The recent release of nude photographs of celebrities is frightening and people shouldn’t be looking at them.
The recent release of nude photographs of celebrities is frightening and people shouldn’t be looking at them.
It’s one thing for a celebrity to take photos naked and release them themselves. It’s another to have your private images stolen. What’s missing between the two? Consent. Which isn’t just important, it’s mandatory. The photos of these women were taken without their consent. When we view these photos of people in the nude, without their permission, it’s a form of abuse.
A lot of people on social media are saying that celebrities shouldn’t be taking these photos to begin with and expect to keep their privacy. Language like that is part of rape culture. It puts the responsibility of being exploited and used into the hands of victims. It is a slippery slope to saying that women shouldn’t wear short skirts if they don’t want people to take pictures of their crotches. She shouldn’t have been flirting if she didn’t want to be touched. That if she hadn’t gotten drunk and gone out alone she wouldn’t have been raped.
Being a celebrity does not hand over the rights to privacy. Having a female body that “tempts” people doesn’t make taking something without consent OK. These celebrities owe no explanation, no apologies and owe no one their bodies. Taking private pictures on our personal phones is something many people do and has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
It is also problematic when we cannot even have a conversation about female autonomy without receiving threats. Every female feminist blogger or writer I follow has received rape threats on at least a semi-regular basis. The one prominent male feminist I follow has received none. I cannot tweet about any feminist issue without receiving some type of threat by some stranger. Then we’re told “What else do you expect? You’re on the internet!” That is the exact same language that again, puts blame onto the victims of the harassment and not the actual harassers.
There is an active community of people online who make it their mission to harass and intimidate women. Zoe Quinn, a video game developer, allegedly cheated on an ex-boyfriend and then had personal photos released, according to the International Business Times. She then received an enormous amount of rape and death threats and was forced to leave her home. Rape is not men being “unable to control themselves,” but an act of dominance and cruelty that is used to silence and conform victims.
Closer to home, when the alleged rape on Court Street became international news last year, a group of men online decided it was up to them to make the women on this campus feel unsafe. Any female (including faculty) who spoke publicly about the incident had their name, photo, home address and cell phone listed for anyone to harass them. They even falsely identified the female in the incident and plastered her personal information all over the internet.
Let’s stand together and speak out against online harassers when we feel safe enough to do so. And let’s stop looking at non-consensual photos.
Jessica Ensley is a senior studying journalism. Email her at je726810@ohio.edu
