‘Fraping’, ‘Sexting’, ‘Trolling’ and ‘Rinsing’: social networking, feminist thought and the construction of young women as victims or villains

This paper explores the contradictory framing of young women’s social networking use in public and media discourses and situates it within current debates regarding the future of feminism for young women. While social networking activities began as relatively trivial, recently public and media concern has grown, especially in light of a so-called rise in ‘problematic’ gendered/sexualized behaviours on social networking sites. Examples include ‘fraping’, ‘sexting’, ‘trolling’ and ‘rinsing’; behaviours that push the boundaries of acceptability in terms of normative gendered/sexualized and embodied practices. Paradoxically, young women are presented as both victims of more predatory, deviant and/or criminal behaviours on social networking sites, such as cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying and their consequences, and villains in terms of their engagement in the aforementioned gendered/sexualized interactions.