If you’re a straight guy looking for “fapping” material, the internet is your friend. It’s awash in freely available pictures of naked women of every size, shape, color, age, or hairstyle you prefer. And if you want more than pictures, the internet is happy to oblige, offering up videos featuring women of every description engaging in every sex act you can imagine, and then some.
You might think this would be enough.
But for some straight dudes, it evidently isn’t. They don’t just want to look at the mind-bogglingly enormous selection of women out there who have agreed to pose naked, or even perform explicit sex acts, on camera.
No, they also want to look at women who haven’t agreed to have their nude photos put on the internet. Hence the popularity of “ex-girlfriend” or “revenge porn” sites, filled with pictures that are (or at least purport to be) of ex-girlfriends who never wanted the pictures they shared with their then-boyfriends posted for the world to see.
Hence the popularity of “leaked” celebrity nudes.
The latest celebrity nudes scandal revolves around a gigantic collection of personal pictures stolen from the supposedly secure online accounts of an assortment of female celebs (and a couple of guys).
The most famous of the celebs in this current batch are Jennifer Lawrence – Jlaw – and Kate Upton; there are many others, including alleged pics of comedian Aubrey Plaza and gymnast McKayla Maroney, which internet “detectives” are scurrying to prove are real. Maroney is only 18; if the alleged pics of her are real, and weren’t taken very recently, they’re arguably child porn.
The pics were first released by an anon on internet cesspool 4chan, and they have found a welcome home on the slightly more respectable internet cesspool Reddit, where they have been posted and reposted, sometimes retouched and color-corrected, and celebrated with enthusiasm by hundreds of thousands of Redditors.
Indeed, the leaks have inspired a new subreddit, TheFappening, which has managed to gain 100,000 subscribers in a day. Evidently Reddit’s admins have no problem with a subreddit distributing stolen celebrity pics, including some that may well be child porn.
Naturally, Reddit being Reddit, some of new members of TheFappening are trying to distract from their odiousness by suggesting that those downloading Jlaw’s stolen pics also … donate to a charity fighting prostate cancer. Either that or start up their own prostate cancer fund – to make sure they get credit for their donations.
![TheJanders 224 points 2 hours ago Holy shit the news would be amazing.. "Spreaders of leaked celebrity nude photos raise millions for prostate cancer!" permalink save report give gold reply [–]BiGBANGTH3ORY 47 points an hour ago If any group of people could make that happen it would be the Reddit Army and r/TheFappening permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]TheJanders 34 points an hour ago I shall donate! However we should make our own fund so we can 1.Tell how much we have raised on our own, and 2. Get credit](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/prostate.png?resize=487%2C327&ssl=1)
Sorry, guys, that doesn’t make what you’ve done ok. And if you’re truly concerned about prostate cancer, why on earth did you wait until you needed some good PR to launch a fundraising effort?
Over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, meanwhile, one concerned fellow attempts to stand up for the hidden victims in the scandal: men. No, really.
Even some of the commenters feel obliged to point out that, er, the hacker almost certainly is a dude — not just because the leak originated at 4chan, or because the overwhelming majority of the pics are of women, but also because, you know, women can’t STEM.
![dfgdfgsd444 -4 points 7 hours ago Implying women know shit about computahs. permalink save give gold [–]ConanTheHynerian 2 points 6 hours ago* I know you're probably just joking but statistically, it's a fact that men hold most of the STEM degrees so maybe it is fair to say that most women don't know about computers and the hacker was probably a man. permalink save parent give gold [–]FlyBunnyy 1 point 3 hours ago Why is this getting downvoted? permalink save parent give gold [–]elwahrio 1 point 2 hours ago Because it sounds misogynistic](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/womencantstem.png?resize=379%2C479&ssl=1)
The strangest reaction to the scandal from an MRA that I’ve run across so far comes from the new Twitter account of A Voice for Men’s PR gal Janet Bloomfied (the one she created, in violation of Twitter’s rules, to get around her recent ban). After mocking celebs for taking private selfies or posing for their partners, Bloomfield posted a topless, headless picture of, presumably, herself, commenting “Is this me? Maybe. I text nothing I don’t want shared. #DontBeDumb.”
Apparently Bloomfield doesn’t quite understand the difference between posting nude photos of yourself and posting pictures of other people that have been obtained and posted without their consent. This isn’t particularly surprising, as MRAs in general seem to have trouble understanding the finer points (and the blindingly obvious points) of consent.
The enthusiasm with which so many male Redditors – and skeezy dudes in general – have greeted this latest leak of celebrity pics makes one wonder if it is not the celebrity of the women in question that is the draw but the lack of consent. After all, there are plenty of other celebrity nudes out there that the celebrities in question consented to have taken and published.
