These past couple of days have been rough for many celebrities thanks to the nude photo leak of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and many more. But as tough as this situation would be to endure on its own, it's made even worse by the negative reactions of the public. Social media sites like Reddit and Twitter are full of those judging the victims of, as Lena Dunham rightly points out, a sex crime. Even those victimized have been guilty of bad responses. Like Ariana Grande who answered the accusations with body shaming, tweeting: "to every1 going on about my "nudes" & my "m&g prices" neither are real! my lil ass is a lot cuter than that lmao."
But Grande's tweet is just one of the ways you shouldn't respond to the celebrity nude photo leak. In fact, asking people how they feel about the incident is a good way to judge whether or not you want to continue talking to them. So, thanks to countless people across the Internet who think they should get an opinion on this matter, you can now see 9 ways you should NOT respond to this nude photo leak. Case in point:
"LET ME GOOGLE THAT"
As Jimmy Kimmel said, "I think you can tell how good or bad of a person you are based on how many seconds you wait to Google 'Jennifer Lawrence nude' after hearing the news. Anything under 60 [seconds], you're going to Hell." I understand the curiosity to see what everyone is talking about, but when you view those photos you're complicit in stealing their privacy.
"THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE PUT THOSE PHOTOS ONLINE"
It's easy to blame stars for trusting the Internet, but this is really no different than stolen physical property. You wouldn't say to someone whose home had been robbed, "Well you shouldn't have trusted that your house would be safe." Just because it's a digital theft, doesn't mean it's any less intrusive. The bad people here are the hackers, just as a robber would be the criminal, not the home owner.
"THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TAKEN THOSE PHOTOS AT ALL"
It's true that nude photos have been leaked before and will probably be leaked again, but everyone is allowed to take photos of themselves. To say it's the celebrity's responsibility to protect their bodies by not ever taking photos of it is ridiculous. They may be in the spotlight but they have just as much of a right to take selfies as you and I do. That's like saying no one should own a nice car or a nice purse or whatever because then someone might be tempted to steal it. We should just be glad no one cares enough about us to go to the lengths they did to get these celeb shots.
"THEY SHOULD HAVE BETTER PASSWORDS"
You can thank Apple themselves for this one after their "apology" suggested, "to protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification."
Guess what? If a hacker wants to access information, no password in the world is going to stop them, no matter how complex. Hackers can get around passwords, retrieve deleted data, and more. Even the federal government has been subject to hacking and you can be sure they have some pretty intense passwords.
"THEY'RE HOT, SO WHO CARES?"
Just because a celebrity may look good in a leaked photo doesn't mean it's OK to release it. Their level of attractiveness has nothing to do with the invasion of privacy at hand.
"BUT THEY'VE POSED NUDE BEFORE"
Yes, Kate Upton and others may have shown off their bodies in films or photo shoots before, but that was something they consented to. Saying they have been nude before, so why do they care now, is the same reasoning people try to use when they blame sex workers who get raped. Guess what? Things are only OK if there is consent. Anything else is illegal.
"THE INTERNET IS PUBLIC"
That's true. But it's not like these pictures were posted to Instagram. No, they were saved on private phones, so taking them is stealing. Just as if someone hacked your email account and leaked information, that would be illegal because your email is private and doesn't get enveloped in this idea of a "public Internet."
"BUT I WAS JUST JOKING"
Sorry, Ricky Gervais, sex crimes aren't funny. Besides, your tweet didn't really even seem like a joke, anyway.
"SHARE YOUR OWN NUDES IN SOLIDARITY"
Hah. Nice try, trolls.
