Two weeks ago a host of celebrities were victims of cyber intrusion by hackers who began circulating images of them in the nude. Today again another group of female celebrities have been victims of social hacking and as a result have found their naked photos floating online. This trend of hacking into what were supposed to be private accounts is unlikely to end anytime soon especially as the entertainment world thrives on such scandalous revelations and these hackers will probably receive remunerations for their efforts and so there will be far more photos to come. These photos have caused a large degree of embarrassment and reputations have been affected. The outrage these women feel is expected, these photos were intended for their own pleasure and not the viewing pleasure of the entire twitter population. These women have been victimised because of their profiles, their privacy has been compromised emphasising the idea that privacy is in itself an illusion but more than that, this whole situation highlights the fact that we are still so fixated with the female body. The fetishization of the female anatomy is seen in our culture on every single level:  magazines, music videos, advertisements, gender relations, art, cinema and in domestic settings.

The fixation with the female body is not novel. Her curves and edges have always featured heavily in art and literature. For example, The Three Graces originally sculpted by Antonio Canova is a marble sculpture of Zeus’ naked daughters. Works by Victorian artists like Herbert Draper depict women in the nude. Naiad’s Pool, The Sea Melodies and Lamia three of his highly intimate pieces allows the viewer to voyage into the unknown of the female body. The fetishization of the female anatomy has existed throughout history and naturally throughout culture and so you may be wondering why I have chosen to devote an entire article to the subject.I thought the millennium would bring winds of change. I thought it would do away with archaic notions of self and identity and although some perceptions were swept away, the fetishization of women remained despite the growing female empowerment movement.

Our culture does the following things:

It uses the image of a woman’s body to shame her or open her up to public ridicule and the unveiling of the celebrity nude pictures captures this perfectly. If this were not the case then the images of these celebrities would not have circulated.  On a micro level, scorned ex boyfriends send out images of women they were previously linked to, again using the image of a woman’s body as a weapon.  The female body is not akin to an atomic bomb you use when you feel threatened, her body or at least the image was something she surrendered.

It condemns the female body. It chastises women for being too revealing whilst there is an obvious market that benefits from female nudity.  I do not endorse women being scantily dressed, I’m simply highlighting  contradictions in the culture.

It sexualises the female anatomy. One of the most telling aspects in the treatment of the female body in British society is the existence of page 3 (there may be an american equivalent but I’m not too sure).  For the readers not familiar with the British press, there is a page within a highly popular newspaper depicting women in the nude.The placing of these women on the first page of the magazine is a long standing tradition that only reinforces our fixation with a woman’s curves and edges. Of course there’s the argument that these models appear in page 3 out of choice but what happens to our choice not to see women in all their naked glory.  We sexualise a woman’s body over and over again and we are doing it with these leaked images. Our culture has pimped out the female anatomy for cheap thrills.

A woman should be allowed to pose naked whether for her own progress, her own satisfaction or  for her husband without the fear that someone  might hack into her icloud , or access her photo gallery and circulate her most private images. Surely , if the woman intended her photographs to be used for the viewing pleasure of the general public she would have leaked them to the general public.   Let her own her body.

Love Cris x

P.S The female anatomy is one of the most beautiful things, do not let the world shame you for having breasts and a vagina.