Savannah Woods

August and September 2014 Celebrity Nude Leaks

Goffman

On 30 August 2014, over 100 women were targeted by a group of

hackers on 4chan's /b/ imageboard. The hackers stole an unknown number of

photos and videos from these women by subjecting their iClouds to bruteforce attacks. The compromising stolen media was then released to the
public. The internet was in a frenzy. The victims scrambled to deny or admit
to the photos' legitimacy. On 1 September 2014, Reddit's servers crashed
because the massive influx of traffic to the subreddit devoted to the event
which had been dubbed The Fappening, a masturbatory joke reminding us
that the internet is comprised of 14 year olds (Gray, E.). By looking at the
2014 Celebrity Nude Leaks through the lens of symbolic interactionism
(specifically Irving Goffman theory of Dramaturgy), we can infer that
celebrities must maintain their public images much more rigidly than people
who are away from the public eye. We see that when this facade is broken
the celebrity victims are submitted to public shame, ridicule, and stigma.
To discuss this further, we must first establish a working definition of
symbolic interactionism and explain Goffman's theories. Symbolic
Interactionism is a sociological theory that argues that people learn how to
operate in society through interacting with others, giving us a framework to
understand reality. Goffman proposed an idea called dramaturgy, focusing
on the externalization of our selves (Allan 64). According to him, our selves
are formed in two stages: the backstage and the frontstage. The backstage is
wear we prepare what we will show others. This is where our most authentic
self resides, because the audience is unable to see it. The front stage is

where the real performance is. This is where we show ourselves to the world,
careful to avoid stigma and ostracism. Keeping these stages separate allows
us to have interactions with others based on our ideal self.
So far, our interactions with most celebrities have been sparse; we put
them on a pedestal, acting as if they are gods rather than ordinary people.
Why do we do this? Logically, we should know that they are just like us. They
wear sweat pants

[1]

, they go to the bathroom

[2]

, they get groceries

[3]

, and

they pick up dog poop[4]. They are completely normal from a biological
standing. However, when looking at this through symbolic interactionism, we
can see why we react so strongly when we see that these women have had
had their private lives released to the public.
Until now, almost all of what we have seen of celebrities are their
frontstages. We see the carefully crafted images made to make us love
them. It is likely that even Jennifer Lawrence, America's sweetheart and a
primary victim of the terrible events, also has a carefully crafted frontstage.
Now we are seeing behind the curtain. Society is no longer allowed to
pretend that these celebrities exist in a vacuum, present only when media's
cameras are facing them; now we see them for who they are: humans who
occasionally like to send sexual pictures to their significant others. For a
society that lives and breathes technology, it should be easy to sympathize
with them, but instead we reacted with primarily ignorance or hate (Gray, E).
We blamed the victims.

This victim blaming comes directly from the fact that line between the
front and backstage has been blurred. If this were to happen to regular
women, we would most likely call it revenge porn, an act made illegal in
multiple states, but because these victims are celebrities, we call it leaked
photos and laugh about it. We say things like don't rob people and you
won't get shot... Don't take nudes and they won't get leaked... Seems pretty
simple (Rector, J). Or things like Hey @itsjenIawrence. Maybe you shouldn't
pose nude if you can't handle the public seeing it. #dumdum. And don't step
on downed power lines! (WACHS, L.). Or even things like @M_E_Winstead
Most people in the public eye ignore things they don't want ppl to be
interested in. Almost like you're enjoying the attention (steveyuhas). And
yes, I did just quote tweets in a college essay, because this topic is so
pervasive that random people feel the right to judge others' actions in 140
characters. The fact that #theFappening is still trending on the
microblogging site is enough to show the impact this issue is having on our
society.
For average people, an event like this would have a much smaller
impact radius, but for celebrities, a scandal of this magnitude is global. In
fact, an artist calling himself XVALA has taken up the mantle of artistic rights
and has announced an exhibit featuring Miss Lawrence's stolen images
blown up and put on display for the world to see (Frank, P.). Now that we
have pierced the veil of the celebrities' sociological performances, we feel as

