The Rock is Fuelling New Zealand's Roastbuster Rape Culture

The Rock are still displaying without-consent images of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities online. They are making fun of this without-consent action, saying that she was "asking for it", etc. They appear to be supporting this kind of without-consent online roasting of women. It is not OK. I have blogged on this issue and the blog includes an action alert for members of the public. (Blog link below).

The Rock, like many other Radio Network and Media Works radio stations yesterday posted illegally stolen and explicit photographs of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities. They did so with full knowledge that lawsuits were under way, they did so knowing that Jennifer granted NO CONSENT. The original photos were very obviously private and completely inappropriate for public distribution. They were stolen, and it is not her fault they were stolen, she had reasonable expectations of privacy.

Consent. It’s simple.

Despite complaints and rapidly increasing public concern The Rock continues to publish the images and laugh about how funny this kind of without-consent behaviour is. The rock alludes to masturbating to the images. I spoke with representatives for other Media Works stations who assured me the images would be removed from their sites, but The Rock appear to be updating their links. What is interesting is not only publishing the images a without-consent act, it is considered amusing.

This is rape culture in action. Laughing about acting without a woman's consent. Is doing stuff to chicks without consent funny? Are women “asking for it” if they take photos of themselves naked with their partners and store that on private, password-protected spaces? No. People are actually using that phrase “asking for it” including the radio DJs. It's important radio DJs understand how this sounds. Any woman or any person taking private photos of herself, for her partner, is not asking for global humiliation. She is not “asking” for anything.

These organisations have been contacted by the public, some of them removed photos, some tried to post tamer photos or link to hosts elsewhere, some continued to laugh about posting the images because ratings are money and money is cool. It would be nice, if we did something, to stop men who have no concept of consent controlling New Zealand news media. It is 2014.

http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/02/the-rock-fuels-nz-roastbuster-rape-culture/

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