Alexandra Hamilton
Naked Celebrity Leaks Essay
September 4, 2014
Socially Acceptable?
In Scott Mendelson’s article entitled “Jennifer Lawrence Nude Photo Leak Isn’t A ‘Scandal.’ It’s A Sex Crime, he discusses the details surrounding this recent celebrity overexposure and explores his own opinions on sexploitation in the media. It’s surprising that as a male he is able to truly see things from the victims perspective, and act as a voice for the women that fell victim to such despicable people. Mr. Mendelson does not stop there. He uses this article, which is supposed to mainly supply information, as a platform to speak out on the real issue at hand here-the objectification of women in our society. He speaks so passionately about the invasion of privacy, infringement of basic human rights, and promotion of sexual abuse caused as a result of the hackers actions. He further emphasis the importance in disregarding the way the media has tried to spin the story, and instead to gain some compassion and empathy for these innocent women who have been so violated.
The realization that our society tends to blame the victim and not the perpetrator in past stories of this nature is powerful. The author reminds the public to stop the dehumanization of these women, and presents a direct correlation between the exposure of female celebrities and all women in the United States. Sexual abuse is sexual abuse. Feeling detached from this issue just because it has been done to people who are already in the spotlight is not morally correct. This story is just a small example of something that occurs everyday all day. As a society we are constantly bombarded with the concept that sex sells. So much that we have become desensitized to the aspect of humanity that is being threatened with each billboard that shows more of the female body than the actual product that is being advertised.
If women are observing images bombarded at them through mass communication as a demonstration of how they should behave, they will ultimately act in a manner that mirrors their environment. If men are consistently seeing women as objects that must be possessed, or prizes to be won, they will ultimately treat them as such. To combat sexism and objectification, society must reconstruct its patriarchal framework and veer towards more egalitarian standards. Although we can’t stop the media from consistently depicting the “ideal woman” in advertisements, magazines, and music videos. We can individually recognize the impact this has on our own self-acceptance and judgmental tendencies. We need more people like Scott Mendelson to point out the detrimental impact of allowing the dehumanization of women to be the go to propaganda for all forms of mass media. Society decides what sells. So lets support something other then sex.
SEXUAL ASSAULT STATISTICS
Sexual assault is very real and the media encourages its place in society with subliminal messages and with some more obvious messages that sexual assault is acceptable. Sexual Objectification is usually biased in terms of that the women is submissive to the man. This is often violent depicted in the media. Some might say that simply because a man sees sexual assault in the media does not mean that he will imitate that behavior. For those who believe that myth, here are some frightening statistics:
• 1 in 4 college women will be victims of sexual assault
• 51% of college males admit to “perpetrating one or more sexual assault incidents in college”
• 98% of the perpetrators of sexual assault are male (“Creating a Climate of Respect…” 2).
• 47% of men who had raped reported that they would engage in similar actions in the future (Jensen 2)
• 88% of men who had reported an assault that met the legal definition of rape “...were adamant that they had not raped..” (Jensen 2).
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