Every man in the world will forever remember the day that nudes of Jennifer Lawrence leaked. An auspicious sun had crept from behind the clouds, casting golden shadows across the land. Your eyes cast lazily over the computer screen, scanning for new emails and news updates. And then you see it: you suddenly focus and your thoughts become sharp and exact, every fibre of your body crawling with disbelief, for Jennifer Lawrence has had a set of nude photos leaked.

Browsing over, anticipation and excitement racing through your veins, you read that there has been a mass phone leak – including the nudes of hundreds of celebrities – poured out like little specs of gold on an otherwise obscure forum named 4chan, now forever cast into infamy through this one act.
A Fateful Day
This was the reality for a lot of men across the world on that faithful Monday morning of September 1st 2014. Never before had such a leak occurred, from a celebrity so high on the A-list and with a set of photos so splendidly graphic, and so ruthlessly explicit. OK, so it wasn’t as magic as we’ve described above. In reality, it was probably a dark, rainy and depressing morning, and across the country the only audible sound would have been that of vigorous masturbation as every male breathlessly gasped at his computer screen. Such is the beautiful reality of the male agenda; if you continually sexualise a person and then present us nude photos of them, we’re going to look at those pictures. Excluding those that lie to their girlfriends, a lot of guys would openly admit to having a browse, even if just a furtive glance on your workmate’s iPhone.
The reactions from the victims of the leak were furious. We’re not necessarily surprised, but it does raise an interesting point about the actual difference between porn (which most deem socially acceptable) and this type of voyeuristic behaviour. Bottom line: is there really any difference? All the figures participating are sexually objectified, out of their own choice, far before the porn or the photos are looked at. Just take a look at any of Jennifer Lawrence’s or Ariana Grande’s photo shoots. Their celebrity personas are actively sexualised for PR purposes, with pictures of them scantily clad in lacy lingerie in provocative poses. So why on earth anybody would be surprised that a guy would take the time to view an even-more explicit version of those photos is beyond us.
Open Sexualisation
Just look at every music video Ms Grande does. In each one she is bending her arse into the air, leaving her lips partly ajar and prancing about to a set of lyrics that even my grandmother would understand are solely related to sex.
A month after the photos leaked, Jennifer Lawrence made her fury known in a series of damning comments about the hackers involved in the scandal, as well as the viewers (us, we guess) themselves.
In a Vanity Fair interview, she said, “Anybody who looked at those pictures, you’re perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame.”
She then admits that people she ‘knows and love’ had also admitted to looking at the photographs. Maybe it’s the simple reality that those of without such heights of fames will never be able to understand, but equally let’s not be stupid and naïve: if you spend a solid part of your career part-way sexualising yourself, on whatever level, can you really be surprised when people take any opportunity they can to take a look at your naked body, contorted into a pleasant mixture of provocative positions.
For us, we’ll continue to maintain that the difference between porn and celebrity nudes is a tenuous one, at best. The likes of Ms Lawrence foolishly ignore the basic truth for most men – sexual compulsion will always come before moral or ethical consideration. Personally, I take offense to being labelled a perpetuator of a sex crime.
We’re red blooded men who have been given a carrot and told not to eat it. And it’s like you were trying to hide the carrot from us – you were just previously keeping it just beyond arm’s reach, and dressing it up in provocative lingerie.
- The Bin Laden Porn Files - June 15, 2015
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