Stop Calling It ‘Revenge Porn’. Hermeneutical Injustice in Image-Based Sexual Abuse

Scholars and activists have introduced the notion of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) to describe any act involving the non-consensual production, distribution, or threat of distribution of private sexual images. In common parlance, these harmful practices are frequently referred to as ‘revenge porn’ – a colloquial expression rooted in misogynistic internet subcultures. In this paper, we challenge the use of this term, arguing that it constitutes a case of positive hermeneutical injustice. Departing from Fricker’s lacuna-centred account, we contend that the concept of ‘revenge porn’ distorts the collective understanding of IBSA by preventing the uptake of more accurate concepts, while simultaneously reinforcing misogynistic background ideologies that eroticize autonomy-violation. Drawing on real-world cases, we show how this concept obstructs institutional redress and reinforces epistemic marginalization: it hampers the identification of IBSA, obscures the structural nature of the abuse, recasts it as entertainment, objectifies victims, and shifts blame onto them. We conclude by calling for the disuse of the term ‘revenge porn’.