NOTE: Before I dig into the topic at hand, I would like to preface my blog post by asserting that in no way am I a celebrity sympathizer. I am very much critical of the concept of celebrity within itself; the vicious cult-like idol worship, the hoarding of disgusting amounts of wealth, and the arrogance and lack of self-awareness it breeds (see: the absolutely tone deaf – both literally and figuratively – COVID-19 Imagine cover) is truly no joke. However, celebrities are still People Like Us™ at the end of the day (some of which, depending on their identities, are more vulnerable to and disproportionately impacted by the ills of celebrity than others) and the ways in which we Average Joes engage with them should be critiqued because it says a lot about how we engage with each other as actors in society as a whole. So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, without further ado…

For as long as I can remember, there has been an odd fixation with seeing the naked bodies of celebrities that I could never wrap my head around to this day. One of my earliest recollections of this is the mass hysteria around the ever infamous Y2K pop culture event that was the “leak” of Ray J and Kim Kardashian’s sex tape, which catapulted the latter out of Paris Hilton’s (who also had a leaked sex tape) shoe closet and into stardom – and we unfortunately haven’t been able to rid ourselves of her and her Klan since. Succeeding 2007’s Kim Kardashian, Superstar we’ve experienced rapid technological advancements like the invention of easily hackable iCloud storage and real time social media like Twitter and Instagram. Now it’s become even easier to obtain, leak, and circulate celebrity sex media at neck break speeds to the point that it happens so often and to so many people that I can’t keep up with who has been a victim! Vanessa Hudgens, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, “The Fappening”/”Celebgate”…seriously, look up the many lists of celebrities this has happened to and I guarantee at some point you’ll think, “Them? When?!“

My main question is: Why are we so Mariah Carey – Obsessed.mp3 with seeing the nude bodies of celebrities in sexual contexts, and even more alarmingly, without their consent?

We could look at this from a few lenses, like how generally speaking since celebrities are individuals who are (for whatever reason *eyeroll*) positioned higher in society and perceived as more exclusive than the rest of us, we’re thirsty to see them in a vulnerable, subordinate state and have access to their bodies in the most dehumanizing manner possible when we want. This goes even more so for celebrities who are of marginalized identities, particularly women. It’s not enough to just simply consume Cardi B’s music and videos that she has sexed up at her own volition, we have to take advantage of her mistaken leak of nipples and bully her about how laaaaarge her areolas are for it to mean something. We have to think about how this obsession with leaks often makes us abandon our morals – that is, if we ever had them to begin with. Like how people actively sought out Lil Nas X’s nudes upon his rise to fame knowing that he was a minor in those pictures, thus, definitely making it child pornography. Or how when women who typically rally on the timeline against sexual objectification culture conveniently and expeditiously abandoned this energy when a video came out that was purported to be DaBaby, when in actuality it was that of a porn star (might I add, it’s quite ironic that people immediately lost interest in the video upon this discovery despite the fact that the porn star willingly filmed this video – as that is his job – and most likely did not receive any type of compensation in the form of money or notoriety for the mass reproduction of his work. The disrespect of sex workers and their labor is a whole ‘nother conversation.)

So, before we stampede to Twitter like the wildebeest colony from Lion King to ogle at the latest penis or set of nipples attached to a famous person, pick it apart and create a spectacle only to unceremoniously discard it, and moan then about which leak we’re looking forward to next, I’d like for people to think about these things first and reflect upon why we do it and why we think it’s okay. This is especially important with the rise of deepfake technology, which allows people’s likenesses to be fabricated in…less than desirable situations. Just sit in it. Marinade if you will.