicit content with your SO should be consensual. Your body, your rules. However, while doing it, remember that once you put any type of digital content online, you basically do not own it any longer. Having said that, let us add the following advices:

  • Use a secure connection whenever possible – VPN preferably. Make sure not to sext over wi-fi.
  • Use a personal cloud storage instead of iCloud, Google Drive, etc. Personal cloud storages are smaller and controllable, at least in terms of connection to the Internet.
  • By all means, destroy the evidence. This makes things less prone to hack attacks, at least at your end.
  • Use messaging Apps with end-to-end encryption. By doing so, you are narrowing the odds of a third-party having access to the content.

 

Do you have any experience with sexting?

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