Celebrity Nude Photo Hack

Celebrity Nude Photo Hack

In the age of social media, many naked photos of celebrities have been released on the Internet.

Most recently photos were posted in late August of Jennifer Lawerence, Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, and Kirsten Dunst. A hacker broke into their iCloud accounts and released the photos onto the web.This latest scandal was passed around, discussed on talk shows, and written about in magazines. The day that the photos released the hottest trending Google search was "Jennifer Laurence Nudes". After hearing some of the comments surrounding the leaked photos I began to wonder, what are the point of these pictures?

At first glance it may be easy to think that these pictures are to give sexual pleasure to the fans of the actresses. But, as I began to think more about this many of these actresses already pose for photos in magazines where they are barely clothed at all. Much of their figure is already known and adored by the public. At the end of the day I think that money plays a large factor in these situations. These women have a public profile, people know and love them, and also love to tear them down. Sex sells and so does scandal and when you put to two together it creates a media frenzy.

For women there is a harsh double standard in place. The ideal women must be gorgeous and sexy while remaining innocent and virginal. These mixed messages are hard to process as a young woman and can confuse and complicate personal representations. Not only does this complicate depictions for women, but it can also cause misconceptions and problems for men as well. The Aubrey and Taylor article looking at male bodyy anxiety and body self-consciousness were negatively affected by looking at photos of 'hot' women (Aubrey, 2009).

In an unrelated investigation, Ferguson and colleagues conducted a study that found that participants who were exposed to promiscuous women perceived a victim of sexual harassment as less traumatized and more responsible for the event (Ferguson 2005). There for it is not a big surprise that no sooner than the pictures leaked, the victim blaming began. Although many people take this situations lightly, hacking into someone's personal images to steal and spread them across the internet is a crime. 

These comments further validate the sad truth that if a women is perceived to be at all promiscuous, harassment that may ensue is then her fault. 

Jennifer Lawerence spoke out against the hackers in this October issue of Vanity Fair magazine. I thought she sent a very powerful message to women about being empowered about sexuality and to not tolerate abuse. 

"Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this. It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting," 

"It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime,” 
"It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. I can’t imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside. Anybody who looked at those pictures, you’re perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame."

However, she also made a statement that I thought was contrary to her overall message and tone...

"I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for. I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years. It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you," 

Why is it an automatic assumption that your boyfriend has to look at porn? I think that this idea plays into the fact that men are supposedly unable and unwilling to control their wild and rampant sexuality. This naked celebrity photo hack is a true explicit form of sexism. Why should a women always be concerned with what messages her clothes and her actions are sending to men, rather than men being held accountable for their own actions? This is especially important when it is understood that men can also be negatively impacted by misrepresentations (Johnson 2007). Their needs to be a higher standard for personal responsibility in these instances. Nobody, woman or man, should have to dress or act a certain way in order to avoid being harassed. 

References

Aubrey, J. S., & Taylor, L. D. (2009). The Role of Lad Magazines in Priming Men’s 

Chronic and Temporary Appearance‐Related Schemata: An Investigation of 

Longitudinal and Experimental Findings. Human Communication Research, 35(1), 

28-58.

Ferguson, T., Berlin, J., Noles, E., Johnson, J., Reed, W., & Spicer, C. V. (2005). Variation in the application of the “promiscuous female” stereotype and the nature of the application domain: Influences on sexual harassment judgments after exposure to the Jerry Springer Show. Sex roles, 52(7-8), 477-487.

Johnson, P. J., McCreary, D. R., & Mills, J. S. (2007). Effects of exposure to objectified male and female media images on men's psychological well-being. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 8(2), 95.