Jennifer & Keke on Nude Photo Leaks
A number of young actresses had nude photos leaked to the public in 2014. Most of them - including Kirsten Dunst, Ariana Grande (who denied their authenticity), and Victoria Justice (who initially denied the photos but later called them a violation of her privacy) - were part of a leak that began on August 31 due to an alleged iCloud service breach. The most famous celebrity in the group, and easily the one who got the most unwanted attention from the leak, was 24-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, whose publicist confirmed almost immediately that the photos were real.
In an October interview for Vanity Fair nearly three months later, Jennifer broke her public silence on the leak with this powerful statement. "I started to write an apology, but I don't have anything to say I'm sorry for," she said, explaining that she was too upset to release a statement immediately after the leak. "It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It's disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. Just because I'm a public figure, just because I'm an actress, does not mean that I asked for this.
"Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame. 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, 'No, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body.'"
Jennifer backstage at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, September 2014.
This was her first public event after the photo leak, and she kept a low profile.
Nude photos of 21-year-old Keke Palmer were leaked in October, likely as part of the same iCloud breach. She has never confirmed or denied whether the photos are authentic, but similar to Jennifer, she didn't speak publicly about it for months. In a December interview with Essence magazine, she said: "The fact that so many celebrity pictures were out there and everybody is elating in the fact that they're a Peeping Tom? You're all Peeping Toms. Everybody that's commenting. In real life, if anybody went to somebody's house and looked at them naked, they would go to jail."
It takes a lot of courage to address this kind of violation in the direct, personal way that Jennifer did. Notice that Keke avoids strong words like "sex crime" and instead uses the much less scary-sounding "peeping Toms." Impressively, she also finds a way to still avoid saying whether or not the photos are actually of her. Since her nude photos attracted far less attention than Jennifer's did, this is probably much easier for her to deal with -- not easy, just easier.
Keke at the Essence Upfront 2015 Preview, November 2014.
Her nude photo leak happened shortly after she made her Broadway debut as Cinderella.
Even young actresses who didn't have any nude photos leaked were dragged into it. After 24-year-old Emma Watson delivered a passionate, thought-provoking speech about feminism to the UN in September, some cyber-bullies used the threat of leaking nude photos of her as an intimidation tactic. There was also a celebrity death hoax using the hashtag #RIPEmmaWatson, accompanied by fake news headlines that she'd been found dead in a hotel room. For the most part, Emma ignored the negativity and stuck to raising awareness for gender equality through her #HeForShe campaign. She also made this tweet shortly after the photo leak that effected Jennifer and so many others:
Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.
- Emma Watson (@EmWatson) September 1, 2014
In an October interview for Vanity Fair nearly three months later, Jennifer broke her public silence on the leak with this powerful statement. "I started to write an apology, but I don't have anything to say I'm sorry for," she said, explaining that she was too upset to release a statement immediately after the leak. "It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It's disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. Just because I'm a public figure, just because I'm an actress, does not mean that I asked for this.
"Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame. 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, 'No, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body.'"
Jennifer backstage at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, September 2014.
This was her first public event after the photo leak, and she kept a low profile.
Nude photos of 21-year-old Keke Palmer were leaked in October, likely as part of the same iCloud breach. She has never confirmed or denied whether the photos are authentic, but similar to Jennifer, she didn't speak publicly about it for months. In a December interview with Essence magazine, she said: "The fact that so many celebrity pictures were out there and everybody is elating in the fact that they're a Peeping Tom? You're all Peeping Toms. Everybody that's commenting. In real life, if anybody went to somebody's house and looked at them naked, they would go to jail."
It takes a lot of courage to address this kind of violation in the direct, personal way that Jennifer did. Notice that Keke avoids strong words like "sex crime" and instead uses the much less scary-sounding "peeping Toms." Impressively, she also finds a way to still avoid saying whether or not the photos are actually of her. Since her nude photos attracted far less attention than Jennifer's did, this is probably much easier for her to deal with -- not easy, just easier.
Keke at the Essence Upfront 2015 Preview, November 2014.
Her nude photo leak happened shortly after she made her Broadway debut as Cinderella.
Even young actresses who didn't have any nude photos leaked were dragged into it. After 24-year-old Emma Watson delivered a passionate, thought-provoking speech about feminism to the UN in September, some cyber-bullies used the threat of leaking nude photos of her as an intimidation tactic. There was also a celebrity death hoax using the hashtag #RIPEmmaWatson, accompanied by fake news headlines that she'd been found dead in a hotel room. For the most part, Emma ignored the negativity and stuck to raising awareness for gender equality through her #HeForShe campaign. She also made this tweet shortly after the photo leak that effected Jennifer and so many others:
Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.
- Emma Watson (@EmWatson) September 1, 2014