Friday, October 10, 2014

Jennifer Lawrence’s nudes: naughty or nice?

by Melissa Scott, Writing Intern

By now, the fevered spate of leaked celebrity nudes is old news. Exciting and scandalous as it was, the uproar abated pretty quickly.  At the time of the outbreak, a few celebrities voiced their disgust and anger at the leak, while others chose to remain silent. Jennifer Lawrence was one of the “leaked” who kept her reactions private.  Following an interview with Vanity Fair last month, she finally decided to speak out.

Lawrence covered the magazine’s latest issue, which hit newsstands in New York and Los Angeles Thursday, October 9. Vanity Fair contributor, Sam Kashner, originally met with Lawrence in early August to conduct the interview. When the celebrity pictures were released, just two weeks after his interview with Lawrence, Kashner decided to contact her again, and allow her an additional “last word” in the article. “I could just sense after having spent a little time with her that she would come out swinging,” Kashner told VF.com. This time, Lawrence opened up.

Derivative of upload from http://flickr.com/photo/47170787@N05/5485153604
 “Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this. It does not mean that it comes with the territory,” she declared. “It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world. ” 

Lawrence also explained why she hadn't spoken out before. She remembered trying to write a statement at the time, but “every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry. I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for.” Lawrence admitted the photos were intended for her ex-boyfriend and X-men co-star, Nicholas Hoult. “I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years,” she shrugged. “It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you.” Hoult also spoke out in support of Lawrence: “It’s shocking that things like this happen in the world. It’s a shame.”

Well-justified, both Lawrence and Hoult’s comments pretty much echo the majority of other celebrities targeted by the scandal. Vanity Fair’s “exclusive” statement from Lawrence doesn’t really add much to the gossip, but for one last angry jab. Lawrence declared not only the acts of the hackers, but also the resulting views of her pictures as a sex crime. “It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime,” she asserted. “It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these Web sites are responsible. Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me.” 

Lawrence made her revulsion clear to anyone involved in the viewing of her photos. “Anybody who looked at those pictures, you’re perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame.” She added, “Even people who I know and love say, ‘Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.’ I don’t want to get mad, but at the same time I’m thinking, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body.”

I cannot imagine the shock or embarrassment after discovering the leak of personal and private pictures. Celebrity or not, that would be awful. But then again, maybe storing them on icloud with a single, guess-able password wasn't the brightest idea either. And realistically, if an eruption of extremely hot, nude, female celebrities spreads--accessibly all over the internet—people will take a look. If Lawrence wants legal action against all the “sexual offending” viewers, she’ll probably have to lock up half of the US population. It’s vulgar, uncivilized, and violating, to be sure, but Lawrence took the pictures in the first place. No one’s saying she looked bad. The very fact that her leaked pictures dominated the very first A-list celebrity wave--alongside stunners like Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Kim Kardashian, and Rihanna--proves that she’s red hot at the moment. I might even take that as a compliment.

I’m not saying I disagree with Lawrence - her body is her own body, and she should be able to choose who views what. But really, celebrity nudes are customary, short-lived curiosities. Maybe if we stopped talking about it, we’d all forget about it . . . until the next inevitable leak. 

2 comments:

  1. A case of "The lady doth protest too much me thinks"
    too funny to complain about exposure when you appear naked on screen!


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