2024-08-14 14:02:59
Sexual harassment online
How to defend yourself against unwanted penis pictures
Updated on 14.08.2024 – 10:34Reading time: 3 min.
Penis pictures via Whatsapp or Snapchat: If you receive such an unsolicited picture, you don’t have to simply accept it.
No, it’s not a cucumber, not a banana, and not even an eggplant – suddenly you can see something in your direct messages or in your messenger chat history that is often described in a way that is suitable for young people using such emojis, but would have been better off staying in your pants.
It is not known how many photos of male genitalia are sent without being asked. But many women are familiar with the problem from the Internet.
“Very few women are not affected by this, it is very, very aggressive behavior,” explains psychologist and criminologist Sandra Schwark, an expert on sexual violence. Many feel harassed, disgusted or ashamed.
How stressful the situation is depends, among other things, on whether one has had bad previous experiences with sexual violence. In this case, receiving a picture of a penis can also be retraumatizing.
“In many cases, it is not about initiating sexual contact, but rather it is a sign of the exercise of power, like sexual harassment on the street. Like: ‘Look, I can do this right here, I can put you in a situation that is uncomfortable for you, and in case of doubt, it has no consequences at all for me,'” says Schwark.
Studies on sexual violence and harassment have “all come to the conclusion quite clearly that it is about this power factor, about exercising power over another person.”
The authors of a well-known study on so-called dick pics, i.e. penis pictures, assume that many men who send penis pictures are not consciously motivated by hostility or sexism, but nevertheless reinforce this by sending them.
In a study by Flora Oswald’s team (2019), 82 percent of the men surveyed who had sent unsolicited genital images hoped to sexually arouse the recipient.
Every second person (50 percent) said that the recipient should feel attractive through the picture. And about the same number hoped for “sexy pictures” in response (51 percent), wanted to arouse the other person (53 percent) or signal their own sexual interest in this way (49 percent).
One problem: “The sooner you feel that the behavior has no negative consequences, the more likely it is to be repeated,” explains psychotherapist Jonas Kneer. “That’s why it’s good to prosecute something like this and make it clear that it is abusive.
But one thing is clear: “The responsibility always lies with the perpetrator, never with the victim.” Kneer works in the prevention project “I Can Change” at the Hannover Medical School with people who fear that they can no longer control their sexual impulses. This is intended to prevent attacks in advance.
Those affected can easily prepare a report via the Dickstinction.com website. There they get tips on how best to document the incident (with a screenshot that includes the “dick pic” as well as the date and time of the message and the name of the sender), and are guided through the report creation process with questions about the incident. The finished report can be printed out and sent to the police or handed in to them.
Because sending “dick pics” is a criminal offense: “Anyone who allows pornographic content to reach another person without being asked to do so will be punished with imprisonment of up to one year or a fine,” states the Criminal Code (Section 184).
However, investigations are made more difficult if the person affected does not know the sender and the profile name does not reveal who it is, says Dickstinction co-founder Stefan Bieliauskas.
Women’s helplines and advice centers can also help you decide whether or not to file a report and how else to deal with the situation.
Kerstin Demuth, who deals with digital violence, among other things, at the relevant federal association, sees room for improvement among law enforcement agencies: “Unfortunately, there is sometimes a lack of knowledge about gender-specific components of violence, hierarchy and power structures, and digitalization.
For example, if it is not understood why closing the social media account or deleting the email address is not an option.” For some victims of image-based sexual violence, reporting it is an additional burden.