In making this project, I wanted to illustrate the misogyny and harassment that often comes with being a young woman on the internet. All of the messages in this project are real texts, Tinder messages, and other digital communications sent by men to young women. I asked my friends and colleagues to submit inappropriate, unwanted messages they had received recently and used messages from my own experience as well. The messages range from relatively basic “fuckboy” texts to outright horrific. As of right now, there are 81 messages displayed on this site and I am collecting more.
I was inspired to create this project while studying norms in communication. I noticed that while there still is some normalized sexism in face-to-face conversation, it often pales in comparison to what men are willing to say over text. I think this is enabled by the fact that there is a lack of consequences for inappropriate behavior due to the lack of direct contact and heightened degree of anonymity brought by digital, text-based messaging. The impersonal aspect of texting makes it much easier to dehumanize someone and turn them into nothing more than a sexual object.
And now, on a lighter note, here is a short manifesto listing ways to deal with gross texts like these!