An open letter

Well, they've been in combat jobs for the entire Iraq war, just without the title, training, or combat pay. I presume this extends to Afghanistan too. They even have a name for them.

Lioness.

Maybe this deserves its own thread, but we already have three "the Internet is a bag of dicks when it comes to women" threads and this one seems to have turned into the most general of them:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Women-on-revenge-porn-sites-describe-their-4213364.php

I think the thing I find perhaps most frustrating about this is the difficulty they apparently are having trying to find something illegal about this.

On the other hand I love that the suit names GoDaddy.com, because fuck GoDaddy.com right in its virtual ear.

That sites like that exist and get paying subscribers is a seriously depressing thing.

I did NOT just read that, I didn't

-headdesk- Fuck .. If you have tits you might as well wear a fucking berka cus if some asshat you dated got a photo of them you are going to be smeared across the web.

I guess the anti spy shops are going to get an uptick of women looking for ways to stop surveillance.

So many things just boggle my mind:

1. the website gets made
2. guys decide to upload their pics (okay, this one is the least mind bending, I can see guys being that douchey)
3. other guys PAY to subscribe so they can see the pics (The internet has plenty of porn already)
4. guys track down the women and post their addresses, facebook and phone numbers (WTF, just seriously, I'd be happy to see Anonymous go in and track all the men down and post their info)
5. Women who want the pics taken down are asked to pay a fee (Sleazy, so very very sleazy)
6. The website gets so popular that it rakes in 14k dollars in advertising a month. (Proof there is no God)

From what I understand, 14k/month advertising is pretty small potatoes in the internet porn world, but yeah. That the particular kink this site would appeal to is even that common is pretty disturbing, and thinking about it, this sounds like a pretty small, regional site, so if you extrapolate that out to a national level... yeesh.

In a related storyline, you can read here about the crusade of Popehat (a site belonging to Ken and Tareeq , both lawyers) to expose the particularly vile proprietor of a copycat revenge porn site called "Is Anybody Down?" and get him prosecuted for wire fraud (as they were falsely claiming to be lawyers and fraudulently taking money to "help" women take down pictures from their own website.)

It is quite the yarn.

I feel like the existence, popularity, and possible legality of sites like this - along with all the other creepshots bullshit - really gets to the heart of how our society, and geek society in particular, views women. You're expected to be always available, and if you're not, then by god, these entitled psychopaths will do whatever it takes to make you available.

The fact that men get off on this isn't in itself interesting, people get off on anything. I'd like to say the fact that they are willing to make it a reality is shocking, as opposed to keeping it a fantasy as with other fetishes, but humanity fucking sucks so not really. As for tracking down the women, I'll admit that gets me every time. What the hell is wrong with their brains.

I don't understand why this hasn't been made illegal. Several avenues come to mind: a) invasion of privacy, based on the assumption that intimate photos are the property of both parties, and as such need consent from both parties to be given wide circulation; b) intellectual property violation, on the basis of making money off a photo both parties own without the consent of one party. Having the assumption be that so long as you took the photo you have exclusive and unlimited right to it lacks the sort of nuance necessary to prevent these sort of harms.

That's IP law for you. Ask anyone who's shelled out for the rights to their wedding pictures what kind of ownership the subjects of photographs have.

I think it goes beyond that with this kind of "revenge porn" and "creepshots" thing. It's not just the expectation of obligated availability (though that certainly is a driver for more generalized misogyny). In this class of cases, it's not just making women available, it's getting off on the contravention of consent. Regular old porn to any taste is everywhere; simple pictures and images of attractive women are even more everywhere than everywhere, but the appeal of that underbelly is the the nonconsent, in a risk-minimizing way for the perpetrators and market consumers for it because possible/gray/outright legality and hey-it's-not-like-it's-rape-rape and etc.

Seems like a right of publicity situation, though.

I am going to leave this here. I don't agree with all the language in this article, but it really paints the full portrait of how our lives as women are shaded by an ever-present threat.

That makes two of us. Jesus.

I tried to read it all but I started to feel a trigger about halfway through. I appreciated what I could get through, though.

Should go without saying, but don't read the comments.

Isn't this a fairly common claim in these situations? Pedophiles are weird.

I worked in the probation service; no claim among sex offenders was more common that some variation of "she initiated it". We had entire therapy groups devoted to trying to get men to understand the many ways in which this was not the case. It was pretty eye-opening as to the vast, incredible denial and self-justification, to say nothing of base misogyny, that men are capable of.

<3 Rebecca Solnit

I was speaking to a psychologist who interviewed paedophiles in prisons and he indicated that after they stopped denying the accusation, they'd start justifying it. Common excuses were:

• The child initiated it.
• The child liked it.
• The child would have sex at some point in their lives so why not with someone like them who loved them.

And so on.

Almost no-one is a villain in their own eyes, and even fewer can admit their wrongdoings to others, particularly at that level.

If nothing else, that article showed me that delightful "stop rape!" semi-parody and I enjoyed that immensely. :P

I realize that 9gag is pretty much the bottom of the barrell, but FUCK THOSE COMMENTS, AND FUCK THE FACT THAT THAT WAS THE TOP COMMENT. Jesus F.H. Christ.

See, I just don't read comments. Mmmmm, life is so much better when you don't red comments.

I know, I slipped, I'm so sorry :(

That's because you're a hussy.

I long for a day where this doesn't have to be said about virtually every commentable thing written on this subject in all but the tallest walled gardens. I can't believe I was ever naive enough to wonder why Shakesville had such a restrictive commenting policy.

Don't read the comments on this thread.

I'm a rape survivor, and a survivor of child sexual abuse. For those of you guys who think you don't know any victims, well, you're wrong. Hi there. I'm not ashamed. Nobody should have to be.

I'm curious as to what you mean by "I don't agree with all the language in this article". As someone who can easily get stupidly prickly over some of the terms used to frame these discussions (but hey, at least I know I'm being stupid about it), I thought that article was fucking fantastic. Facts. Lots of them. Driving home the point, making the situation very clear, and doing so by neither over-generalising or attempting to downplay the seriousness of the statistics. I thought she nailed it.

When I was 15 a 37 year old referee at one of our high school games tried to pull me into his car and if it wasn't for a really nice lady at the nearby train stop he probably would have. That article hits home because one of the most common questions I was asked at the time was "What were you wearing?" and to this day I preface the story with "I was a baggy t-shirt and jeans girl..." as if I have to preemptively set the scene that I did not, in fact, entice this guy into trying to fucking kidnap me.

This thread. This thread

I weep. Raping a 4-year-old? Kidnapping Quackers? There's self-justification there (on the kidfucker's part, no idea about Quackers but I assume it's similar)? Just... what.. excuse me while I gather enough sharp weapons to kill all of them. All of them

We should form a club.

Straw Feminists!

For reference, that's by Kate Beaton of Hark a Vagrant! fame.

I'm pretty sure that was from a recent PVP Online, which is made by webcomicstrician Scott Kurtz.

are you sure
:P

I'm pretty sure you're wrong here.

If Katie Britton (sp?) posted it to her web blog, it's probably with Scott Kurtz's permission.