Women feel they are expected to sext their partners, study finds

Women who send nude photos of themselves on their smartphone usually do so because they feel it’s expected of them, a study reveals.

Researchers at University of Nebraska-Lincoln used questionnaires to find out why young US women sent ‘nudes’ to men. 

The most common reason, chosen by just over a third of participants, was because they saw it as ‘an obligation or inherent part of being in a romantic relationship’. 

They also found women ‘endorsed a plethora of motivations’ for sending nudes, including ‘to feel sexually aroused’ and to gain ‘a sense of power’. 

Sexting is a broad term and can include sexually explicit text, photographs, videos or even livestreamed explicit video chat. For this study, the academics focused on nude photos (‘nudes’) sent by women and their motivations for doing so

The study was led by researchers at the university’s Department of Psychology.  

‘Women frequently send sexualised nude images to men, but women’s motivations for sending nudes are unclear,’ the researchers say.

‘We find that women are not thoughtlessly sending images of their bodies to others, but rather are acutely aware of their motivations.’

As previous studies have discussed, sexting is a broad term and can include sexually explicit text, photographs, videos or even livestreamed explicit video chat. 

For this study, the academics focused on nude photos (‘nudes’) sent by women to partners or more causal romantic interests – and their motivations for doing so. 

The academics used questionnaires ‘to understand women’s motives for sending nudes’, including more positive reasons, which have been underrepresented in prior studies, they say.

The 207 women participants were all female college students from the US, aged between 19 and 27, who had sent at least one nude in their lifetime. 

They were asked: ‘As thoroughly as possible, please describe the reasons that you have sent nudes to men.’

Researchers say: ‘We found that women endorsed a plethora of motivations for sending nudes to men’ (file photo)

Nudes were defined as ‘sexual photographs of your body, or of a specific body part, in which you are completely or partially naked’. 

They could have been sent to a partner or otherwise, ‘because people send nudes to non-relationship partners’, the team say.

Responses included ‘pressure from friends’, ‘being repeatedly asked for it until you gave in’, ‘to be fun or flirtatious’ and ‘as a sexy present for a someone’. 

Overall, the most common motivation by far, chosen by 35.3 per cent of participants, was ‘relationship norm expectation’.

This is when the participant judged sending nudes as an obligation or inherent part of being in a romantic relationship (e.g., ‘This man is my boyfriend’). 

The next most common motivations were ‘because they asked’ (20.8 per cent), ‘long distance/separation’ (17.4 per cent) and ‘validation’ (14 per cent). 

Additionally, a few women were motivated by a sense of power and control.

One participant said: ‘I wanted to exert a sense of power over the men I sent nudes to; I could make them desire me and they would do anything to get a picture.’

In a few instances, women named violence or coercion as the reason they sent nudes (e.g., ‘so he wouldn’t break up with me or become more abusive’). 

‘Women have many motivations for sending nudes, spontaneously generating over 20 separate motives,’ the team say.

‘Relationship motives were the most prevalent while violent motives, instrumental motives and drugs or alcohol use rarely (if ever) spontaneously emerged as motivations for sending nudes.’

They conclude by saying other researchers should consider using ‘less stigmatizing language’ when assessing women’s motivations for sending nudes.

The study was published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour. 

If you enjoyed this article…

Raunchy lyrics encourage sexting in teen boys, study finds 

People who enjoy sending sexts ‘have dark personality traits’

Those with anxiety and depression more likely to use ‘sextech’