For a lot of those downloading and/or posting the pics of JLaw and Kate Upton and the rest, I suspect the real thrill comes not from seeing the nude bodies of these particular celebs – which, after all, are pretty similar to the nude bodies of porn actresses that can be found everywhere online – but from the violation of privacy that these pictures represent.
There is a real sadism here, driven in part, I suspect, by resentment that many female celebrities don’t agree to appear nude in their movies or to pose nude or topless for magazines. Sharing these stolen nudes is a way to punish JLaw and other female celebs who have so far refused to share every inch of their bodies with their male, er, fans.
It’s a toxic stew of entitlement, resentment, and misogyny. And no amount of donations to prostate cancer research will make up for it.
“Dundy, for those really serious wipes!”
I am not usually one to nitpick your excellent blog, but I would like to just say that “If you’re a straight guy looking for “fapping” material, the internet is your friend” is not exactly true; what pornography there is is mostly slanted in a certain stylistic direction favourable to certain men and certainly not all.
I imagine the redditeurs in question probably fit the bill of being friends of internet pornography, though.
I was listening to the radio on the way to work this morning – from the way people were talking you would not have known there was a hacker at all. Just a bunch of silly women who were stupid not to expect something like this to happen. A lot of it coming from other women too, which is always pretty fucking disappointing.
I’ve often wondered about the women that hold such opinions on these matters. I can’t even begin to imagine what the the victims are going through at present. I’d be horrified knowing a bunch of gross creepers were looking at my nudeness.
But to jump right on the ‘oh its her fault’ bandwagon? I mean, from all of my attempts at debating the dudes that are defending their rights to look at these pictures, there reasons are in part a kneejerk refusal accept questions and engage in the slightest bit of introspection. As for the women spouting this nonsense? I just don’t understand it at all.
So, I’ve just begun reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography. I haven’t gotten to all the stuff with him sexually harassing women after he got rich and famous yet (a wild guess is he’s gonna deny doing any such thing in the book) – I’m at a point where he’s in the very beginning of his bodybuilder career, and haven’t moved to the USA yet. Apparently a large motivation for him becoming rich and famous was that he wanted to date/have sex with hot women. Fair enough, I guess. However, what strikes me after spending time on this site is how decidedly uncreepy the book is so far. For instance, when Arnold in his youth worked at a German gym (which was for men only, seems like this was the rule at the time, at least in Germany, that gyms were only for men) he and his friends would purposefully work out with weights and show off in front the windows. Occasionally this would lead to women passing by on the street asking them what they were doing. They’d answer that they worked at this gym, and if the women were interested in working out as well, they could do so for free for one hour after closing time. Occasionally some women would take them up on this offer. And again occasionally this would lead to said women hanging around and chatting with Arnold and friends after they were finished working out. In that case, they would ask them out.
That is like… so far from modern PUA. I guess a modern PUA would consider this whole tactic incredibly “beta”.
I’ve often wondered about the women that hold such opinions on these matters. I can’t even begin to imagine what the the victims are going through at present. I’d be horrified knowing a bunch of gross creepers were looking at my nudeness.
But to jump right on the ‘oh its her fault’ bandwagon? I mean, from all of my attempts at debating the dudes that are defending their rights to look at these pictures, there reasons are in part a kneejerk refusal accept questions and engage in the slightest bit of introspection. As for the women spouting this nonsense? I just don’t understand it at all.
What, you mean you can ask a woman if she wants to have sex, and she might say yes? What an absurd idea. That’s never going to work.
Cassandra, yeah, I know. And also giving away this free gym time with no guarantees that it will lead to sex – that’s just crazy!
The Poe’s law strikes again.
First, when someone’s presenting outrageous opinions on the Internet, it’s probably Bloomfield impersonating them, but you never know for sure.
Then, when someone’s posing sexy on the Internet, it’s probably Bloomfield in disguise makeup and hairdo, but you never know for sure.
Well, at least Twitter won’t ban her for cake tweets any more. Call it a lesson learned.
As for Matt Forney, he seems like a real domestic abuse connoisseur, with many plausible ideas for manipulating your partner, as well as some less plausible ones.
I do go to 4chan for fapping material (is it still fapping if you’re a lady?). You know what I like to look at?
Drawings. Because no matter how fantastical and crazy (and even non-consensual) they get, I know that the artist consented to put them out these by publishing his doujinshi.
