He Got Some Disappointing Answers to This Question

Jimmy Kimmel's Pedestrian Question on Jimmy Kimmel Live! is a staple of the talk show that's usually pretty hilarious. With questions ranging from "Is Your Facebook Profile Picture a Selfie?" to "Have You Ever Had Sex in Your Comic-Con Costume?", we usually get a broad variety of interesting answers from the random people on the street the Jimmy Kimmel interviewers choose to stop and ask. However, the latest Pedestrian Question featured a reference to the current leaked nude picture scandal plaguing celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton. On Wednesday night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel asked guys if they'd looked at the leaked nudes and, sadly, there wasn't a single answer that wasn't disappointing.

In their defense, the guys who were polled were evenly ranged between men who had looked at the images and men who had not. However, that's pretty much the only defense you can make. The guys who had seen them had absolutely no shame about having done so, one even going so far as to say he'd "do anything to see [Lawrence's body] in person". Naturally, the interviewer asked him if he was creepy, to which the man answered "moderately". Yeah, okay. Another man who had not seen the pictures yet admitted that "[the interviews had] given [him] something to do when [he] goes home".

Only one of the men polled said that he had not looked at the nudes and had no plans to look at the nudes, but his reasoning for that choice had nothing to do with respecting the bodies, or wishes, of the women violated by those leaked pictures. Kimmel found their justifications for their perverted actions entertaining, but he began the segment by telling everyone very firmly that looking at the pictures was wrong and there is no debate to be had about that fact. If nothing else, the segment helped to prove that point.

It's been said time and time again that blaming the celebrities for taking the pictures in the privacy of their own homes is wrong and that the culpability in this instance belongs solely on the shoulders of the hacker who stole their private property and distributed them to an audience they were never meant for. To even look at the photos makes you part of the problem because it's the digital equivalent of walking up to J. Law in the street and ripping her shirt off; she didn't consent to allowing you to view her bare body and you're taking that as your "right" anyway.

The fact that there were so many average guys on the street who were willing to admit that the only thing that might have stopped them from viewing the pictures is current lack of opportunity is very disappointing. It's why we need a debate like this to go on and to keep going on, with or without a recent scandal to back it up. It's hardly the first time a celebrity has had their private pictures leaked, and private citizens have had their lives ruined by equally damaging picture leaks as well, but this feels like the first time that the debate has been treated with any real sensitivity or importance.

All too often, when a woman has a nude picture scandal, they end up being the ones shamed and forced to apologize for their lack of judgment in order to salvage their careers. Now there are voices pointing fingers at the hacker and not the hacked and segments like this are the reason why we've needed to shut down that victim blaming view for a long time. Trust me when I say that Lawrence does not want to hear your compliments on the nude pictures you were never meant to see, guys (and girls) of the world. Trust me when I say that by looking at them, you are adding to the problem. And then stop searching for them and instead enter the conversation on digital privacy, feminism, and respect for women's rights.