“Doing gender”: A digital ethnography of image-based abuse perpetration

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the non-consensual taking, creating, or sharing of intimate images, as well as threats to share intimate images. While considerable research has examined the nature, scope, and impacts of IBSA, comparatively little is known about perpetration. Drawing on a digital ethnography of 47 different websites, this article explores how users “do gender” through the online sharing of non-consensual intimate images. Using thematic analysis, we examine interactional dynamics that produce, reinforce, or reinvent gender norms within online digital spaces. We argue that IBSA is a homosocial practice that is embedded in ritualistic objectification and othering. These relational gender practices not only bestow social capital and sustain group cohesion, but they also normalize intimate image abuse and foster the emergence of other forms of gendered violence. This study highlights the need for more nuanced accounts of IBSA perpetration that attend to the social interactions among online users.