Recognizing and addressing how gender shapes young people's experiences of image-based sexual harassment and abuse in educational settings

This paper explores findings from a study with 150 young people (aged 12-21) across England, which employed qualitative focus groups and arts-based methods to investigate young people's experiences of digital image-sharing practices. In this paper, we explore how gendered pressures to send nudes experienced by girls is a form of Image-Based Sexual Harassment (IBSH) and how pressures upon boys to secure nudes and prove they have them by sharing them non-consensually is Image-Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA). In addition, we argue boys’ sending nudes (dick pics) non-consensually is a form of image based sexual harassment, which can be compounded by harassment of girls to send nudes back. We look at the gendered nature of combined practices of Image-Based Sexual Harassment and Abuse (IBSHA) and how sexual double standards create sexual shaming and victim blaming for girls who experience IBSHA. We also explore young people's perspectives on their digital sex and relationship education and their suggestions for improvement. We conclude by arguing that schooling policies and practices would benefit from adopting the conceptual framework of IBSHA. We suggest this would be a good first step in better supporting young people in managing and negotiating digital gendered and sexualized consent, harms, and risks

Electrical activity increases growth cone calcium but fails to inhibit neurite outgrowth from rat sympathetic neurons

Previous studies have shown that the growth of axons from both mouse dorsal root ganglion neurons and Helisoma neurons is arrested when the cells are electrically stimulated (Cohan and Kater, 1986; Fields et al., 1990a). Furthermore, in the case of Helisoma neurons, this arrest has been attributed to a rise in the calcium concentration in the growth cones (Cohan et al., 1987). To test the generality of these results, we examined the response of cultured rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons to electrical stimulation and changes in cytoplasmic calcium. Suprathreshold electrical stimulation of SCG neurons at 10 Hz by extracellular patch electrodes for periods of up to 1 hr had no measurable effect on their rate of growth. In agreement with previous studies, electrical stimulation was accompanied by a rise in the internal calcium concentration: when measured by the fluorescence of fura-2, growth cone calcium levels rose from about 100 nM to greater than 500 nM and then settled to a plateau value of about 350 nM. Despite this increase, however, growth of SCG neurons' processes continued. Our results show that electrical activity is not a universal signal for neurons to stop growing and that a rise in internal calcium does not always arrest the migration of growth cones

Understanding and Combatting Youth Experiences of Image-Based Sexual Harassment and Abuse

This report presents findings from qualitative and quantitative research on digital image-sharing practices with 480 young people aged 12 to 18 years (336 in the survey and 144 in focus groups) from across the UK. Although our study examined a wide range of digital sexual behaviours, we found that non-consensual image-sharing practices were particularly pervasive, and consequently normalised and accepted among youth. Through our discussion of young people’s everyday experiences we demonstrate how nonconsensual image-sharing practices constitute forms of image based sexual harassment and abuse. We introduce the term image-based sexual harassment (IBSH) to describe unwanted sexual images (e.g. cyberflashing or unsolicited dick pics) and unwanted solicitation for sexual images (e.g. pressured sexting), and image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) to describe the non-consensual recording, distribution, and/or threat of distribution of sexual images (e.g. revenge porn). Our central aim is to improve the support available for young people by helping parents, teachers, and policymakers to identify and respond to diverse young people’s experiences with image-based sexual harassment and abuse

'Wanna trade?': Cisheteronormative homosocial masculinity and the normalization of abuse in youth digital sexual image exchange

This paper draws upon a qualitative study with 144 young people in seven different research schools in England, exploring how cis-heteronormative homosocial masculinity practices shape digital sexual image exchange. We examine three types of practices: 1) boys asking girls for nudes (pressurized sexting, which we position as online sexual harassment); 2) transactional nude solicitation (boys sending dick pics and asking girls for nudes, which we position as image based sexual harassment and cyberflashing); 3) non-consensual sharing of girls and boys nude images (which we position as image based sexual abuse, showing the differential impacts with lasting sexual stigma worse for girls). Our findings confirm earlier research that demonstrated homosocial masculinity currency is gained via the non-consensual sharing of images of girls’ bodies. We also investigate the more recent rise of male nudes (dick pics) and how a homosocial culture of humour and lad banter tends to lessen the sexual stigmatization of leaked dick pics. We argue providing boys with time and space to reflect on homosocial masculinity performances is crucial for disrupting these practices and our conclusions outline new UK school guidance for tackling online sexual harassment, cyberflashing and image-based sexual abuse

Teen Girls' Experiences Negotiating the Ubiquitous Dick Pic: Sexual Double Standards and the Normalization of Image Based Sexual Harassment

