Update: The Prostate Cancer Foundation is returning all donations made to it via Reddit users looking to give money 'in honor' of Jennifer Lawrence, according to its website: '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.'
Following the leak of those photographs of countless celebrities – including, of course, Jennifer Lawrence, whose photos are getting a lot more coverage than other celebrities’ for whatever reason* – a porn site owner is offering a ‘large cash reward’ for whoever can bring him the man who uncovered the images.
Mike Kulich, who owns SkweezMe.com, told Vice that, no, he doesn’t want to track down this anonymous creep so he can buy the images off of him to publish on his own site. ‘Jennifer Lawrence's pictures were meant to be private and whoever hacked her computer or phone had no right to ever see those pictures, let alone leak them to the world. We want this person brought to justice.’
He seems like a genuine good guy, explaining that there’s a big difference between the ethics of porn and amateur shots. ‘Professional porn stars make their living on what they do. If they are not getting work or shoots, they are not able to pay their bills. Amateur nudes are grainy photos with no make-up and, again, usually unauthorised photos which – every time you look at [them] – you are violating that person’s privacy.’
But he has got a motive behind shutting down this type of porn – revenge porn – first off, he’s got a stableful of porn clips he wants people to pay to use. As well as backing the #PayForYourPorn campaign, he says, ‘I have said in past interviews that the Adult Business loses over $4 billion a year as a result of piracy. Our main goal has always been to sweep up 3-4% of that lost revenue, and bring it back to the production companies.’
Plus, we’d never heard of SkweezMe.com before this, so it might be that he’s just doing a very bit of canny PR for it, as much as it would be cool to draw the line between porn made by consenting adults (OK, to wank to) and porn uploaded without the participants’ knowledge (illegal).
This isn’t the only pseudo-humanitarian response to the leak/threatened leak of photos and videos of 101 female celebrities (and two men) at the hands of some 4Chan prick.
Reddit’s users are getting all clicktivist over a much less coherent campaign where they donate money to a Prostate Cancer charity as a means of apologising for wanking over the photographs. Just FYI, the theft of the images is known amongst internet circles is known as ‘The Fappening’ because it’s a happening involving wanking (to ‘fap’ is to wank).
A post called ‘Did you participate in The Fappening? Donate to prostate cancer! We are the top donor!’ links to a site where you money to the charity as a way of absolving yourself from the sins of having looked at the images.
READ MORE: Let's Not Question This Girl's Decision To Release Her Revenge Porn Photos
It’s raised $6,021 (£3,651) from the presumably guilt-ridden donors paying ‘in honor’ of Jennifer Lawrence. But if the money’s going towards a prostate cancer charity, what are they guilty about? They’ve hardly realised that wanking over the images, illegally obtained against women’s will during their most intimate moments and then disseminated around the world, is gross. Otherwise they’d be donating to women’s charities (read above, revenge porn is massively disproportionately affecting women) and, maybe, politicians looking to have revenge porn banned. After all, when this sort of things happens to ‘normal’ women, that’s what it’s called.
So is it that these Reddit-ers feel guilty for over-using their prostate or something? Well, prostate cancer isn’t even caused by wanking, so they seem to have doubly missed the point. If they’re really looking for a self-serving investment, they’d probably do better to just go outside and enjoy the real world where you can have actual human interaction and joy but can’t just have unbridled access to women’s naked bodies against their will.
*Because she’s America’s sweetheart? Because she’s tried to do female celebrity a little differently? Because she’s a role model to so many young girls? Because she’s a feminist icon?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.