Susan Sontag wrote “photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed”. And the past month has seen this statement become all too real for a host of young Hollywood stars. Thanks to at least one, but probably several young (presumably male) hackers, nude and provocative private pictures of countless actresses were stolen and uploaded to the internet. Thankfully, the rest of us decided to respect these women and turn a blind eye to the heinous invasion of their privacy.

Ha, no, I’m totally kidding... we all flocked to look at the photos, talk about them, tweet about them... and absolutely ensure this will happen again.
It’s easy to blame the hackers. They indeed deserve condemnation and should be prosecuted. Aside from trampling on privacy laws, they also displayed blatant misogyny. However, the public response to the scandal was telling too; so many were eager to condemn the victims for sending private photographs. They were “stupid”, “slutty”, “attention-seeking” – despite the fact the photos were dispatched privately and consensually. In our haste to pass judgement, we failed to consider what label we had affixed to ourselves. How about “complicit”?
From the individuals rushing to look up the photos, to the media outlets that deliberately chose not to merely say “some celebrities’ photos have been hacked”, but scandalously declare “there are NUDE pictures of JENNIFER LAWRENCE on the internet, RIGHT NOW. GO LOOK. WE’LL WAIT”... many are complicit in fueling the story.
We objectified these women too. As we’ve done for decades, by supporting, in our media buying habits, paparazzi who throw themselves on the ground to take photos up women’s skirts and use long lenses to snap topless royals. Objectively, few of us who would claim this was an acceptable way to treat a fellow human being – yet, in supporting these publications and websites, we continue to feed the beast.
Stealing someone’s private nude photos is horrific and abusive – however, we need to acknowledge we’ve been stealing actors and celebrities’ privacy and dignity for years. So either we stop paying for these violations, or stop pretending to be shocked when they’re taken further. There needs to be a serious re-evaluation of our willingness to objectify those who dare create art for our enjoyment. Time to stop and think before we click.