- There will always be another leak, because there is always curiosity in the bodies of naked celebrity women. There is always danger in being an Other
I don't know, I feel like there's a combination of factors at play here, not least the women's celebrity (rather than the celebrities' womanhood). And of course in our society privacy is increasingly being denied to all people, not just the Other. But there's certainly truth to the notion that the Other has historically been denied privacy, and I can't in good faith claim that a leak this expansive of nude male celebrities would have a.) occurred or b.) become as big of a deal in terms of spreading around of the photos/news.
What do you guys think?
No no no no no. Privacy is a goal. It is a Platonic ideal that we approach asymptotically only through great struggle. It is a desirable thing that does not come without a fight. It is not a privilege, not by a longshot - and implying that those with the most social privilege enjoy the least "privacy" privilege is demonstrably wrong. There are entire websites dedicated to "revenge porn" and "ex-wife pics" and the like and complaints against them are generally limited to the feminist fringe... but one famous person's inadvertent boob and suddenly it's a constitutional crisis. If you're nobody and an ex-boyfriend posts your pics on Reddit, it's "sucks to be you." If you're somebody and a hacker posts your pics on Reddit, it's an internet full of cease and desist orders. That's the very definition of privilege, and it's not an aspect of the discussion that gets to the heart of the matter, which is power. The anonymous internet likes to strike out against the named internet by destroying its privacy. This is why we dox; shabnameh have been keeping the Islamic world in line for over a hundred years. Sniping from the shadows is a method to power for the powerless but it doesn't make it any less of an attack. The nonconsensual release of anything should be a big deal, and should be talked about in terms of abuse, not in terms of "privilege."Privacy is a privilege. It is rarely enjoyed by women or transgender men and women, queer people or people of color. When you are an Other, you are always in danger of having your body or some other intimate part of yourself exposed in one way or another.
I mean, if you don't want to risk your private nude photos being leaked, don't store then on the cloud. I'm not blaming the celebrities here as some people have but I do think they could have prevented it if they were more security conscious. I wish this had turned into a discussion about protecting your data.
And if you don't want your banking details stolen, don't use a debit card. And if you don't want your identity stolen, don't get mail. You are, in fact, blaming the celebrities here. You're essentially pointing to an arbitrary line and suggesting that if these women had been on the other side of that arbitrary line, they'd be fine. But you don't have enough information to know where to put that line or where to put their behavior. So in the end, you're suggesting that if you don't want your naked pics on the Internet you shouldn't take naked pics, which is a less than sympathetic position to take. Don't get me wrong: the fingerprint sensor on my wife's iPhone doesn't know her fingerprint. Why? I don't trust Apple with data like that. It's not like you can change your fingerprints and once they're leaked, they're leaked. But there's an expectation of privacy with your own personal data and the onus is on the provider of the cloud service to protect that privacy, not on the user.
I second that. Glen Greenwald's The Intercept is also an amazing place for grown up journalism.