Abstract
This chapter examines legal and activist responses to image-based sexual abuse in the Aotearoa New Zealand context. In 2015, The Harmful Digital Communications Act (HDCA) was enacted in response to the lack of legal recourse for victims of online harassment, cyberbullying and image-based sexual abuse. The majority of prosecutions thus far, have resulted from image-based sexual abuse in the form of non-consensual sharing of intimate images and videos. Online feminist activism that targets image-based sexual abuse has continued to emerge in the Aotearoa New Zealand context. In this chapter, I discuss the #MyBodyMyTerms campaign, which emerged as a feminist response to rape culture and image-based sexual abuse. This chapter explores the limits to the individualised, medicalised interpretation of gendered harm that is reinforced by the HDCA. Meanwhile, the feminist activism in #MyBodyMyTerms specifically articulates that image-based sexual abuse needs to be understood in terms of social harms, yet also articulates a postfeminist rhetoric of personal responsibility. Overall, this chapter argues that while both the legislative shifts, and the feminist activism described in Aotearoa New Zealand in the contemporary era, indicate a deliberate shift away from traditional victim-blaming narratives, anti-victim elements remain apparent. An analysis that acknowledges the contextual, gendered harms of image-based sexual abuse remains vital.