In the midst of the talk concerning Jennifer Lawrence’s naked photos, my mind has been inundated with conflicting thoughts. I must say that I understand it: a woman’s assertions of the right to her body, the pleas for privacy, and the red anger underlying it all. I stand behind all of it-I do.
However, recently a thought has entered my mind, for which there had never been a home before. It appears that most of the celebrities whose photos have been leaked have been white. Even those who are not white, can be said to fit whiter standards of beauty: Rihanna with her light skin and light eyes, and Ariana Grande with her light skin. This makes me wonder, while the leaking of the photos is a gross violation and forced exhibition of the female body, is it also a reflection of the standard society has for the “desirable body”?
I imagine that the hacker aimed to please society and feed people images of women for which they hunger. The culpable person women on a platter, specifically celebrity women to remind them that even beyond their prestige, their spot in the public sphere is conditional and they can be chased from it at any moment. They can be exiled from the public sphere into the private sphere of the home, past the kitchen and into the bedroom where they feel vulnerable, but comfortable enough to be naked and shed their protection. They are reminded with hostility and violently repressive ideology that their access to either space is policed by powers other than themselves.
Specifically, it seems that they tried to offer society the type of body that they assumed it would find most appealing. What does this say about how we consume women’s corporeality and the most desirable aesthetic?
Concerning the women who seemed to fit this standard and were victims of this hacker, is this a curse that accompanies their aesthetic privilege? Or does the scandal solely highlight and then promote this very privilege? I am not saying that it is a privilege to be considered desirable enough for someone to endeavor to obtain naked pictures of you. However, I am concerned with what it reflects about society’s desires and assumptions people make about each other’s desires.
I think we can learn from this experience. We can learn that the conversation about exploiting women and diminishing their worth is still not over. Frankly, the discourse is reaching a heightened state. We can learn that no woman is safe but that some women especially have to undergo this sort of gross exhibition every day. Miley Cyrus exploited women of color, and “big booty” girls curse the moment they decided to wear yoga pants, pulling down their shirts to cover themselves as they walk down the street. We can learn that we must study society’s rhetoric on what a desirable body is and furthermore, connect these instances of oppression that all bodies experience.
I don’t mean to say that what has happened to Jennifer Lawrence and numerous other celebrities is acceptable. It wasn’t, and it can never be justified. This is me admitting that I’m confused and I’m frustrated. I will use banal words like “confused” and “frustrated” because quite frankly, this is a banal situation that persists and has continued to manifest itself, rearing its head in the seemingly safest places.