Friends Hope Teen’s Death Warns Others Against ‘Sexting’: MSNBC article about an 18-year-old’s suicide due to the harassment that ensured after her boyfriend shared a nude picture of her without her consent.
This article is more sympathetic to the girl involved than most news stories on sexting. However, it still essentially blames girls for taking the picture in the first place:
Logan’s friends and family hope her story will serve as a reminder for teens and anyone else who would consider sending nude photos across the Internet or by cell phone.
This and other articles also blame “bullying” for her death, but miss the point by using this gender-neutral word—the girl was tormented and called a ‘whore’ and a ‘slut’ simply because she was female and seen as sexually active. Her suicide was not caused by sexting, as so many headlines seem to claim, it was precipitated by culturally pervasive sexist and misogynist reactions to young women’s sexuality.
Amy A. Hasinoff 