Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Rihanna were among the laundry list of over 100 stars that had their nude photos leaked in one of the largest hacks of all time on 4chan, an anonymous message board website, on Aug. 31.

An anonymous hacker claimed to have more pornographic photos and videos ready to be leaked and was willing to sell.  What is more disturbing than the hacker’s mental state is that nearly every target was a woman.  Why must the female body constantly be sexualized in this way?

There is a perverted interest in hacking these actresses’ private accounts and then shaming them for taking nude photos.  What women do in the privacy of their own home should not be relevant to the general public, and those feeding into this fetish only contribute to the photos’ monetary value.

Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead tweeted shortly after her nudes were posted, saying, “To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves. Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this.”

The anonymous hacker could have kept these photos for himself, but instead maliciously posted them in hopes of earning money.  Men’s bodies are not normally passed around the internet with the public willing to pay for an extra nude shot, yet it is the norm for women.  Women’s bodies should not be for sale.

Photos of the stars were plastered over every image-sharing site imaginable. Some celebrities refuted the pictures were true while others, like Jennifer Lawrence, verified the pictures were genuine.  These women did not deserve this humiliation for anyone with a phone to see their nude bodies.

Turning women into objects that can be bought is an issue American culture has been struggling with for far too long.  Women’s bodies are used to sell ice cream, jewelry and cars.  The female body is not a selling point and should not be used as an object propped against a product.

The iCloud leak allowed men and women to view these actresses as a product where they could offer money to access more pornographic images.  This is appalling that as a society people are willing to feed into this. Though it may have seemed harmless to retweet a link that lead to the photos, viewing or downloading the pictures is voyeurism and only contributes to the problem. Not one of these women gave permission for the public to see these images; it is invading someone’s privacy in the most intimate way possible.

The anonymous hacker posted on the website 4chan, “… when you consider how much time was put into acquiring this stuff I really didn’t get close to what I was hoping.”

The hacker’s comment showed that he or she expected more interested buyers because of the fixation society has on stolen nude photos of women.

This is a women’s issue that can be fixed through the public. Take away the incentive, either monetary or attention-driven, and the sick people who try and expose women’s photos might have less motivation to do so. If the public does not show interest in others’ private lives and is not willing to pay to see these photos, there will be less of a drive to hack. It may seem harmless to click on a link to access a celebrity’s photo, but it only perpetuates society’s obsession with objectifying women.

Julia Smith is a junior newspaper and online journalism and sociology dual major. Her column appears weekly. She can reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jcsmith711.

Published on September 9, 2014 at 12:08 am