Hackers are threatening to release nude photos of actress Emma Watson in direct retaliation for the UN speech in which she stood up against sexism. Claire Cohen reports on the disempowerment of strong women in the public eye
We knew they were sleazy. We knew they were unscrupulous, unethical and downright money-grabbing (not to mention criminals).
But now we know, for sure, that the hackers reportedly behind the biggest celebrity nude photo leak in history are utterly, deeply, misogynistic.
How? They’ve threatened to post images of actress Emma Watson online, in direct reaction to her speech at the UN earlier this week.
In now-deleted messages posted on 4chan, hackers (believed to be from the same group who released images of Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna) wrote: “She makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online."
And lo, a pattern emerges.
In making a speech to the UN, in her new role as Goodwill Ambassador for Women, Watson was undeniably brave. I don’t mean to patronise – but for a young woman, in the public eye, to stick her head above the parapet and address issues around the contentious term ‘feminism’ is pretty ballsy.
This was Watson taking control of her public image.
She addressed the sexism she’d faced in the media, since the age of 14. She referred to herself as that ‘Harry Potter girl’ and confronted her own insecurities over taking on the role.
She was inspiring and intelligent. And that’s why, in the minds of the hackers, it has to be taken down.
The same thing occurred over the weekend, when nude photos of Kim Kardashian were briefly posted on 4Chan and Reddit.
As Daisy Buchanan wrote in these pages yesterday, many users took the chance to mock Kim.
After all, this is a woman who made her name starring in a sex tape, why should we feel sorry for her having naked pics hacked? ‘Haven’t we seen it all before?’ they chorused.
This is just what the hackers want.
They aim to undermine those women who have taken control of their own careers - and bodies in the case of Kim, who shows her figure as and when she pleases – and bring them down.
Theirs is a mission to remove any power from women in the publiThe quote alongside the Watson threat: “now her nudes will be online” is a clear threat – a call to arms for every woman-hater out there.
The message? These women think they can operate on their own terms and make their own choices. They refuse to bow to shame in their public, or private, lives. So we will make them.
It sends a message to every woman out there – famous, or not. ‘You should be ashamed’.
Watson tweeted a defence of Jennifer Lawrence, when her nude photos were leaked earlier this month – something which has no doubt added fuel to the hackers fire.
“Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.”
She can only hope now that it resonated.c eye and make them vulnerable.
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