In her comments to Kashner (of Vanity Fair), Lawrence also targeted those who viewed her photos, saying, “Anybody who looked at those pictures, you’re perpetuating a sexual offence. You should cower with shame. Even people who I know and love say, ‘Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.’ I don’t want to get mad, but at the same time I’m thinking, I didn’t tell you that you could look at my naked body.”
Let us parse out the problem.
- Stealing her photos is a crime, probably theft, almost certainly an invasion of privacy.
- Selling them is a further crime, like fencing stolen property.
- Making nude photos for your boyfriend- who was then on the other side of the continent- is normal behaviour these days, and has been engaged in for as long as there has been photography.
- Looking at Jennifer Lawrence nude is normal human behaviour; looking at attractive nude women has always been normal human behaviour.
- Whining about male lust is simply idiotic. Jennifer, you are in the business of eliciting lust through photographic imagery of yourself, and if you could not be photographed, you would have been painted.
So talking like this is whinging drivel:
“Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this,” she told Vanity Fair. “It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world. ”
This is like complaining you were not paid enough for your movies. Pardon me if I cannot take your outrage seriously.
This brings me to the issue of ubiquitous digital photography, and the social mores that follow.
We will soon have important political candidates who can be seen in the nude, or performing sexual acts, taken when they were in their younger years. Some female candidate for the Presidency in a near future will have to explain why she was photographed at 18 with her boyfriend’s dick in her mouth. And her answer should be: “He was my boyfriend at the time.” And that will that – and all there should be to it. Ubiquitous digital photography assures us of ubiquitous pornography, as simply as that. If you are contemplating a political career, you have to start controlling photo access 20 or 30 years before you run, and anyone so ambitious should probably not be trusted.
I have seen a rather fetching picture of the young Angela Merkel nude at the beach somewhere out there in the Internet. I just found it again in seconds on Google images. She was young and beautiful once, as we tend to be at 20. Do you see the German Chancellor raging against the invasion of privacy? No. Why? She has a country to run. And she was good looking once. Good to know.
For Jennifer Lawrence, I feel bad for her that her photos were stolen. Just a bit. That I might take pleasure looking at her sleek young body? No apology whatever. Jennifer Lawrence is in the business of making millions, in part because we want to see her sleek young body. A little less outrage, Jennifer, would suit you well. No your photos should not have been stolen. yes, you were discreet. But watching your loveliness, it may be a sin – which I doubt – but it is no crime and it sould bring no shame.
