Another day, another unfortunate cache of nude photos and videos of celebrities—presumably hacked—finds its way onto the creepy depths of the Internet.
Yes, just as the proverbial dust had settled on the first ugly display of what Internet trolls have deemed “The Fappening,” one that saw dozens of nude photos of big-name celebs like Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and others leak online to the image hosting site Imgur, and then spread like wildfire on the message boards 4chan and Reddit, another batch has landed online, and into the clutches of its salivating, disgusting audience, all of whom seem to be operating under the false illusion that they’re in some way deserving of a peek inside these very public people’s private lives.
The latest alleged victims in this unfortunate charade are reality star (and Mrs. Kanye West) Kim Kardashian, Nashville actress Hayden Panettiere, actress turned fashion designer Mary-Kate Olsen, singer Avril Lavigne, Spring Breakers star Vanessa Hudgens, The Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco, Jennifer Lawrence (again), U.S. soccer goalie Hope Solo, a potentially underage Disney starlet who cannot be named, and many more. According to commenters on the Subreddit titled “fappeningdiscussion,” the leaks happened the morning of Sept. 20, and emanated, once again, from 4chan.
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Many of the commenters on the Subreddit board not only feel entitled to these private photos of women, but even argue that these privacy breaches are helping them.
“I see the celebs capitalizing on all these leaks, whether voluntary or not,” wrote Reddit user attacktei. “The PR for them has been enormous, and I suspect this will go on because the effects for them in terms of exposure is overwhelmingly good.”
Right. These very famous women, all of whom do not stand to benefit in the slightest from their private photos leaking online, are welcoming the “exposure.” These new photos are yet another vile example of the rampant nerd-misogyny that’s prevalent among various pockets of the deep web. It’s an offshoot of the nascent days of the Internet, when nerds would wait minutes for their dial-up modems to process poorly Photoshopped (fake) pictures of their favorite actresses in the nude. Only now, these geeks have become far more resourceful, hacking into cell phones and Apple’s iCloud online storage system to expose the unattainable.
After the first leak, Jennifer Lawrence requested that the authorities launch an investigation into the hacking scandal in what her representative deemed a “flagrant violation of privacy,” warning that the authorities “will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos.” Apple claimed that the iCloud was not compromised, and released the following statement:
“After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud® or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.”
No arrests have been made so far.
I recently spoke with Andrew Garfield, the star of The Amazing Spider-Man films and boyfriend of actress Emma Stone, about the hacking scandal. He deemed the Internet “the new Wild West,” and couldn’t hide his contempt for the people behind it.
“It’s disgusting,” Garfield told The Daily Beast. “I have a right to your naked body or images that you’ve sent to your husband, or lover.” It’s disgusting. It’s this violent, abusive violation of womanhood—of divine womanhood. It’s violent, and it’s misogynistic, and it’s revolting, and it’s another example of what this distance has enabled us to do—it’s enabled us to be disassociated from each other.”
