Want to feel more knowledgable about the patriarchy and how it impacts our lives and the society in which we live? The Pocket Guide to the Patriarchy by journalist Maya Oppenheim might just be the book for you.
Oppenheim is Women's Correspondent at The Independent and the only women's correspondent at a UK news outlet. The book covers a broad range of topics, including sex work, abortion rights, sexual violence, the criminal justice system, policing, women's health, the far right, to name a few.
Here's an extract from The Pocket Guide to the Patriarchy — described by actor Olivia Colman as "a vital book" — published by Trapeze on Aug. 31 2023.
What do spy-cam porn, upskirting, deepfake porn, cyberflashing, sextortion, and revenge porn all have in common? For one, they are all cybersex crimes. Secondly, they are all words that have only entered our vernacular in recent years.
What are cybersex crimes?
Cybersex crimes are insidious, eerily perverse and, for the most part, committed by complete strangers through technology that is hard to trace. These crimes can involve installing hidden cameras in changing rooms, public toilets or tanning salons, snapping photos or recording videos up a stranger’s skirt, as well as fiddling around on Photoshop doctoring images of celebrities to make them look like porn stars in explicit sexual positions, or sending unsolicited sexual images to strangers.
And cybersex crimes aren’t just committed by people you wouldn’t recognise in the street; it is likely you would know the person who perpetrates so-called revenge porn (a phrase I do not like for reasons I will soon explain) against you. While most of these repellent crimes might feel beyond the bounds of possibility for many, they nevertheless happen more often than many would assume.
What's revenge porn?
Let’s start with revenge porn, as it is likely to be one of the most prevalent issues on the list of cybersex crimes – which, to be clear, is not comprehensive but covers six key issues in this shadowy, sinister realm. In its simplest terms, revenge porn involves revealing private sexual images or videos online or offline, without first gaining the consent of the person they concern, with the aim of provoking distress. Revenge porn was first made a criminal offence in the UK in 2015, with perpetrators facing prison sentences of up to two years.
However, the law recently changed in 2021 to also punish those who threaten to share explicit private images or videos in the wake of the Naked Threat campaign launched by leading domestic abuse charity Refuge. Despite this progress, the number of people charged for revenge porn is dishearteningly low, with data showing that only 4 per cent of reports lead to court action, despite cases skyrocketing. Data obtained through Freedom of Information laws by Refuge show that 13,860 explicit-image crimes were recorded across 24 police forces from 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2022. However, a negligible 534 cases resulted in charges. Experts in the field object to the term revenge porn, instead preferring the decidedly clunkier, less memorable phrase "intimate image-based abuse."
The word "revenge" implies the victim has done something to deserve having naked photos of them leaked to the world.
This is because the word "revenge" implies the victim has done something to deserve having naked photos of them leaked to the world. In reality, revenge is just one of the manifold reasons perpetrators decide to leak explicit pictures or footage. Not that it is ever a fair or advisable form of reprisal. Take the BBC Panorama investigation which unearthed online groups with thousands of members known as ‘subreddits’ where men trade, sell and purchase personal photos of women. This phenomenon transcends Reddit and has been labelled "collector culture." "So-called 'collector culture' is a growing problem," Zara Ward, who works in a senior role on the revenge porn helpline, told me. "We see that these behaviours have evolved over time where the collectors will aim to avoid detection so content cannot be removed, and victims are left in the dark as to if their content has been shared illegally."
What is upskirting?
It is worth bearing in mind there has been a considerable amount of legislation addressing cybersex crimes in recent years. Upskirting, defined as the act of covertly filming or taking a picture under a person’s skirt without gaining their consent, was made a criminal offence in England and Wales in April 2019, while cyberflashing is also due to become a criminal offence in England and Wales. Further to this, the government has announced distributing deepfakes, explicit material manipulated to look like someone without their consent, will soon become illegal.
What is sextortion?
