The recent national uproar regarding leaked photos of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton, says something about society as a whole: We have a sick and twisted desire to invade the privacy of others. Furthermore, as a society driven by the principle of supply and demand, these nude pictures would have never been released without the incessant and weird demand of society for access to nudity of our favorite celebrities.
Although teenage boys across the country did not directly infiltrate the cloud of these women’s iPhones, their perverted demand for such material is what fueled the hacker’s intent. The message being sent to young men is that invading the privacy of women — even if it is a celebrity — is acceptable and their bodies are for their visual consumption, neither of which promotes a positive view of women.
Undoubtedly, these women are not completely devoid of all responsibility. A certain thought should have fluttered in their brains of their status when they took these said photos; however, a certain expectation of privacy should be granted to even the most public of celebrities.
Jennifer Lawrence built a career on portraying strong and beautiful women, from her career-starting role as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games," to her Oscar-winning performance as Tiffany Maxwell in "Silver Linings Playbook." These hackers diminished the reputation of a woman who is, despite her transgressions, rightfully a role model to millions of young women. These hackers do not expend their time searching for the infamous “dick pics,” but target young starlets in order to humiliate them, and we as a society are frankly quite OK with this.
Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney’s photos are arguably the worst case in this incident. Maroney was allegedly still a minor when her photos were taken. Because of the child pornographic element of her case, websites like Reddit agreed to take down any photos of the young Olympian; but why can’t they do this with all the illegally obtained photos?
The government has an opportunity to make a statement in the criminal investigation. First and foremost, a certain level of privacy should be granted to every individual, regardless of how famous they are. They should also assert releasing nude photos of women should not lead to victim-shaming, as it is an act many have gone as far as claim to be sexual assault. These women are young and beautiful and are not invincible to errors in judgment.
We are a society that has no bounds in matters of privacy. I do not believe that everyone is willing to go the lengths of the hacker to obtain these images; however, once the material was readily available, even those supposedly opposed were instantly Googling to access these photos. I admittedly have not looked at the naked images of these women, so I may simply be ignorant to the hoopla of the incident. However, more than just principle, I just have not had a desire to do so.
Before you decide to Google and take a look at these photos of some absolutely stunning women, think about the implications of your action. You’re contributing to the problem. Your innate human desire is at the cost of another person’s pain and suffering. Furthermore, if your demand was not there, these women would not be subject to the intense scrutiny and humiliation they are today.
Reach the columnist at jemeyer3@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @JordanElizaM
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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