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“It Is Not a Scandal, It Is A Sex Crime:” Jennifer Lawrence Breaks Silence on Nude Photo Theft

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It’s been a little over a month since the hacked, private photos of hundreds of celebrities were unceremoniously dumped onto the Internet in what was colloquially referred to by total creeps as “The Fappening.” In a very perverted version of life imitating art, Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence found herself the unwitting face of the incident, and now she’s officially come forward to discuss how it affected her.

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In a lengthy article for Vanity Fair that will be available in full when the magazine hits newsstands on October 9th, Lawrence admitted that she’d been tempted to write a statement as soon as the incident occurred, but “every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry. I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for.” Now, however, she’s finally ready to let go of the anger and talk about it (bolding ours for emphasis):

“Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this. It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world […] It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these web sites are responsible. Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. I can’t imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside.”

And to anyone who sought out those images? “You’re perpetuating a sexual offense,” she said. “You should cower with shame. Even people who I know and love say, ‘Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.’ I don’t want to get mad, but at the same time I’m thinking, I didn’t tell you that you could look at my naked body.”

Obviously we would never wish such a gross invasion of privacy on anyone, but it’s incredibly heartening to hear Lawrence refusing to apologize and placing the blame squarely where it belongs—not on her for having nude photos in the first place (she makes a point in the VF article of pointing out that they were taken for a healthy, committed long term relationship), but on the people who would seek to commodify and objectify her body without her consent. You know, because that’s a really shitty thing to do.

Or, for the TL;DR crowd:

Jennifer-Lawrence-flipping-off-camera-in-Silver-Linings-Playbook-GIF

(via PopSugar)

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