Revenge Porn
BY: Meg Zukin
Revenge used to require intricate plotting and scheming. It was for the manipulative and the cunning, the dedicated and the shrewd. Now any bitter and butthurt Joe Shmo can post nudies of his ex-girlfriend online.
It’s known as “Revenge Porn,” and it’s the result of casual sexting. Two of the most notorious revenge porn sites, IsAnyoneUp.com and Texxxan.com, have already been shut down because of class-action lawsuits. What’s surprising is that lawyers and police initially turned victims, like Holly Jacobs, away because it was “not a crime”, and the photos were technically her ex-boyfriend’s property, according to Cosmopolitan.
Vom. There are three main issues here—the low-life scumbags who get off from posting photos of their exes online, the ladies who are sending raunchy pics, and lastly, the societal impact this has on victim blaming.
It’s pathetic that in order to ensure his masculinity, a boy needs to denigrate the reputation of someone he clearly used to care about. Congrats on having the emotional maturity of a grape-nut. Jealous lovers didn’t stop with publicizing the explicit images, though. Many pictures were complemented by subjects’ personal information like full names, Twitter handles, Facebook profiles, and places of work. Regardless of the morals of sexting, sharing private images is considered cyber harassment. That’s right, cyber-bullying isn’t just about 7th graders on formspring.com anymore. It can happen to grown-ups too.
Hunter Moore, the “mastermind” behind IsAnyoneUp.com recently uploaded an “apology” YouTube video in which he says “I’m sorry I was smart enough to monetize your mistake.” LOL who does this chauvinistic asshole think he is? Moore is trivializing the awfulness of this entire situation by throwing the blame on the girls in the photos instead of on himself. What he calls “monetizing a mistake” is really damaging reputations and self-esteem nationwide. This isn’t a silly game; Moore and the other website creators are seriously and permanently ruining peoples’ lives.
Ladies, unfortunately these cavemen aren’t the only ones to blame. It’s never smart to send lewd images, especially over text or e-mail where they can be easily saved/redistributed and especially when your face is in them. Snapchat was invented for a reason and if you really have a hankering to send your boytoy a sweet surprise, just snap him a one-second nude. Anyone who has the ninja ability to screenshot a one-second Snap probably deserves to have the pic anyway.
Another victim, Hollie Toups, told Cosmopolitan that attorneys told her “You shouldn’t be taking these photos in the first place, so I hope you learned your lesson”. Statements like this are reinforcing the victim blaming cycle. It’s disregarding the fact that someone publicized the pictures and solely blaming the girl for taking them. Society is essentially reinforcing the idea of telling the woman it’s her fault and that this, is her justifiable punishment.