Sexy Selfie Nation

A crucial book for this moment. Young people and those who care for them need to read this book! We need to stop criminalizing and shaming kids and find ways to respect, support, and empower them as they come of age in their digital world.--Devorah Heitner, PhD, author of Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World A must-read for young women and their parents. Tanenbaum brings an essential feminist lens to the crisis in youth mental health, diagnosing systemic causes while remaining fiercely respectful and protective of young people doing their best in a sexist, screwed up world.--Alexandra Brodsky, author of Sexual Justice Leora Tanenbaum called out ""slut-shaming"" 25 years ago. She was right then, and she's right today. The book's most important insight is that when girls and women decide to stand up for themselves, this decision can come at a cost. Tanenbaum explains this challenge and offers advice for girls and women, mothers and fathers, on how to handle the sexist culture that remains a threat to girls and women everywhere. Read this book, and then buy another copy for the young person in your life.--Karen Hinton, author of Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men, and Power 'There will never be a day in my entire lifetime that all of the images of me could ever be deleted.' These words, quoted by Leora Tanenbaum in Sexy Selfie Nation, highlight the egregious theft of control and consent that survivors of image-based sexual abuse experience. Tanenbaum also correctly points the finger at the tech companies that facilitate, promote, and profit off the abuse of their users. Whether it is a pedophile commenting that a five-year-old looks 'so sexy' in her bikini or a cloud company distributing stolen explicit images, Tanenbaum includes an array of disturbing instances of Big Tech making the safety of their consumers a 'non-goal.' The diversity of expertise included, centering of survivors, and foregrounding of nuance make this book an educational and engaging read for anyone trying to make sense of the paradoxical pressures placed on women expected to be 'sexy, just not slutty.'--Carrie Goldberg, victims' rights lawyer and author of Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls ""In Sexy Selfie Nation, Leora Tanenbaum deftly wades into the objectification of young women's bodies on social media and the conditions that produce it. Spoiler alert: the problem is not young women posting selfies! People want easy answers, but Tanenbaum considers complex questions: Is the sexy selfie an act of empowerment? Is it a clap back? Is it an imperfect response to an imperfect system? This is a must-read for anyone figuring out how to understand this new moment and how to navigate it as a parent or a young person.""--Samhita Mukhopadhyay, author of The Myth of Making It and former executive editor of Teen Vogue Finally, teen girls get the respect they deserve from someone who truly cares. In Sexy Selfie Nation, Leora Tanenbaum acts as a mediator between these girls and their disapproving adults, offering impressive empathy to both sides. This book is an essential account of what teens are thinking when they show off their bodies, and a reminder that a safer, shame-free world is possible.--Nona Willis Aronowitz, author of Bad Sex and former sex columnist for Teen Vogue Have you ever wondered why a young person that you care about dresses like that or posts a selfie with cleavage, bedroom eyes, and tousled hair? I was gripped by Tanenbaum's powerful argument about sexy selfies as an act of resistance against gender-unequal dress coding, image-based sexual abuse, and other forms of unwanted sexualization. Her argument that ""being harassed or assaulted may lead you to wear revealing clothing and post sexy selfies,"" will change how you think about crop tops and short shorts. Rather than lecturing young people about what they wear and post, we should respond to the actual bad behavior: policymakers' inaction on digital privacy and dress-code double standards. Sexy Selfie Nation presents a nuanced understanding of a confusing (to older adults) set of phenomena, helping readers see that ""sexy selfies can sometimes be empowering for individual women"" but also that""sexy selfies can backfire against women as a class of people"" and that while the ""monetization of sexy selfies is rewarding for some, "" it's also ""risky for all."" I could not put this book down and highlighted probably ever other sentence. ""Remember that sexuality is not the problem; violation of consent is the problem."" One of this year's must-reads.--Jennifer S. Hirsch, PhD, coauthor of Sexual Citizens: Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus Leora Tanenbaum's Sexy Selfie Nation raises new and important topics like the idea of sexual assault via one's image--a chilling yet timely concept--and enough double standards facing young women today to make a reader's head spin. Anyone who picks up this book will walk away with a clear sense of how complicated it is to walk the world in a woman's body--and even more so as each day passes. Best of all, Tanenbaum has practical solutions and advice that will cross generations. This is a book for anyone who cares about women and girls--which is to say, this is a book for everyone.--Donna Freitas, author of Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention and Consent on Campus: A Manifesto Leora Tanenbaum's gift is speaking directly to young women without judgment or shame about the trickiest of topics--objectification, sexual agency, bodily autonomy--and what and where those lines might be. Sexy Selfie Nation is an indispensable guide to helping them define and make their choices in a culture that sexualizes them from childhood and then blames them when they fight back.--Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex Looking at women's engagements with sexy clothing, racy selfies, and OnlyFans accounts, Leora Tanenbaum explains in this thoughtful, sensitive, and highly captivating book the benefits and dangers of sexualizing women's bodies. Using both historical examples and numerous interviews, it offers a map and advice on how to navigate today's toxic culture of social media, commercial objectification, and slut-shaming. Sexy Selfie Nation is a must and timely read to all those who want to understand the increasingly complicated reality where sex and sexuality can be empowering and a feminist means of resistance, while also pointing to the social dangers these practices entail.--Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, PhD, author of Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism