"När man tänker på det blir man mer arg än när man utsätts för det" : En kvalitativ studie om unga kvinnliga studenters upplevelser och hantering av sexuella trakasserier på Facebook

Sammanfattning: Social media has been acclaimed for the possibilities for young women to get their voices heard in the form of open discussion and freedom of opinion. The possibilities for personal communication and interaction have also been seen as great assets. However, in recent years social media has become the focus for debate on Internet hate and harassment, a major problem for many young women on the Internet. In the light of this problem, this qualitative study was aimed to investigate how young women themselves perceive and manage the risk of being subjected to sexual harassment, and the ways in which they protect themselves against this type of harassments on the social media outlet: Facebook. In order to collect relevant data we conducted three focus group interviews with semi-structured nature, with a total of 12 young female students from Linnaeus University in Kalmar. The womens experiences was analyzed by Hirdman’s gender theory and their management practices were analyzed by Lazarus and Folkman's coping theory and Carver, Scheier & Weintraubs coping categories. The study also revealed four methods that descibed how the women protected themselves from becoming victims. We call these preventive strategies and have categorized them by Carver, Scheier & Weintraubs coping categories. The survey found that these women experienced a normalization of sexual harassment on Facebook as well as a low ability to solve this issue on their own. Consequenlty, sexual harassment towards women is being either in effectively handled or not handled at all. The preventative strategies presented were anonymity, not to take a stand, conformity or take a stand. The strategies decreased the risk of exposure to some extent, but also led to limitations in the possibilities of using Facebook as a medium for open discussions and communication.