Public Parts: Afro Gen Z Sexting Culture and What It Means for Internet Policy

Since the invention of clothes, humans have been obsessed with nudity. 

As our naked bodies became more mysterious, we became more curious about what lay underneath. Erotic art, which has its early origins in the Paleolithic cave paintings of sexual parts and acts, made it possible for early artists to be able to create lasting renditions of people in the nude. 

However, the earliest pieces of both erotic and non-erotic art were limited by the male gaze as most of the artists at the time were men portraying nudity from the vantage point of their desires. As a result, many early artworks featured female subjects scantily clad, decorated with an out-of-place nip slip, and situated in contorted positions that honestly look humanly impossible sometimes. For example, the first non-religious female nude painting The Birth of Venus was made by a man—Boticelli in 1485.

The Birth of Venus. Boticelli. 1485.

Men continued to retain somewhat of a monopoly on portraying nudity until the invention of the camera and photography, which made it possible for people who couldn’t paint nudes to capture nudity with just a click. This completely dissolved the barrier of entry to creating nude renditions of ourselves. Suddenly, people didn’t need to pay for a commissioned piece nude art as most Renaissance art patrons were found to. Instead, they could simply create intimate renditions with their cameras and, many decades later, be able to share them freely on the internet.

As the generation born parallel to the internet, i. At first, sexting was primarily text-based over love letters or instant messaging and on R-rated chat rooms. But as mobile technology improved alongside the internet, sexting became more visual as phone cameras democratised the ability to take and share nudes without the need for any additional equipment. 

So, as the internet generation, Gen Z is native to the culture of creating, sending, consuming, and, sometimes, selling nudes online. But what exactly does the generation consider to be a nude?

From our survey of 50 Afro Gen Zs aged 18-26 from around the world, we found surprising insights. While 79 percent of them consider nudes to be X-rated content that shows all or part of a person’s sexual organs, 51 percent also find X-rated content in underwear like briefs and lingerie to be nudes, and 10 percent consider non-sexual body parts like hands and feet to be nudes. One of the Gen Zs went further to explain: “I believe nudes to be explicit content WITH A VIEW TO attract attention and leveraging that attention for the mileage especially through sexual arousal.” 

With 36 percent of the Gen Zs we surveyed having sent their nudes to platonic friends without any sexual motivation, it shows that for Gen Zs, nudes aren’t always sexual. Rather, for them, nudes are made sexual by their intention and the nature of the relationship between the sender and the receiver. For example, one of the Gen Zs we surveyed mentioned that they’d sent a nude of themselves to their tattoo artist because they wanted to see the progress of the full-body tattoo as it healed. In such cases, despite sending their nudes, they’re not actually sexting with the recipient. 

In some cases, they’re actually not sending the nudes they take to anyone at all. Although 88 percent of the surveyed Gen Zs said that they take nudes to sext with their sexual or romantic partners, 36 percent said they take nudes simply to document the evolution of their bodies and 21 percent take nudes for artistic/editorial purposes. One of such Gen Zs said in the research that they take nudes “to have a reference to go back to and admire my body.”

Their comment reminds me of this scene from the sitcom Schitt’s Creek where Moira Rose, my favourite comedic character, admonishes to Stevie, the motel receptionist: 

“Take a thousand naked pictures of yourself now! You may currently think, "Oh, I'm too spooky." Or, "Nobody wants to see these tiny boobies." But, believe me, one day you will look at those photos with much kinder eyes and say, "Dear God, I was a beautiful thing!” — Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek

Moira concludes her advice in the show by encouraging Stevie to “submit” her photos to the internet, an advice taken to heart by the 83 percent of the surveyed Gen Zs who disclosed that they’ve shared nude photos of themselves online. Of these people, 28 percent of them explicitly ask for consent before sharing explicit photos of themselves while the majority, 55 percent of them, simply trust their understanding of the existing boundaries between them and the recipient of their nudes. 

Does that approach to consent always work? Maybe, maybe not. But when you consider that 77 percent of the surveyed Gen Zs admitted to having received nudes from people (friends and strangers alike) without their consent, and 75 percent of them prefer stricter internet laws restricting the sharing of sexually explicit online, trend lines begin to emerge. Although Gen Z is asking for consent a lot more frequently than any other generation, this isn’t limiting the non-consensual spread of nudes on the internet. 

“There’s always this underlying fear that one day the nudes I’ve sent will resurface when I least expect it as it’s prominent among recent influencers. They get blackmailed for a while and, once they stop paying, their leaks are released. That’s the greatest underlying fear with regards to sharing nudes. However, I do like sending and receiving them. I just try my best not to show anything that has any relation to me in the background and I never show my face as well,” explained one of the surveyed Gen Zs.

With the prevalence of nudes and nude-sending on the internet, Gen Zs aren’t as precious about keeping their nudes private as previous generations. As a result, Gen Zs are most vulnerable to having their nudes leaked and visible to their wider community (which was the #1 anxiety of the surveyed Gen Zs) as well as falling prey to cyberbullying and revenge porn (their #2 anxiety with sending nudes). Therefore, it’s no surprise that 62 percent of the surveyed Gen Zs stated that they’d be willing to agree to maximum internet privacy policies, even if they limited their ability to send and receive nudes online. Yeah, it’s that serious.

One of the surveyed Gen Zs shared with us that: “Receiving a third party’s nudes unprovoked from the boy she was seeing previously made me realise I wished there was a way you could ensure they get rid of all your content when you part ways.” This risk of an ex keeping and possibly sharing your nudes after a breakup without seeking consent is highest for celebrities and people of influence. Earlier this year, PAPER Magazine covered the unfortunate release of Emily Ratajkowski’s nudes by her ex Eric Andre after their breakup. This triggered conversations on Twitter and on culture publications like Refinery29 about what to do when your ex still has your nudes.

In a story for Vogue, Eleanor Halls writes: “A focus on consent and boundaries does not seem to have made Gen Z less sexually adventurous either.” We found this to be true as 32% of surveyed Gen Zs admitted to being open to even selling their nudes on the internet “if times get hard.” One of the respondents disclosed that they’re already making money from selling their nudes on Onlyfans.

We’ve come a long way from the time when nudes existed only in the halls of the wealthy art patrons who could afford to commission intimate or erotic paintings. But as technology made it easy for everyone with a phone camera and the internet to take intimate photos of themselves, we introduced a new set of risks associated with capturing nudity that’re arguably more dire than the male gaze that plagued the earliest renditions of nudes. 

To mitigate these risks and protect the intimate content being created and shared by Gen Zs online, internet policies must adapt to, and not stifle, Gen Z’s less private relationship with nudes and nudity. Privacy policies such as end-to-end encryption as well as content reporting tools on social media go a long way to allow Gen Zs to send nudes freely without compromising their ability to get punitive measures dealt to people who send nudes unwarranted.

However, if push comes to shove, Gen Zs will much rather a nude-free internet than one that allows the nude-sending on social platforms that lack the necessary privacy tools to protect them, their information, and their content.