Five hundred Australian women are living a nightmare right now. And they’re being told they only have themselves to blame.
This week 500 South Australian women had nude photos stolen and posted on a US-based website.
Most of the pictures were stolen from private social media accounts or sent to the site by spiteful ex-partners. The first site has been shut down, but can now be accessed via three different sites which link to the original database of images. In a revolting twist, the sites are now photo-shopping the faces and the bodies of these women into porn.
There are 500 women in Australia today feeling sick. They are feeling humiliated, nauseated and violated. Not just because their trust has been betrayed but also because people are still looking at their private photos and there is nothing they can do. They are feeling very vulnerable.
You can only imagine their pain:
You’re in a loving relationship. You share a sexy photo of yourself with your partner. Maybe it’s in lingerie, maybe it’s topless, maybe it’s even more revealing. Maybe it’s a photo you took together. It doesn’t matter what other people think because it’s private, it’s consensual and it’s just for the two of you.
Now imagine that your partner showed that image to one other person, perhaps to one of their mates. Imagine how embarrassed you’d be, how angry, how humiliated. Now imagine that your private photo, that intimate and vulnerable moment, was shared with millions of people. Millions of people who not only looked at that image, but who pawed over it, catalogued it and shared it.
Finally, imagine that the site on which your photo has been posted is photo-shopping your face and body into porn scenes, with genitals next to your face, as if you had just committed a sex act with a stranger.
A nightmare. A gut-twisting, world-collapsing nightmare.
So what are we telling these women? Are they being supported? Do they have people standing up, demanding that the perpetrators be punished?
No. They have been told are to blame for what has happened.
Everyone from police to TV shows to people tsking over news reports have said: Well, what did they expect?
A South Australian police spokesperson said, “it is timely to stress that uploading of images and texts are done in an instant and often without thinking about the long-term effects”. Translation: Don’t send dirty pictures, ladies, because it might tempt men to commit crimes.
When asked by one of the women to remove the images, the administrator of the site told her to “F— off you autistic whore … you cannot do anything to stop us”. Translation: We’re going to get away with this because everyone thinks you’re a slut.
These are the messages being sent to 500 women who are feeling devastated and distressed. They are being told that they are to blame – and the actual perpetrators of the crime are even mocking their victims.
Let’s be very clear. What has happened to these women is a crime. Not just a theft, but also an assault. Every single person who looks at these images is participating in a crime against 500 Australian women.
Instead of standing up for this women, these women are being told: What are YOU going to do to stop people stealing nude photos of you and putting them on a website.
These women are not the criminals here. They have done nothing illegal.
They have had a crime committed AGAINST THEM. And yet the world wants to tell them that they should have stayed covered up – because if they weren’t being sexual adults then there wouldn’t have been any pictures to steal.
If a bank is robbed, no one says ‘Well, they shouldn’t have been keeping all that money around. WHEN WILL BANKS LEARN? What’s it going to take for banks to get the message that people might be interested in stealing money?’
There are 500 victims here. Five hundred women who are feeling vulnerable, used and probably very very angry.
These women deserve our comfort and support. They do not deserve to be treated like they are worthless, stupid and wrong.
To the 500 Adelaide women: You are not to blame. What happened to you was a crime. And we stand with you.
For more posts like this, have a look through these:
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Top Comments
I've already commented, but I felt the need to speak about one of the more disturbing parts of the discussion, which is the focus on how women can 'keep themselves safe'. Usually presented by someone putting on a nice face to help the poor ladyfolk who haven't lived their life under male oppression and therefore aren't sure how to combat it, It presumes that the person spouting it has the secret to keeping safe, and whilst "not victim blaming", implies that if the victim had known or followed the advice, well.... maybe they wouldn't be where they are.
This notion is a fallacy. It's the same fallacy that makes women think that not dressing provocatively will spare them from being raped, that avoiding dark alleys will spare them from assault. It's a lie that is perpetuated to make women think they have control, when the people in control are the criminals. You think the kind of people that hack your phone aren't capable of finding out where you live. hacking your emails, and a host of other violence? These kind of people will hurt people one way or another, and this discussion on 'risk management' only places blame on the victim whilst falsely assuring the rest of us that are yet to be victims of gendered violence. It paints the idea that women could avoid all this, that such things don't happen to smart women. The only people that can truly prevent this are the criminals. Women not only have the right to have whatever photos of themselves they damn well want, but they are also kidding themselves if they think that this is the only kind of sensitive information people can get from them. These are the kind of people that photoshop people's heads onto porn, no nude or topless pic necessary. If they want to put images out there of you they can, and it is not your fault if these people assault you. I repeat, the only person who can prevent this, who can in any way be held accountable, is the perpetrator.
Anything can happen to anyone at any time, you're exactly right. All of our doors are locked at the moment we have taken all the precautions we are meant to, but someone can still get in jimmy the door break a window, pick the lock. We are never 100% safe, ever in the world. You might think i'll avoid that dark alley and catch a cab home instead, and then the Cabbie attacks you. We take precautions like locking our doors to perhaps stop something bad from happening, it's not a 100% guarantee of safety, but we do it to make us feel safer.
So why wouldn't we take precautions with our nude pictures and not send them on to people? If we leave our doors unlocked and get robbed, some of the blame/scrutiny is still going to be on us, obviously the the robber will be arrested and face some type of punishment if caught..blah, blah..They will say well make sure you keep your doors locked better to try and keep your house safer. I believe it's the same thing here, take a precaution with your nude pictures, you send them on they might fall into the wrong hands, you just don't know.
I think we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this now!
I disagree.
Yes,you can take personal and nude photos of yourself etc.Go for your life.
BUT DO NOT SEND THEM TO ANYONE OR POST ON ANY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES!!!
THEY ONLY HAVE THEMSELVES TO BLAME!!!
THEY CAN'T BE STOLEN IF THEY ARE NOT THERE TO STEAL!
USE YOUR BRAINS!! ( if you have any)
I don't know about any one else, but I sure am ready to take the advice of someone who find the need to put their entire victim blaming opinion in all caps.
Unless they are the ones who sent these pictures on, or who hacked their own accounts, the women do not only have themselves to blame. I would argue that the men are entirely to blame, but to turn around and say that the entire fault rests with the victims is just baffling.