Sylwander, K. R., & Gottzén, L. (2020). Whore! Affect, sexualized aggression and resistance in young social media users’ interaction. Sexualities, 23(5–6), 971–986.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460719872727
Open access: No
Notes: The term ‘whore’ is commonly used to shame women and girls’ bodies and sexualities. Drawing on cyber ethnographic work, the authors in this article set out to explore how the term ‘whore’ was used in girls’ social media. More specifically, they set to explore the concept in Sweden by drawing on post-humanist and Deleuze-Guattarian perspectives to explore sexuality in online contexts. In their findings, the authors note that the use of ‘whore’ can be seen as an affective assemblage. For instance, the use of the term ‘whore’ was closely tied to disgust and envy but also to notions of appropriateness, classiness, heterosexuality and ‘proper’ feminity. To resist these practices of slut-shaming, they describe individual strategies, such as upholding sexual innocence, but also collective strategies, such as “affirmation, love bombing, humour (irony), distancing, denying, negotiating meaning and appropriation” (p. 981). In conclusion, the authors show what “the figure of the whore can do in this context in territorializing girls’ bodies, comportment and sexuality, thereby illustrating how violent, injurious, but also complex and ambivalent it can be. However, we have attempted to extend critical sexuality scholarship by detailing also how acts of resistance to sexualized insults by peers work collectively in multiplicitous ways to deterritorialize – but also reterritorialize where an array of voices and technologies support the victims by giving ‘love’ and, at times, (sexualized) aggression to others.” (p. 982-983).
Abstract: In this article we explore the affectivity of the sexualized epithet ‘whore’ when employed by 150 young social media users in Sweden. By adopting a Deleuze-Guattarian inspired approach to affect we illustrate how ‘whore’ works to restrict and inhibit girls’ affective capacities within the online sexuality assemblage. We further explore targets’ and peers’ resistance to being called whore. We found that targets and peers alike employ aggressive and sexualized language to rebuke and resist the term whore. We argue that these acts of resistance may serve to further support the postfeminist logic and values that underpin the continued monitoring of girls.
