This post is not going to be my usual make up, film or book review as I am opting for a more serious topic this time.
Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens and Jennifer Lawrence are just three women out of many who have had photos stolen from them, all of which show the stars being naked or being caught in intimate moments. Long story short on August 31st nearly 200 photos of nude celebrities (mainly women, mind you) were posted online and started circulating around social media websites like Twitter and Tumblr. Rihanna, Cara Delevingne and Ariana Grande were also victims amongst this scandal. They were taken from Apple's cloud services suite iCloud and text messages, address books and various other data was also most likely to be stolen as well.
I think this is absolutely disgusting, it is completely humiliating for them. People think it is hilarious to look and share them with their friends, objectifying the very person in the photos. Thankfully many celebrities and public figures have spoken out about this outrage like actress Lena Dunham who told people over Twitter not to view the pictures as it "violates these women over and over again" and The Amazing Spiderman star Andrew Garfield also had plenty to say about it "It's this violent, abusive violation of womanhood -- of divine woman hood.. it's violent, and it's misogynistic, and it's revolting.."
He's completely right. And not only that, I am absolutely outraged at how two faced people can be.
Last year, former Disney star Dylan Sprouse had his nudes leaked all over Twitter and many complimented and went gooey eyed over him yet during this 2014 scandal, I've seen hundreds of tweets slut shaming the women in the photos, calling them whores, sluts, slags and disgusting for taking such photos. Yet everybody was either laughing with Dylan or worshipping him in his photos. How is that fair? You don't even know these women and what they do in their private lives.
Take away all the glitz, glamour and fame these women are just human beings at the end of the day. Their pride and dignity have been damaged because some idiot decided to hack them. People are victim blaming, saying 'it's their fault' and/or 'they're in the media spotlight, they should be used to it' no, no, no. It is NOT their fault and it doesn't matter what their job is, their privacy has been violated and these photos are clearly things they've shared with a husband, a lover or even just for themselves.
The fact men and women can get two completely different reactions over the same thing just angers me. We say that we're are overcoming patriarchy and women are respected more and more these days. We're not. Women are still being degraded, objectified and viewed different completely to men. We're still a hugely patriarchal society and it doesn't help that the media are ready to leap onto anything that could tarnish a celebrity's image.
If you look at the photos and/or share them, you are further degrading the very people you idolize. Don't be a part of this mess and have some respect for the women. Don't look, don't share and definitely don't slut shame.
Thankyou for reading.
Laura.
