Over the last couple of months, there were two episodes of photos hacked from the ICloud servers and uploaded to sites like 4Chan and Reddit. To assholes like us, this event was known as “The Fappening”. People who always wanted to know what the 8 square inches still covered by Kate Upton’s bikini looked like had prayers answered. Other celebrities had private, mostly nude photos go public as well. Jennifer Lawrence. Kim Kardashian. Mary E. Winstead, Kirsten Dunst and many others had the curtain pulled back, revealing their most personal moments to the world. The victim’s reactions were varied. Some tried to laugh it off, while others have taken quick legal action and have called the viewing of the pictures a sex crime.
The main issue in question has been, is “because I can!” an acceptable reason to literally strip famous people naked in front of you? Because you see them on the big screen, does that make it cool to see as much of them as you want? That’s only the surface problem though. In reality, this situation is just a litmus test for how the Western world views it’s celebrities. If you look back from the early days of Hollywood through the eighties, you find a very different relationship between “us” and “them”. While the fascination with famous people has always been there, the public at large kept a civil distance. Celebs were respected for the work they did, but what they did behind closed doors was usually not public information. As time passed, the public has demanded more. First tabloids, and now the mainstream media, happily report every scrap of personal detail for consumption by the masses. For a celebrity, privacy has become almost impossible.
A good example of how things have changed is Rock Hudson. In the silver age of movies, he was one of the world’s biggest stars. The main “leading man” in romantic movies. He was also gay. Hollywood insiders knew that, and to a degree the public would hear rumors about it as well. Rock kept that part of his life private. He didn’t want to reveal it to the world, and was allowed to keep his secret. People would gossip about him a bit, but you’d never see someone on TV or in newspaper publicly discussing it. Now imagine if Rock was trying to do the same today. Sure, perceptions about homosexuality have changed, but if he didn’t want to come out of the closet, we’d probably drag him out. On road trips, athletes have often abused drugs and alcohol, and cheated on spouses. The reporters who were there in every hotel and on every plane ride knew all about it, but maintained that trust. They knew that what they players did on the field was public, but the rest didn’t have to be. Not so much these days.
As a society we have to examine how we view our stars. Do we feel that to give them fortune and our devotion, they have to give us everything? Is that the deal now?
As an asshole, I can admit that I like naked women. Porn is awesome too. But the difference is intent. If you see a Playboy photo or a naughty video that was SUPPOSED to be there, that means everyone involved is OK with that. The women I talked about above are gorgeous and I get the temptation to see it all. But they never wanted you to. Should celebs in modern times maybe not trust cloud storage and make better choices about where to keep private images? Probably. Does that mistake give us the reason to look? If those pictures were of your sister, girlfriend or daughter you’d probably say no right? If they were yours, and suddenly they were everyone’s, you’d probably have some feelings about that. Keep that in mind the next time this happens, because it will. Keep that in mind the next time some article about someone you’ve heard of doing something that isn’t your business pops up on your facebook or twitter. Let people be people. Even the famous ones deserve that.
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