A range of important studies have recently explored adult women’s experiences of receiving unwanted dick pics (Amundsen, 2020). However, to date there has been limited research that has explored teen girls’ experiences of receiving unwanted penis images in depth. To address this gap we draw upon our findings from a qualitative study using focus group interviews and arts based drawing methods to explore social media image sharing practices with 144 young people aged 11–18 in seven secondary schools in England. We argue that being bombarded with unwanted dick pics on social media platforms like Snapchat normalises harassing practices as signs of desirability and popularity for girls, but suggest that being sent unsolicited dick pics from boys at school is more difficult for girls to manage or report than ignoring or blocking random older senders. We also found that due to sexual double standards girls were not able to leverage dick pics for status in the same way boys can use girls’ nudes as social currency, since girls faced the possibility of being shamed for being known recipients of dick pics. Finally we explore how some girls challenge abusive elements of toxic masculinity in the drawing sessions and our conclusion argues that unwanted dick pics should always be understood as forms of image based sexual harassment

DETERMINANTS OF KANSAS FARMERS' PARTICIPATION IN ON-FARM RESEARCH

On-farm research (OFR) has increased in popularity in the U.S. in recent years due to heightened interest in sustainability issues, the likely decline in resources available for agricultural research, and increasing pressures for accountability and responsiveness to state and local needs. Information relating to OFR was obtained from 431 commercial Kansas farmers. Data were analyzed to determine the degree of OFR being implemented, and three models were estimated to identify which farmer/farm characteristics influenced its implementation. The results indicate that OFR is commonly implemented, and that several farm/farmer characteristics are related to the degree of OFR initiated. It is proposed that to maximize the return from externally initiated OFR, there would be merit in focusing attention on farms/farmers with those characteristics.Farmer attitudes, Farmer participation, Farming systems research, On-farm research, Sustainable agriculture, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Young people's experiences of image-based sexual harassment and abuse in England and Canada: Toward a feminist framing of technologically facilitated sexual violence

This article reports on a qualitative research study Sharing Networked Image Practices (SNIP) among young people. We explore our findings from 37 focus groups with 206 young people aged (11–19) in London and South East England and Toronto, Canada conducted in 2019 and 2020. Drawing on feminist legal and criminological scholarship (Powell & Henry, 2017; McGlynn et al., 2017; McGlynn and Johnson, 2020) we develop a framework to clearly identify how and when image sharing should be constituted as forms of: (1) Image-Based Sexual Harassment (IBSH) (i.e. unsolicited penis images (‘dick pics’) and unwanted solicitation for nudes), and (2) Image-Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA) (i.e. non-consensual image creation/sharing). We argue that categorizing non-consensual image sharing, showing and distributing as image-based sexual harassment and abuse rather than ‘sexting’ is an important conceptual shift to enable young people, schools, parents and all relevant stakeholders to recognize and address new forms of technology-facilitated sexual violence

Relating spatial perspective taking to the perception of other's affordances: providing a foundation for predicting the future behavior of others

Understanding what another agent can see relates functionally to the understanding of what they can do. We propose that spatial perspective taking and perceiving other's affordances, while two separate spatial processes, together share the common social function of predicting the behavior of others. Perceiving the action capabilities of others allows for a common understanding of how agents may act together. The ability to take another's perspective focuses an understanding of action goals so that more precise understanding of intentions may result. This review presents an analysis of these complementary abilities, both in terms of the frames of reference and the proposed sensorimotor mechanisms involved. Together, we argue for the importance of reconsidering the role of basic spatial processes to explain more complex behaviors

Endocannabinoids control the induction of cerebellar LTD.

Summary The long-term depression (LTD) of parallel fiber (PF) synapses onto Purkinje cells plays a central role in motor learning. Endocannabinoid release and LTD induction both depend upon activation of the metabotropic glutamate receptor mGluR1, require postsynaptic calcium increases, are synapse specific, and have a similar dependence on the associative activation of PF and climbing fiber synapses. These similarities suggest that endocannabinoid release could account for many features of cerebellar LTD. Here we show that LTD induction is blocked by a cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) antagonist, by inhibiting the synthesis of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonyl glycerol (2-AG), and is absent in mice lacking the CB1R. Although CB1Rs are prominently expressed presynaptically at PF synapses, LTD is expressed postsynaptically. In contrast, a previously described transient form of inhibition mediated by endocannabinoids is expressed presynaptically. This indicates that Purkinje cells release 2-AG that activates CB1Rs to both transiently inhibit release and induce a postsynaptic form of LTD