Quote:The study also highlighted gender disparities in how adolescents experience and interpret this digital culture. Girls were more likely to express concerns about body image, judgment, and safety, while boys often spoke more casually about the platform or focused on its financial potential.
These patterns reinforce long-standing inequalities in how girls and boys are socialized around sex and self-expression. For example, girls were more likely to receive unwanted sexual messages or feel pressure to meet beauty standards, while boys described their role more as consumers than as creators of content.
Despite being aware of these dynamics, many teens still viewed the trade-off between risk and reward as worth it. For example, some participants shrugged off concerns about stolen content, exploitation, or future regret, focusing instead on the immediate financial benefits.

Quote:This leads to the concept of the “patriarchy of consent,” proposed by authors like Ana de Miguel and Katherine Angel, where it’s no longer about imposing desires or controlling bodies through direct coercion, but about creating an environment in which women voluntarily consent to what is expected of them, believing they are doing so by choice. As De Miguel states, “the new patriarchy has learned that to maintain its power, it doesn’t need to impose, it only needs to persuade.” In this framework, consent becomes a more effective tool for legitimising patriarchal order than prohibition.