A dick pic is an image or photograph of a penis, usually erect, [1] sent electronically (e.g. on the internet, by SMS, or by close-range file sharing). The term dick pic is derived from dick , slang for penis, and pic , a shortening of the word picture. Dick pics are a sexual practice and a form of sexting.
If the recipient consents, sexting (which may include sending dick pics) is associated with positive psychological and relationship outcomes. [2] [3]
If sent without the consent of the recipient, they may be a form of exhibitionism or sexual harassment (cyberharassment). [4] [5] [6] Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, have laws against the sending of unsolicited nude images. [7] Unsolicited dick pics are often sent by private message on social networks; a number of cases are known of dick pics received on the Russian social-networking service Vkontakte [8] and Facebook. [9] Dick pics are also sometimes sent through local file-sharing programs (such as AirDrop) to unknown recipients, a practice known as cyberflashing. [10] [11]
Although women, non-binary people and transgender men may engage in sexting and sending genital images, dick pics are commonly understood to be a cisgender male activity. [4] There is no widespread female counterpart to the unsolicited dick pic; unsolicited genital images are overwhelmingly sent by men. [5]
Motivations for sending a dick pic vary widely, [5] as do responses to receiving one. [4] [12] Like sexting in general, the sending and receiving of solicited dick pics is common among adults; motivated by positive factors like relationship enhancement, it is linked to positive psychological outcomes. [4] [5] The sending of an unsolicited dick pic may be motivated by positive or negative factors, [5] and recipients of unsolicited dick pics may react positively or negatively; women tend to react negatively, and homosexual men tend to react positively. [4] [12]
The sender of an unsolicited dick pic may do so under the assumption that recipients will be excited or impressed by the penis or the boldness of the gesture. [1] [13] A demonstration of masculinity (particularly toxic masculinity), it is indicative of narcissism. A 2019 study in the Journal of Sex Research demonstrates that senders of unsolicited dick pics tend to have narcissistic personality traits. [14] [15] [16] Some senders say that they are looking for admiration of their virility, or think of the act as flirtation. [17] Behavioral problems due to psychological trauma may contribute to narcissism. [13]
Disregarding recipient desire [13] is characteristic of hostile sexism, [15] sexual deviance [18] and hedonism. [19] The vast majority of victims view unsolicited dick pics as offensive. [18] [13]
By deliberately crossing boundaries, the sender simulates courage and attempts to assert dominance (sometimes aware of their negative consequences). Rejection and criticism may lead to retaliatory abusive and aggressive behavior as the receiver compensates for the power difference and does not validate the sender's dominance or masculinity. The negative reactions of the receiving party (often anger or disgust) may not be motivated by the photo itself, but by its unsolicited nature. [20]
According to researchers, men tend to overestimate female sexual interest in them for evolutionary reasons; women tend to underestimate men's sexual interest in them. This overestimation (sexual overperception bias) may cause a man to feel entitled to positive feedback from a recipient –typically a woman –and assume that the sexually aroused recipient will reciprocate. [5] [21] [22]
Australian psychologist Andrea Woling published a 2017 study [23] saying that dick pics are a primitive way to interest an interlocutor, get acquainted, and indicate one's intentions. Surveys of men who sent dick pics indicate that most expected to receive intimate photos in return. [24] Dick pics may also be a form of Internet trolling, with women saying that unfamiliar users sent them an unsolicited dick pic after they refused to meet or ignored a greeting. [8]
This behavior, when unwanted, is typical of a heterosexual, cisgender male who sends an image to whom they see as a cisgender female. Men identifying as gay or bisexual who receive unsolicited phallic imagery perceive it as positive more often than other demographics –more than half of such men, according to one study. [4] Forty-four percent of men who have sex with men (MSM) reported being "entertained" and 41% felt "curious" after receiving a dick pic; 25 percent of MSM reported a negative reaction. [25] Data suggests that MSM feel pressured to suppress their negative feelings about unsolicited dick pics; the same study found that 7.5 percent of heterosexual women and 12 percent of bisexual women reported feeling aroused by at least one unsolicited dick pic they received. [25]
According to a 2016 U.S. survey, 49 percent of women had received at least one unsolicited photo of male sex organs. [19] In a late-2017 survey, 78 percent of women aged 18 to 34 and 69 percent of women aged 35 to 54 said that they had received at least one dick pic without prior consent. Seventeen percent of men admitted sending an unsolicited genital image. [18]
According to a 2019 survey in the United States, 27 percent of young adult males had sent such unsolicited photos. Their motivations were:
Only 27 percent of those who repeatedly sent dick pics said that they would rather receive a positive than a negative response. [15] Most of the time, no response is received.
