We need to stop calling it ‘revenge porn’ and say it how it is

It’s one of those terms you accept without question – but activists want you to think again.

Because it’s time we called it what it is: image-based sexual abuse.

Laws around the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and videos are now tightening up – thanks to the work of campaigners, charities, and outspoken celebrities such as Georgia Harrison, who experienced it herself.

Grace Rose Gwynne, a barrister and TV broadcaster, says this term ‘violates the victim again.’

‘There are two issues – “revenge” implies a victim has done something to cause this and it’s a retaliation to bad behaviour, which isn’t true,’ she explains.

‘It’s usually a bitter ex-partner, and it’s no fault of their own, so this word is wrong.

‘Secondly, porn is such a taboo topic and being seen to be “involved” in that can be socially detrimental.

‘Usually it’s a female that’s been the victim in these actions, and it becomes a social issue. People can lose their jobs and face other repercussions.’

If we want to use the word ‘porn’, she says, we should be calling it non-consensual – because that is what it is. These people ‘aren’t porn stars’.

Terms Grace prefers to use are ‘image-based sexual abuse’, and ‘internet based abuse’.

Plenty of campaigners agree.

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, tells Metro.co.uk: ‘The language we use matters because it shapes our collective attitudes and behaviours.

‘Survivors and their advocates have long called for image-based sexual abuse to be called by its proper name.

‘When the media wrongly names sexual abuse as “porn”, it minimises the harm done, retraumatises survivors and reinforces the myth that abuse of women is a normal part of sexual relationships.’

Erika Rackley, a professor of law, also prefers the term ‘image-based sexual abuse’.

She carried out an international study with colleagues in the UK, Australia and New Zealand and found survivors of this abuse also rejected the term, and one anonymous interviewee asked: ‘Do you really want pictures of your body being talked about as porn?’

Erika has written in the past that ‘revenge porn’ trivialises the harm caused and ‘focuses too much on the motivations of perpetrators at the expense of the harms to victims’.

Grace adds: ‘We all use that problematic term and know what it means, but when you analyse it, it can cause psychological detriment to those affected by it

‘We need to be careful and we have a social responsibility to be fair and accurate when talking about this – we’re doing people a disserve otherwise.’

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