Revenge Porn Finally an Official Crime! (UK)

YES! OH GOD YES! 

Its finally a punishable crime!!!

Definition of revenge porn given by the Ministry of Justice : “Photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way or with their genitals exposed, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public”

Finally this awful form of abuse is now a convicted crime in our country . This new law was passed yesterday the 13th of November 2014.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.  “We want those who fall victim to this type of disgusting behaviour to know that we are on their side,”

Lets face it most of us in this day and age have sent nude photographs to our partners with complete in complete confidence. It has been very unsettling to know recently that Jennifer Lawrence’s nude photos got leaked by internet trolls. These weren’t people that she had sent her photos to these were people who had hacked into her cloud system and publicised them without her permission. This could happen to any of us. What makes this worse is that it was a bunch of misogynistic pigs who did this deliberately to challenge her status as a feminist woman and to put her in her place. (If you would like to see more on this matter check out my other article on Keira Knightly posting her own nudes to challenge this corruption)

In a more relatable example for the general public –What an awful thing to publicise intimate photographs of your ex partner , that they have sent to you in confidence. This behaviour is both shameful and disgusting. Thomas Samuel  from Bristol, uploaded naked images of his ex-wife  from when they were together, he uploaded them to a spoof Facebook page. He has now been suspended for 6 months in prison.

The victim in question Folami Prehaye has now set up a website to help other victims of revenge porn and other related online crime incidents. I feel this is very noble she spoke out –  “It has literally ruined my life, in the sense that the pictures are still out there and still being seen….The worst thing for me is I can’t stop people viewing them – you have no control….Your personal, intimate stuff has gone public. To know they are being view on one porn site alone about 48,000 times it just awful.”

“This type of behaviour can be extremely distressing for its victims causing them significant psychological harm,” said Adam Pemberton, assistant chief executive for charity Victim Support.

It is so damaging to publicly post naked pictures on to your Facebook page, Not only emotionally scarring but it destroys your reputation too. Facebook now owns every image you post, even if deleted they still store it  in their archive so that if big businesses or the government want to look you up they can trace everything. And how are they to know you got fraped by an ex partner? They WILL judge you for what you post. Some victims have found it very difficult to have their pictures removed if its on a site other than Facebook. Sometimes it makes matters worse because in the victims plea for help more attention is circulated towards the image. Miss Prehaye says “I have tried to remove them and it’s a lot harder than you think. You have to contact each webmaster one by one”.

This truly is an awful crime and I find it sickening that if you visit your regular porn site there will be adds for websites that encourage you to upload images and videos of your ex girlfriend. Such as Watch my Ex Gf. This might very well be staged for someones sick fetish. They might not actually be real pictuteres and videos that are revenge porn….but even so its condoning it and thats just as bad in my books!

“The fact that there are individuals who are cruelly distributing intimate pictures of their former partners without their consent is almost beyond belief,” Justice Secretary Mr Grayling continues.That is why we will change the law and make it absolutely clear to those who act in this way that they could face prison”

I’m happy to announce that if these images are sent on any social media site as well as text messages the sender will be convicted for their crime!

Mr Grayling – “We are pleased that people who commit these gross violations of privacy will now face prosecution, and victims of revenge porn know they have the full backing of the law.”

I think its about bloody time something has been done about this.

We are taking finally taking steps in the right direction!!

Keira Knightly a REAL woman

I was delighted when I came across this statement photograph of Keira Knightly exposing her breasts. For years she has expressed annoyance towards her breasts being Photo-shopphed in posters for her films and fashion shoots.

This was the for this image caption : I will shoot for you completely topless. I wish to boost any flat chested woman’s confidence” told Keira Knightley to the magazine. “My breast is imperfect and I want women to see that”.

What a wonderful feminist role model! Its wonderful to have a female celebrity who isn’t superficial. Someone who is vocally and demonstratively expressive of her distain for the modification of her body. – And how brave to stand up and reveal her body in order for the rest of the female population on this earth to be comforted by the fact that, you know what? – she is just human like the rest of us.

Yes – she’s stunning, classy and has beautiful facial features. Keria Knightly is not the object of mainstream “perfection”. In truth nobody is.