But 4chan’s got pictures of humans, too. Let’s do a comparative study. It’ll be like a tale of two image boards, /hm/ (handsome men) and /sbw/ (sexy beautiful women)
/hm/ is like 70% dick pics, from porn or self-submits. People go there to snapchat and trade their own photographs (at least, they did on the first page I checked just now). There’s a few photos of celebrities, but the men usually have their clothes on and the poster is just fantasizing, i.e. “wouldn’t it be kewl if Jude Law had a porno?”
But /sbw/’s first page had not one, but TWO links to the Fappening. It’s all leaked Selena Gomez, Leaked JLaw, leaked everybody. I don’t think there’s a single picture there that a woman self-submitted… because really, who would? It’d be like putting your self-esteem through a buzz saw. No matter how you look, there will be at least one guy on 4chan willing to hate you for it.
These manospherians don’t seem to get that it can be empowering to self-submit nudes (if that’s your thing) but it will never be empowering to have other people submit those photos without one’s permission.
It makes me want to post that topless photo David mentioned of JB to /r/ (without saying who it is, or why) and then link her back once I’ve collected a handful of undoubtedly gross comments about her.
Then JB might learn the difference between self-submits and having your body commented on by third parties without one’s knowledge.
Weirwoodtreehugger:
On the contrary, I used to assume that menstrual “bleeding” was basically just intrauterine fluid and mucus mixed with few drops of blood. But apparently it’s mostly actual blood often in quite copious amounts…the more you know.
David:
Sometimes, it takes only a spark to launch a revolution. Or a butt flamethrower.
P.S. Then again, I sort of suspect if I did this JB would reveal it’s actually a photo of someone who looks similar to her, that she’s using with that person’s consent. So maybe I shouldn’t try that.
** without that person’s consent. I can imagine her going through GIS until she found someone suitable and posting them to Twitter. That way, she’s bravely posting her tits on the interweb, until the shit hits the fan.
@idledillettante,
I would hope this goes without saying, but you shouldn’t try that even if it is a photo of JB herself. Not even a person as horrible as JB deserves that.
@Alex,
You’re right. I wouldn’t do that because I’m not a rapey fuck who likes violating people. Even people who really and truly deserve the internet pillory.
OK, that makes twice so far in this thread that regulars have come out with some variation of “some people kind of deserve it though”. Can we not?
I just get so tired of writing out carefully thought-out, nicely toned, pleasant articles about why this shit is totally fucking wrong and getting comments & replies from the manosphere calling me a “libtard cunt cultist who reads ManBoobs.” (really)
@cassandrakitty, understood.
I wouldn’t do such a thing, and I wouldn’t celebrate it if it happened. I just wish these people could have a taste of their own medicine sometimes.
OK, I’m going to make one attempt at this, and that’s all I have the patience for. When you (hypothetical you, ie anyone) make comments saying that so and so who’s a shitty person kind of deserves, or might deserve, this kind of thing, what that does it support the idea that it’s OK to do this to women if they’re shitty people. Since opinions on what makes a shitty person vary, you have just handed anyone with a desire to hurt a woman a perfect excuse for doing shit like this – all they have to say is that, well, X is a shitty person because of A an B, so it’s OK to do this to them. It may be unintentional, but you’re lending support to the idea that it’s OK to use women’s bodies or sexuality to punish them for perceived transgressions. Which is bad for all of us, and puts all of us in danger. So don’t do that.
I get it, cassandra. It’d also lend some credence to the idea this woman is actually persecuted on the interwebz by evil feminazis trying to censor or shame her for her antifem thoughts. And I wouldn’t want to pander to that victim fairy tale the MRM loves so much.
And I get that if I think it’s okay to do this to someone bad, (like I’unno, Hitler,) it would mean that anyone else who hated anybody logically should have the right to do that. And that actually fuels this whole problem of posting non-con pics of women, like happened to Zoe Quinn.
Mea culpa; plz no one repost JB’s photos at all. Perhaps giving her less attention is the better path.
Was quikquik just a one post wonder?
Also, idledillettante, I don’t think that image is even a thing that we should consider when not reposting JB’s photo elsewhere. The fact that doing so would be wrong and would promote toxic ideas is definitely reason enough.
To harp on this a little more, JB can suffer consequences for being an asshole; she shouldn’t have to suffer any consequences just for being a woman. Posting her image somewhere to be harassed and mocked would be the latter, no matter what the context.
*crosses fingers that wordpress won’t eat comment this time*
Alais,
We get a lot of people who just drop a turd in a thread and run off.
Kittehserf: Nonono, you’ve all got it wrong. Catching fire is what happens when you’re scalded from having the trots and having to scrape with dunny paper too often.
If any normal person is having problems with this comment, I speak Strine.