In a 2017 YouGov survey, 2,121 women and 1,738 men between the ages of 18 and 36 were asked about dick pics. Forty-six percent of the women said that they had received such a photo, 89 percent of which were unsolicited. Of the men, 30 percent said they had been asked by a woman to send them a dick pic; 22 percent said that they had simply sent one. Of the men who had sent a dick pic, 21 percent said that they did so without being asked [26] According to Freudian psychoanalyst Caroline Ledu, these men unconsciously seek to "arouse anguish" by confronting their (female) victims with what they feel their bodies lack. [27]
Social networks (Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) and dating sites (Tinder and, particularly, Chatroulette and Omegle) are the most-used vectors. According to a 2011 Boston survey, one-quarter of webcams are pointed at penises. [19] The study looked at the adults-only network fantasti.cc:, where 23 percent of men's profile pictures include their penises and 13 percent use a penis picture found on the Internet. [19]
Ovidie said in 2019 that almost all French high-school girls had received a dick pic from a social network (particularly Snapchat), and exhibitionists had adopted new technology to shock and dominate. [28] An October 2018 IFOP survey found that 42 percent of female users of dating sites had received a dick pic there; the percentage increased to 63 percent of women aged 18 to 24. [29]
A 2020 US study by Marcotte et al. asked 2,045 women and 298 bisexual and gay men about receiving unsolicited penis photos and their experiences with them. Of those who had received a dick pic (49.6 percent of women and 80.5 percent of men), over 90 percent were unsolicited. Women (regardless of sexual orientation) reacted mainly negatively, with feelings of disgust (50 percent) and disrespect (46 percent). Twenty-six percent of women said that they responded positively to unsolicited dick pics, and 7.6 percent of women (7.5 percent heterosexual and 11.9 percent bisexual) reported being sexually aroused. Of the men, 71 percent said they reacted positively to unsolicited penis photos. "Entertained" (44 percent) and "curious" (40.6 percent) were the most-frequent choices, and 33.6 percent reported sexual arousal. Twenty-five percent of the men reacted negatively to unsolicited dick pics. The study found that younger women and women who had received unwanted advances from men were more likely to react negatively to dick pics. [25]
In French law, the practice can be considered as an act of exhibitionism punishable by one year of imprisonment and a €15,000 fine in accordance with article 232-22 of the penal code. [13] Article R.624-2 [30] provides for a €750 fine or anyone who sends an unsolicited indecent message. [31] Repeated practice will be considered harassment, punishable by two to three years of imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 to 45,000 euros depending on the age of the victim. [31] If the recipient is a minor, the penalty is seven years in prison and a €100,000 fine. [32] In 2019, a Roanne court sentenced a repeat offender to three years in prison after complaints from 49 victims from 12 to 90 years old. [33] In Texas, the sender of an unsolicited dick pic is subject to a $500 fine. [34] As of 2021 [update] , Finland was preparing a bill introducing a penalty of up to six months in prison. [32]
According to Article 240, paragraph 2 of the Dutch criminal code, sending an inappropriate dick pic is a sex offense. [35] In 2018, a man in the Netherlands who sent digital dick pics was sentenced by a court to 80 hours of community service (half of which was conditional) and to pay €372 to the victim. [36] In 2022, the Netherlands asserted that the unsolicited sending of a dick pic was punishable by two months in prison or a fine of up to €9,000. [37]
Unsolicited sending is a criminal offense in Germany, according to § 184 (unauthorized distribution of pornographic material) of the criminal code. The act is punishable by imprisonment of up to one year or a fine. [38]
Risks are involved in creating and sending dick pics; sending these images without consent can have legal consequences if the recipient reports sexual harassment. The image can also take on a life of its own and pop up in unexpected places; American artist Whitney Bell devoted a photo exhibition to dick pics she had received. [39] An innocently intended image can also have adverse consequences; in 2019, Jeff Bezos was blackmailed with images intended for his mistress from his hacked phone. [40] Twenty-three percent of people who sent dick pics reported sharing them with at least three other people. [41] [42]
