Magaluf Oral Sex Video: The British Culture of Slut-Shaming

A video of a young girl performing oral sex in exchange for free drinks in a Magaluf club has been circulating the internet. The grainy clip of the tourist, which lasts around two minutes, shows her move from one man to another on the dance floor, egged on by an unknown man with a camera.

Cue judgement, outrage and ridicule from social media users, as well as condemnation and slut-shaming from the tabloid media. A relatively new addition to our cultural lexicon, slut-shaming refers to the act of ostracising a woman for participating in certain sexual practices – such as having multiple partners or having sex in public spaces. Although such public condemnation of female open sexuality is nothing new, social media has created a boundless platform from which to ridicule women.

As the video spread online, the humiliation has been taken a step further by the Sun newspaper, which, feigning indignity, splashed the girl's picture across the front page, along with a double page spread. While claiming to "protect her identity," the paper all but identifies her.

Similarly to recent reports on revenge porn, a growing phenomenon in which intimate photographs are uploaded onto the internet without consent, the video was likely published online without the consent of the girl. Like non-consensual pornography, it will no doubt will cause – and likely already has – humiliation and emotional distress, as well as compromising her safety and livelihood.

Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women coalition, told IBTimes UK: "This incident and the wide online sharing of the video points to enormous questions of lack of consent and abuse. Just this week Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has discussed possible new laws to tackle 'revenge porn'. The Government needs to urgently consider whether any new law would cover this problem."

The video is also an example of how modern club culture pressures women in public sexual acts in the name of "banter". A problem deeply entrenched in British society, young women in particular are encouraged to binge drink and fool around, to take part in exploitative sexual behaviour – as evidenced by the faceless man filming the video. They are then named and shamed.

"Club promoters like Carnage Magaluf need to ensure they are not promoting exploitation, coercion or abuse," Ms Dustin added. "As a society, we urgently need to address attitudes and behaviour by some men and boys which are abusive, exploitative or non-consensual."

Women being sexually exploited in nightclubs is common. The number of Britons sexually attacked or raped abroad rose by 10% in 2012, without taking into account the women who are coerced into sexual acts and do not report it. Spain, Turkey and Greece had the worst records.

Last year Lauren Walsh, a 19-year-old barmaid, waived her right to anonymity and told the Daily Mirror of how she was stripped naked and gang-raped by a group of British men at a club foam party in Magaluf. With the music too loud for any of the hundreds of revellers to realise, she was violently assaulted at the age of 17.

The failure to question the men involved in the video is damning evidence of our culture of misogyny and shaming. Of the various people in the clip, the focus is solely on the woman, regardless of the men waiting in line to receive oral sex – and the individual urging her to do it.

"It is unbelievable that, of the various people involved, only the woman is singled out and shamed," Vivienne Hayes, CEO of the Women's Resource Centre, told IBTimes UK. "It highlights the extreme double standards that exist to control and shame women.

"National news outlets are reporting this so-called story, demonising the woman, with no mention of the men who colluded to incentivise and exploit her."

It is increasingly common for young men to convince girls to perform sex acts on camera. It is also common that the videos are shared without consent, from which the performer is mocked mercilessly. Such behaviour has already led to suicides. If sexual exploitation continues to be blamed on the woman, slut-shaming will continue to manifest itself in cruel ways.