Taking revenge against Emma Watson? Against what exactly?

Just as you thought the world of “revenge porn” couldn’t get any classier, it emerges that the actor Emma Watson is considering legal action over private photos that were secretly taken of her during a costume fitting.

Is this a brave new dawn? The point where propagators of “revenge porn” don’t even pretend that it’s about “slut shaming” any more. They don’t even bother to peddle the lie that it’s all somehow a blame-sharing exercise between the culprit and the victim – after all, goes their rationale, the woman allowed somebody to photograph or film her in an explicit way, or she put up nude photos on iCloud, therefore she can’t really complain if said photos go “walkabout”?

Not that this stance was ever fair (nor, these days, legal, thank God). However, now there seems to be a whole new dimension, whereupon famous females such as Watson can have their images stolen as they are … getting dressed for work? Nice.

I’m sure that very few people would enjoy being photographed as they stand unaware getting dressed. This is at the level of those tragic mouth-breathing idiots who take humiliating up-skirt shots of unsuspecting women on public transport.

Elsewhere, another actor, Mischa Barton, is taking legal action against someone trying to hawk a sex tape of her to the highest bidder. Arguably, this is “classic” revenge porn, in a way that Watson’s situation isn’t. However, Watson is regularly in the news, speaking about feminist issues, most recently to defend her decision to pose provocatively for Vanity Fair magazine. In this way, the nude photos could have elements of revenge porn – revenge against Watson, and all young women like her, for having the temerity to be successful, outspoken and to refuse to be cowed.

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