Sextortion is another growing issue in the UK and around the world. This involves explicit images or footage being used to blackmail an individual. The perpetrators are overwhelmingly organised crime contingents operating from abroad, but they can also be a partner or an ex. For those who no doubt find intimate image abuse and sextortion disturbing, then voyeurism will really unnerve you.
What is voyeurism?
For the blissfully unaware, voyeurism involves peeping toms installing clandestine cameras in rental and student properties or public spaces including toilets, swimming pool cubicles, changing rooms and tanning salons to capture explicit photos of women without their consent. This material is then uploaded to porn websites where, experts have informed me, there is a growing market for such material.
This is a growing problem in South Korea where the trend termed "spy-cam porn" is circulating online and is so widespread that it is sometimes referred to as an "epidemic." This is a crime predominantly perpetrated by men, and police in South Korea received more than 30,000 reports of covert cameras being used for filming between 2013 and 2018. The country’s lightning-fast internet permits images to be rapidly downloaded, distributed and sold. Human Rights Watch, a prominent global organisation, said the trend is having "devastating" repercussions on victims, as the images can "spread uncontrollably."
What is online grooming?
Online grooming is another grim cybersex crime that deserves attention. The Internet Watch Foundation states that girls are the victims in 92 per cent of all child abuse sexual content they remove from the internet. The organisation considers online grooming to be a "national crisis," warning that adult men have approached children as young as 11 online, with perpetrators duping young girls into taking off their clothes on live-streaming sites before the footage is distributed on child sex abuse sites. Adult offenders will pretend to be fellow teenagers or fake boyfriends, and experts warn that grooming can be done far more swiftly on the internet than in person. In essence, while sexual predators may be as old as the hills, the World Wide Web has offered perpetrators new and increasingly sophisticated ways to execute their sick and twisted exploits.
Sadly, around the world, the criminal justice system has often been sluggish in staying on top of these issues, especially as the internet evolves and develops.
Cybersex crimes statistics
Calls to the national Revenge Porn Helpline about threats to share intimate images more than tripled between 2017 and 2020.
A report by the Revenge Porn Helpline branded "collector culture" – gathering, uploading and trading intimate material of women – as "an emerging trend" that is "increasing at pace."
A rugby group at Oxford Brookes University urged players to get as many nudes of women at the university as they could to disseminate and rate.
A private Bristol Facebook group where men distribute explicit photos and videos of women, including content of their ex-partners, accumulates 7,000 members in days.
A U.S. study states that women and children make up the majority of the victims of sextortion, with researchers saying that in many sextortion cases the perpetrators did not even have the photos or footage they were using to control and exploit their victims.
Sextortion cases reported to the UK’s Revenge Porn Helpline almost doubled within a year, becoming the biggest issue it grapples with for the first time in 2021.
Data shows that more than a third of revenge porn cases are dropped by victims despite a suspect being identified. Charities warn that a "potentially bruising" criminal justice ordeal without assurance of anonymity and a dearth of trust in the police are partially behind this.
In 2014, naked images of high-profile actors, musicians, models and presenters were leaked on the website 4chan, an image-sharing forum, in a hack linked to the Apple iCloud service. The list was predominantly made up of female stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, Selena Gomez, Cara Delevingne and many more.
Resources for survivors of cybersex crimes
Women’s Aid and Refuge – two leading domestic abuse charities who advise on partner-related cyber-sex crimes.
Suzy Lamplugh Trust – personal-safety charity which runs the free National Stalking Helpline (0808 802 0300).
Revenge Porn Helpline – free service that supports adults coping with intimate-image abuse.
Internet Watch Foundation – removes child abuse imagery from the internet.
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative – leading U.S. organisation serving thousands of victims around the world.
If you have experienced sexual abuse, call the free, confidential National Sexual Assault hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), or access the 24-7 help online by visiting online.rainn.org.
The Pocket Guide to the Patriarchy by Maya Oppenheim is out now.
Topics Gender Sex & Relationships
