‘The girl was so ashamed she didn’t come back to school for the rest of term’: gender, shame and sexuality education

Women and gender diverse people are more likely than men to experience sexual violence, including image-based sexual abuse. Drawing on interviews, focus groups and workshops with young people aged 12–16 and 16–18 and adults with a vested interest in young people’s digital sexual cultures, I sought to explore attitudes towards image-based sexual abuse and perceptions of young people’s right to sexual knowledge. I found that young women’s bodies, sexualities and sexual expressions, as well as sexual violence perpetrated against women, were underpinned by shame. Shame was a barrier to considering consensual sex as positive and enjoyable, preventing reporting and responding to harm, including image-based sexual abuse. The gendered nature of sexuality education alongside school cultures likely reproduce shame which reinforces this cycle. If we remove the shame of sex that is currently attached to sexuality education, we may be in a better position to prevent and respond to sexual violence.