Fox News Blames Jennifer Lawrence for the Leak

Ugh. I was used to people on Twitter completely missing the point about the celebrity nude photo scandal, but I was a little more optimistic about the response from the mainstream media. Unfortunately, Fox News had a particularly disappointing segment about the nude photo scandal that will make you cringe. The Fox News segment proves that mainstream media outlets have the potential for victim blaming, and it's just another example of why we really need to change how we approach this case.

For those of you who somehow missed the leaked photo scandal, here's the deal: Sunday, a large group of nude photos of celebrities were uploaded to 4Chan, where they quickly spread to Reddit and then the rest of the internet. The celebrities with leaked photos include Jennifer Lawrence, Avril Lavigne, Lea Michele. Roughly 100 celebrities had their photos leaked, which makes sense considering that, according to Gizmodo, about one third population of the United States has sent a nude photo.

That fact didn't stop Fox News reporter Martha MacCallum from judging the heck out of the celebrity victims.

Don’t put naked pictures of yourself on internet, people. So dumb. You say don’t blame the victim, but legally, what kind of recourse do they have? You put it out there. Isn’t it kind of, buyer beware...?

No one is saying it's a smart idea to take nude photos on a cell phone, but saying that it's almost inevitable to have your privacy invaded because you do take naked photos is textbook victim blaming. To use the old cliche, just because you leave your car unlocked in a high crime area doesn't give someone the right to steal it from you. And it's far worse with the nude photo scandal, because what's really being stolen isn't an object but a sense of privacy — and that's something you just can't buy back. The person who hacked these celebrities infiltrated their personal space and exploited them in their most vulnerable state. They sexualized these women without their consent.

So, no, this situation is definitely not buyer beware, it's more like don't be the asshole who uploads private photos to the internet. Perhaps if more people thought like that, we wouldn't have had a nude photo leak in the first place.