Really?!

I'm sure many of you have heard on the news about the celebrity private photos getting leaked. I truly feel sorry for those affected by this obvious breach in their privacy. I have not actually seen these photos, and I refuse to even search for them. Somethings I do find alarming are the kinds of responses I am hearing from some people on the subject. Now a great deal seem to have the reaction I agree with, they feel this is not right in any sense of the word. I agree with them that this represents a huge intrusion into the lives of these people and I wish them the best of luck in recovering from this. The other group however... they have a variety of reactions, ranging from the idiotic to the disturbing and dangerous. I want to address some of them now, if not to add my voice to the sea of opinions on the matter (because the internet is the perfect place for it...)

They're celebrities, it's part of the life.

Ok... let's just think about this logically. Let's just analyze this argument in its base form.

P1. Person X is a celebrity

P2. Having nude photos of yourself stolen and leaked on the internet is common to celebrities.

C. Person X should accept that the nude photos were leaked.

Problem one with this argument is that it assumes we must accept anything that is common, think about that.

P1. X is something common

C. X is acceptable

Imagine if The United States had this logic in the 1800's...

P1. Slavery is common

C. Slavery is acceptable

Well I guess we wouldn't have had the Civil War...

That argument is completely flawed. But even if you're an idiot who accepts that argument, I present this to you. If you had your computer hacked and private photos leaked on the internet, I bet you'd be calling it immoral or unjust. That means you define it as an immoral action, the only reason you're ok with it happening to these people is that their celebrities. Which means the actual argument you're making is that it's ok to perform immoral actions on celebrities... what kind of sick freak are you?

They shouldn't have had the photos if they didn't want them getting out.

Ignoring the fact that in several instances... the photos were actually pulled from the computer graveyard after being deleted, let's think about this one too. This means that someone having something wants it to get out. So basically it's like saying, you shouldn't have had your money if you didn't want it getting out. These photos were stolen. Someone's private property was taken without their consent. That's stealing pure and simple. So if you're ok with this, well... that's a nice looking PS4 you have over there...

These women are attractive and some very confident in it, so what should it matter to them if a few people want to look at these photos?

This one is probably the most dangerous one I've heard yet...

This one says that if someone is attractive, they shouldn't have an outrage at someone looking at them nude without their consent. This gets into the idea that her body is not her own. I've written blogs about objectifying women and rape culture before, but this mentality is where it starts. The idea that she should not feel violated if her body is used for your pleasure. That's what you're saying when you say this. One of the main reasons people have been looking for these photos is most likely sexual release. Think about that... There are people using these photos of someone's naked body for sexual release without the person in the photo's consent. Oh hell, let's just be blunt, these sick people are using someone else's body, without their consent, for sexual release. Even without the actual physical contact... that sounds an awful lot like rape to me... The same way a guy texting sexual messages to a woman behind his wife's back is cheating, or a 60 year old man sending a 13 year old girl a picture of himself naked is sexual harassment, that is just plain wrong. You're not embarking on innocent fun. If you are one of those freaks, I encourage you to think about something. Think about the woman in that photo you like so much as a person, a living breathing person with hopes and dreams, with goals and fears. Realize that she is somebody's daughter. In many cases she is a sister, cousin, or even a mother. Now imagine some stranger halfway around the country stole a nude photo of your daughter or sister or mother or cousin, and right now they are doing the same thing with that photo as you do with the celebrity's photo.

I wish more people had empathy. That they would try and feel someone else's pain more often. They might have a deeper understanding of the people in their life. I'm just so disgusted by a lot of people right now... I mean come on guys... Really?!