When the news broke that Jennifer Lawrence’s “phone” had been hacked, along with dozens of other celebrities, it seemed like it would unfold as Scarlett Johansson or Blake Lively’s had; a few topless pics, maybe an ass shot but nothing more extreme than that, nothing you would be embarrassed by, particularly. It is a violation across the board, one that I hope the FBI nails right to the wall with maximum penalties. There is some talk that it might be Apple’s iCloud that was vulnerable, with all of our data stored up in it, most of us having absolutely no idea exactly what is in the cloud and what isn’t. I honestly have no idea. All I know is that every so often I get an error message about space. I wish I was smarter and able to understand how it works but I am not.
All the same, I don’t really care about the idiot who did this for profit. His fate is sealed. He’s a criminal and all around scuzz. He will never accomplish anything close to what Jennifer Lawrence has in her short but fruitful career. What I do care about is Lawrence’s own feelings about her body and her sexuality. We live in an era where very explicit photos are taken every second of every day and sent out online. They represent, usually, an intimate moment between two people. It can be highly arousing, especially in the first blush of love and sex to see these photos. Just because she’s famous doesn’t mean she doesn’t have those moments.
I am finding myself beyond angry at what’s happened to her. At first I thought she should just laugh it off. Then I thought – what does she have to worry about? That was before I saw the much more private, explicit photos of parts of her body no one but her most intimate lovers should ever see. That’s when it all started to get really weird. While I don’t think this is sexual abuse I do think it is such a terrible breach of someone’s privacy that it ought to be illegal to view the photos. We’ve crossed into an area where anything that appears on the internet should be protected. Child pornography is the one exception to that rule. But a crime has been committed. Showing the photos for profit on 4Chan (they keep deleting the links people post in order to make money) ought to leave an easy paper trail for the FBI to follow. ISPs that access those photos ought to be tracked down, where possible. The company who pays this asshole for the clicks or links must be contacted and warned that they are participating in a crime.
Obviously the photos can’t be retracted. People can’t unsee them. The disgusting enthusiastic comments can be deleted but they too seem to express the reality of this moment, how low we’ve really sunk. Celebrities are to be consumed. Their rights don’t matter to the general public.
The reaction these pitiful fucknuts want from Jennifer Lawrence is shame and embarrassment. She should not, in my opinion, give them that satisfaction. She should say, simply, women’s bodies are beautiful, naked or clothed. Their sexuality is the most powerful force on the planet. It is its own weapon of mass destruction. This is to be celebrated. Jennifer Lawrence has every right to explore her own intimate world however she chooses. We have no right to peer into that world.
I’ve been photographing myself for going on ten years now. I’ve sexted many to people over the years. If I were famous I would be in big big trouble. I do not think there is anything wrong with this in the least. My own photography has been a creative project I will one day turn into a book (I hope). I would post them here but I have the choice not to. Sadly, Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton and countless others did not have that choice. It’s a sick world here online. Just because we CAN do such things as expose private photos from someone’s cloud storage doesn’t mean we should.
It’s near impossible not to want to see these things if they are available. Who wouldn’t be curious? I would strongly encourage people, even if they’re looking at the photos, to understand what a monstrous violation it was and that once you lose compassion for someone who is a victim you lose your humanity.