Most celebrities, like Megan Fox, Nicole Kidman, Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj have gone through cosmetic operations to look how they do. Most photographs for fashion adds, ARE photoshopped. These women have professional stylists who tend to their; hair, make-up and eyebrows , Emma Watson admits ” I do not wake up like this”

If every woman had professional stylists we’d all look like celebrities. In conjunction with this knowledge this photo is made even more wonderful by the fact that one  of Keira’s breasts is clearly, bigger than the other. With all the money she has she has not had surgery to correct this. – How down to earth. I think she’s a wonderful role model.

It also challenges all the awful backlashes that Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson received after standing up for feminism. Jennifer Lawrence’s private nude photos were exposed on misogynistic forums such as 4Chan. After Emma Watson’s speech at the UN on feminism meaning, equality for men and women she was threatened by the same internet trolls that they would expose her nudes too. There are numerous examples on twitter of people who threatened her. Knightly combats this with SHOWING her body. She is a step ahead of the game.

I’m very angry about 4chan exposing naked pictures of female celebrities in punishment for them speaking out for feminism, as if to put them in their place. The images that you choose to take of yourself in your private life have NO correlation to your stance on feminism. If you are seen as a good role model whose classy, elegant, sophisticated and intelligent you are made a target because you are seen as a threat to those who believe that women should merely exist to satisfy men. This is SHAMEFUL.

There is so much hate for feminism and it kills me. Feminism means equality for all genders, in truth most people are feminists. The word has so much stigmatism attached to it that most of society associate it with unfriendly, aggressive, butch women. It does not help that celebrities like Jennifer Anniston say “I believe in equal rights but I’m not a feminist” its seen as NOT ATTRACTIVE and this is the problem! We want the approval of men! Katy Perry says  “I’m not a feminist but I do believe in the strength of women”. I’m very furious with Bjork and Lady Gaga there material is seen as ground breaking and controversial.

Lady Gaga is famous for standing up for gay rights, being who you want to be and yet does not give women the same credit.  “I’m not a feminist,I hail men, I love men, I celebrate American male culture – beer, bars, and muscle cars.” This implies that Feminism is about men vs women! It is NOT! It is about finding peace between the sexes.

To me a woman saying she’s not a feminist is JUST like a gay person saying they are a homophobe.

Joss Whedon the writer of Buffy the vampire slayer has theorised that feminism sounds like a choice because the word ends in an ist. For example Buddhist, Nudist, Baptist – these are words that we associate with making a choice to incarnate that identity with. It should not be a choice and for most people its already a belief that we should be equal. Whedon thinks that this word needs to be changed to something else, because of the negative connotations associated with it. Other feminists argue that we need to reclaim the word. I’m on the fence with this one….I am very tired of people cowering away from me when I tell them that I am a feminist.  However I power through this because it IS what a Believe. Similarly Madonna has stated “I am not a feminist, I am a humanist”

I believe that the truth of the matter is that most celebrities are too afraid to identify themselves with feminism because of the negative connotations that are associated with it. Now so more than ever due to all the drama on 4chan. But we need MORE women like Keria Knightly who have the balls…no not balls, BREASTS to stand up and make a statement about this.

SO….why is feminism so important?

Most young women have been victims of male misognystic   behaviour, some of them not even recognising this for what it is. We are not educated in schools about healthy sexual relationships with partners. We are pushed out into the world with nothing to prepare us for how some men think they have the right  to us. It is BECAUSE of the lack of education that some of us believe that how they want to treat us is right. None has told us any different. For lots of women feel that they won’t be good enough for their partner if they do not offer them anal sex, a fantasy that has been encouraged by the porn industry. (The representation of which is neither safe or realistic).

And you know WHY? Its because we still want the approval of men. For me being a feminist means as I have previously stated, equal rights for men and women and the idea that your aspirations and dreams lie further a-field than finding a man and satisfying him to his hearts content.

For lots of girls, myself included – before you are mistreated by a man you will not associate yourself too strongly with being a feminist. It is a sad state of affairs that for most girls they have to experience misogyny  at its worst for them to stand up and say, “You know what I am a feminist too”.

I want a career, of course I do and maybe one day I would like children. If I do I wish to educate them so thoroughly on healthy relationships, accepting your body as it is. JUST LIKE Keira Knightly does.

Feminism means so much to me, as not only have I been effected by the worst kinds of misogynistic behaviour so have many of my friends and family. It only continues with our consent. With our wish to not seem unattractive and undesirable but here in lies the problem.

I want to be part of a movement that combats this. Stand up with me today and say your a feminist too. Yes men too! Everyone could be a feminist as a means towards equality