Due to the popularity of BOOS: This is The Voice in January 2022, the unsolicited reception of such images has attracted considerable attention in the Netherlands. [43] Marc Overmars resigned as director of football affairs at Ajax a month later because of allegations which included the sending of dick pics. [44] [45]
At least two politicians have been convicted of transmitting dick pics: former congressman and New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (sentenced in 2017 to 21 months in prison for sending sex photos to women between 2011 and 2013, including one minor) [46] and Le Havre, France, Mayor Luc Lemonnier, who was forced to resign in 2019 after several women reported receiving dick pics from him since 2011. [47]
Faced with the inaction of most social networks (which would prove, if they censored private messages, that they were accessing their users' personal data), [19] artificial intelligence-based filtering began in 2019. [48] [ clarification needed ]
Several initiatives have emerged:
The proliferation of these images could have given rise to blackmail attempts based on threats to publish. [52]
There is no single algorithm for prohibiting or combating dick pics. [53] Many social networks prohibit the publication of pornographic material, but the ban does not apply to private messages. A complaint about the user can be filed with technical support, but sanctions would be applied after the picture is received; an offensive user can create a new account, and continue sending dick pics from there. Meta is reportedly developing an algorithm allowing a user to immediately block and delete intimate messages using photo-recognition technology, but by February 2022 it had been unsuccessful. [54]
Some women respond with insults or other people's dick pics. Social-network pages ridicule such behavior, collecting witty responses to dick pics or heavy-handed attempts to get acquainted. [55] An attempt was made to create a custom Twitter application which filters dick pics. [56] In 2018, a bill was proposed in New York City which included a fine and up to a year in jail for cyberflashing. [11]
Erectile dysfunction (ED), also referred to as impotence, is a form of sexual dysfunction in males characterized by the persistent or recurring inability to achieve or maintain a penile erection with sufficient rigidity and duration for satisfactory sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in males and can cause psychological distress due to its impact on self-image and sexual relationships.
Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send multiple unsolicited messages (spam) to large numbers of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising, non-commercial proselytizing, or any prohibited purpose, or simply repeatedly sending the same message to the same user. While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social spam, spam mobile apps, television advertising and file sharing spam. It is named after Spam, a luncheon meat, by way of a Monty Python sketch about a restaurant that has Spam in almost every dish in which Vikings annoyingly sing "Spam" repeatedly.
Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature.
Various anti-spam techniques are used to prevent email spam.
Mobile phone spam is a form of spam, directed at the text messaging or other communications services of mobile phones or smartphones. As the popularity of mobile phones surged in the early 2000s, frequent users of text messaging began to see an increase in the number of unsolicited commercial advertisements being sent to their telephones through text messaging. This can be particularly annoying for the recipient because, unlike in email, some recipients may be charged a fee for every message received, including spam. Mobile phone spam is generally less pervasive than email spam, where in 2010 around 90% of email is spam. The amount of mobile spam varies widely from region to region. In North America, mobile spam steadily increased after 2008 and accounted for half of all mobile phone traffic by 2019. In parts of Asia up to 30% of messages were spam in 2012.
Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, is unsolicited messages sent in bulk by email (spamming). The name comes from a Monty Python sketch in which the name of the canned pork product Spam is ubiquitous, unavoidable, and repetitive. Email spam has steadily grown since the early 1990s, and by 2014 was estimated to account for around 90% of total email traffic.
Negative option billing is a business practice in which customers are given goods or services that were not previously ordered, and must either continue to pay for the service or specifically decline it in advance of billing.
Junk faxes are a form of telemarketing where unsolicited advertisements are sent via fax transmission. Junk faxes are the faxed equivalent of spam or junk mail. Proponents of this advertising medium often use the terms broadcast fax or fax advertising to avoid the negative connotation of the term junk fax. Junk faxes are generally considered to be a nuisance since they waste toner, ink and paper in fax machines.
Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or more of three primary objectives: build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. The term usually refers to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and sharing third-party ads.
The Junk Fax Prevention Act (JFPA) of 2005, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 109–21 (text)(PDF), 119 Stat. 359 (2005), was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on July 9, 2005. The law amends the Communications Act of 1934, significantly altering some aspects of prior amendments made by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 and the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 as they relate to the issue of junk fax.
Email spoofing is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address. The term applies to email purporting to be from an address which is not actually the sender's; mail sent in reply to that address may bounce or be delivered to an unrelated party whose identity has been faked. Disposable email address or "masked" email is a different topic, providing a masked email address that is not the user's normal address, which is not disclosed, but forwards mail sent to it to the user's real address.
In human anatomy, the penis is an external male sex organ that serves as a passage for excretion of urine and ejaculation of semen. The main parts are the root, body, the epithelium of the penis including the shaft skin, and the foreskin covering the glans. The body of the penis is made up of three columns of tissue: two corpora cavernosa on the dorsal side and corpus spongiosum between them on the ventral side. The urethra passes through the prostate gland, where it is joined by the ejaculatory ducts, and then through the penis. The urethra goes across the corpus spongiosum and ends at the tip of the glans as the opening, the urinary meatus.
Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st century and is a portmanteau of sex and texting, where the latter is meant in the wide sense of sending a text possibly with images. Sexting is not an isolated phenomenon but one of many different types of sexual interaction in digital contexts that is related to sexual arousal.
Anthony Weiner is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York City who has been involved in multiple sex scandals related to sexting.
Emotions in virtual communication are expressed and understood in a variety of different ways from those in face-to-face interactions. Virtual communication continues to evolve as technological advances emerge that give way to new possibilities in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The lack of typical auditory and visual cues associated with human emotion gives rise to alternative forms of emotional expression that are cohesive with many different virtual environments. Some environments provide only space for text based communication, where emotions can only be expressed using words. More newly developed forms of expression provide users the opportunity to portray their emotions using images.
Thijs Römer is a Dutch actor. He appeared in more than twenty films since 2000.
The Eggplant emoji (🍆), also known by its Unicode name of Aubergine, is an emoji featuring a purple eggplant. Social media users have noted the emoji's phallic appearance and often use it as a euphemistic or suggestive icon during sexting conversations, to represent a penis. It is frequently paired and often contrasted with the peach emoji (🍑), representing the buttocks.
A cold email is an unsolicited e-mail that is sent to a receiver without prior contact. It could also be defined as the email equivalent of cold calling. Cold emailing is a subset of email marketing and differs from transactional and warm emailing.
Cyberflashing involves sending obscene pictures to strangers online, often done through Bluetooth or AirDrop transfers between devices.
Cobra Club is a 2015 video game by independent developer Robert Yang. Players navigate a fictitious mobile application as a nude character standing before a mirror to take and send dick pics as customisable photos of their character's penis. These images, shared initially with other automated users of the platform, are revealed at the end of the game to have been uploaded without the player's awareness to an online page on blogging website Tumblr. Inspired by critiques of mass surveillance and the privacy issues of dating apps, Yang developed Cobra Club to provide players with a "safer space" to simulate taking dick pics and make the player aware of the data and privacy implications of those practices in real life.