‘When you look at these pictures you are violating these women again and again. It's not okay.’
By now, you and pretty much everybody else on Earth has heard about the Great Naked Celebrity Photo Leak 2014. On Sunday, an anonymous 4chan hacker leaked nude images of hundreds of female actors and singers – including Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Ariana Grande and Winona Ryder.
A spokesperson for Lawrence confirmed that the images are authentic, telling Buzzfeed: "This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence." Others, like Ariana Grande, have said that the images are false.
Either way, you probably shouldn't look at them. And Lena Dunham puts forward a pretty damn good case for why:
The way in which you share your body must be a CHOICE. Support these women and do not look at these pictures.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 1, 2014
Remember, when you look at these pictures you are violating these women again and again. It's not okay.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 1, 2014
Seriously, do not forget that the person who stole these pictures and leaked them is not a hacker: they're a sex offender.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 1, 2014
Yeah, we know the internet is meant to be a magical land where you can get everything you want, like fair trade coke and kittens shitting out rainbows, but private and intimate photos of female celebrities don't exist for your entertainment. Getting a boner because you can kind-of vaguely see Jennifer Lawrence's nipple buried under 20 layers of body paint in X-Men doesn't entitle you to those images. Nothing does, because they weren't intended for you.
One victim of the hack, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World's Mary Elizabeth Winstead, sums it up:
To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves.
— Mary E. Winstead (@M_E_Winstead) August 31, 2014
Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked.
— Mary E. Winstead (@M_E_Winstead) August 31, 2014
The hacker was allegedly able to access the images through an iCloud hack, but Apple has yet to confirm these reports.
According to the original 4chan poster, he is the "collector" and not the person responsible for the hack. In a post on the forum, he writes that he traded bitcoin for the images and only wanted to post a sample so that he could sell off the full "collection". (Vomit.)
In 2012, a man who hacked into the email accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and 50 more celebrities was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Hopefully, Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of these women will see that same justice.