Ladies, the best way to end revenge porn is to stop posing in the nude
Something has to be done about revenge porn, but what? Keeping your pants on would be a good start, but that is just too dull and sensible for today’s generation of thrill-seeking exhibitionists.
that’s one reason why the practice of men (it almost always is men) tormenting former lovers by posting private sexual photographs of them online is on the increase. But how can it be policed?
the introduction of a revenge porn offence in 2015 has helped, with more than 200 offenders being prosecuted in the first year. Campaigners now want more custodial sentencing and harsher penalties dished out, but it is difficult to see how this will work in practice. the fact that many of the photographs were initially taken with consent remains an implacable one.
the Sentencing Council, which sets guidelines for courts, has come up with some new suggestions, nearly all of them risible. they propose that offenders who distribute abusive images widely, who target more ‘vulnerable’ women and who send the images to their families — especially if those families are religious — should earn tougher penalties than others.
What rot. the common factor should be the offence, not the reaction of the family to it or whether or not your little brother is embarrassed. Do the proposals mean more resilient women with no siblings whose families don’t go to church or the synagogue or the mosque won’t get justice? or that men might escape custodial sentences because the woman is strong and smart?
the punishment should fit the crime, not conform to some hand-wringing therapist’s lavender-scented view of who has and who has not suffered the most.
Personally, i think there are enough people in prison already without throwing this pathetic, vengeful shower in with them. And that, in most cases, prohibitive fines rather than custodial sentences would be the way forward, with the lesson learned for all involved never to do it again. no, don’t hold your breath.
TECHNOLOGY has created a new funfair where these brutes can humiliate their exes, but it would help if the victims didn’t hop aboard the carousel and pose for their boob shots and beyond with quite such enthusiasm.
indeed, the problem would be solved in a flash, forgive the pun, if girls stopped being complicit in their own mortification.
Perhaps we should have more sympathy with impressionable young women who have had to grow up in a highly sexualised world, one warped by the pressures of who’s hot and who’s not, selfie culture narcissism and endless pornification.
Porn was once corralled onto the top shelf, available only behind brown paper wrappers or in X-rated films one had to queue up with the dirty mac brigade to watch. now it is everywhere; pulsing through TV, films and pop music.
even i raised a maiden auntish eyebrow at the new little mix cowboy-themed pop video this week. Five minutes ago the wholesome girl group were capering about in ra-ra skirts, singing motivational songs about teenage aspirations.
now they look like saloon girls at the Bucking Bronco brothel, all pouting like sink plungers in their sparkly bras, doing a nice line in slack-eyed desire.
Above all, porn crashes through the internet, where it is hotwired straight into the imagination and fantasies of boys and girls who are perhaps not ready to process their complicated feelings towards it — or understand that a captured moment of shared lust could have such horrible ramifications in the future.
even hollywood stars who have had their phones hacked and their private naked images stolen and posted online have been unable to protect themselves. Kate Upton, Jennifer lawrence, Amber heard and Cara Delevingne are among the violated who have hired lawyers and argued that merely sharing or clicking onto these links is a form of abuse. to little avail.
Campaigners urge social media sites to be more accountable and legal experts try to invent laws that might have an effect in ungovernable cyberspace. And while the law might be an ass, surely the only way to protect your own skin is to keep it under wraps?
the need to express oneself sexually and please a lover are primal human urges. however, it’s all too easy for an intimate photograph to be later used as a weapon because the love train has moved on and the trust has gone. let’s be clear, it’s the ghoulish men who are taking advantage of affection and innocence.
But as we can see, campaigners still claim there is not enough legal redress for your impetuous undress. So do the smart thing. Please.