Just two days ago Emily Ratajkowski, a well known model, released an article about the complicated struggle of owning her own image. Simply put she brought to light the downsides of bodily capital, specifically as a current day model, and the complicated nature of seeing photographers and alike use her image for their own gain and without her knowledge.

Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out.

Bodily capital, a term coined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, explains it as being the value attached to a person’s appearance, attractiveness, or physical capabilities which can be exchanged for different forms such as economic, social, and cultural capital. So in the case of Ratajkowski, her appearance and the maintenance of it allowed her to gain social capital as she got recognized, signed as a model, and through that also secured networks with important people in the field such as photographers and brands. That then sets her up to receive even more social capital (exposure) and further opportunities to get economic capital (money, assets that can be converted into money, etc.). That alone sounds like a great deal, but she brings up a vital point─ Yes it’s her body, but when she’s used for photographs, paintings, and videos, how does the ownership change? Does she still own it all or does she get partial ownership? Does she lose it all? Or can the ownership even be properly enforced? Especially with the prevalence of the internet and how easy it is to save and distribute images on a mass scale, how would she protect herself from exploitation? 

This point Ratajkowski brings up can apply to everyday people as well. She speaks about people using her image to make money on their art or through books, but she also talks about a personal exploitation.

“Pictures meant only for a person who loved me and with whom I’d felt safe — photos taken out of trust and intimacy — were now being manically shared and discussed on online forums and rated ‘hot’ or ‘not.'”

She shares an experience that falls under the category of revenge porn. It is a prominent issue where as revenge, someone shares/posts your lewd/naked photos with no consent. It seems obvious that revenge porn and photo sharing with no consent is something that should be stopped. But just like Ratajkowski says, the fight for ownership is complicated. Laws are set in place, but enforcing them takes time, lots of money, and even then the outcome could be fruitless. People often say to be careful what you post on the internet because it could stay there forever, and that’s precisely the issue here. Even if legally you win a case of something like revenge porn, those images are stuck on the interweb or even personally saved and continuously shared by random people all over the internet. So I ask this: How can this be solved? How can we ensure safety for people like Emily Ratajkowski from this inhumane invasion and exploitation?