if we have the right to profit upon their tragedy, whether it be from publicity
for an article or post or an art exhibit. Ironically, what this exhibition truly
showcases is our societal voyeurism.
Victims of the cyber sex crime soon began dealing with the event in
their own ways. While these were varied, they had one common attribute: all
existed on the front stage. Stars gave interviews, sent tweets, and wrote
posts to attempt to regain control. Some went to lawsuits, and some to
humor, but all were carefully crafted responses to the attack (Bradley, B.).
Regardless of how they handled it, the fact that they were now back on the
frontstage presenting themselves to society as X the figure rather than X
the person, seemed to appease people. Goffman's dichotomy had been
reinstated and all was well.
I found very few articles dated past 20 September 2014, even though
new photos are still being released. It is as if the balance of power had been
reinstated once celebrities began acting like celebrities again, and it seems
as if things are getting better for the victims. Reddit has banned the
subreddit devoted to sharing photos of the crime, much to the dismay of
subreddit founder John Meneses, who adamantly denies any wrong doing
(Lazar, S.). In fact, he attempted to donate $6,000 his group had raised for
The Prostate Cancer Foundation In honor of JLaw, but were swiftly refused
the foundation is quoted as saying, We would never condone raising funds
for cancer research in this manner. Out of respect for everyone involved and

in keeping with our own standards, we are returning all donations that
resulted from this post (Sharma, R.). Whether this was a moral decision is
debatable, but the gesture showed both solidarity with the victims and signs
of hope. Perhaps one day our nation can see past the dramatury of celebrity
life and lose our fixation, but I don't think that day will come anytime soon.
As long as there are celebrities there will be scandals that will separate them
from their prepared image and reveal their fallible human selves, and when
that happens, society will probably go into a frenzy once more. Hopefully
next time we will have learned a thing or two.

Works Cited
Bradley, Bill. "Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting Reveals 'Big Bang Theory' Castmates
Helped After Nude

Photo Leak." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Sept.

2014.

Frank, Priscilla. "Artist To Exhibit Jennifer Lawrence's Leaked Nudes As Art

Because The World Is

A Dark Place." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Sept. 2014. Web. 4 Sept.

2014.

Gray, Emma. "Jennifer Lawrence's Leaked Nude Photos Remind Us How

Crappy The Internet Can

Be For Women." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Sept. 2014. Web. 02

Sept. 2014.

Lazar, Shira. "R/TheFappening Founder Speaks Out: 'I'm Not a Bad Person'"
The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 09 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 Sept.

2014.
Marcus, Stephanie. "Kim Kardashian's Alleged Nude Photos Leak Online,
Many More Celebs

Targeted In Hacking Ring (UPDATE)." The Huffington

Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20

Sept. 2014. Web. 20 Sept. 2014.

Marcus, Stephanie. "The Media Has Been Very Hypocritical About The
Celebrity Nude Photo

Hack, But It's Trying To Change. The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Sept.

2014. Web. 08 Sept. 2014.

Rector, J. [jayrec6]. (2014, Sep 01). @HuffingtonPost @achorowitz don't rob

people and you

won't get shot... Don't take nudes and they won't get

leaked... Seems pretty simple

[Tweet]. Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/jayrec6/status/506286170745999360
Ritu_Sharma. "Turning Away Donations From "Bad Donors"" The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.
Smith, Gerry. "If You're Not Famous, Good Luck Getting Reddit To Take Down
Your Nude Photos." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Sept.
2014. Web. 08 Sept.

2014.

steveyuhas (steveyuhas). "@M_E_Winstead Most people in the public eye

ignore things they

don't want ppl to be interested in. Almost like you're

enjoying the attention". 01 Sep

2014, 00:21 UTC. Tweet

WACHS, L. (houseofwachs). "Hey @itsjenIawrence. Maybe you shouldn't pose

nude if you

can't handle the public seeing it. #dumdum. And don't step

on downed power lines!". 01 Sep 2014, 14:06 UTC. Tweet