It’s Not OK That Justin Bieber Is Not OK With Those Nude Photos: ‘I Feel Super Violated’
It’s easy to forget that behind every Justin Bieber headline is a real human being. But, there is.
Non-consensual, nude photos of the young singer skinny dipping in Bora Bora took over the Internet last week, after the New York Daily News published (barely) censored pictures after buying them from a photo agency which paid paparazzi to take them.
The web lost its collective mind when non-censored shots quickly followed on Twitter from an unknown source. An orgy of objectification from thousands of casual online users, some “Beliebers,” most media outlets, “haters,” and even some feminists saw a spectrum of appreciative ogling, ridiculing, or shock as Bieber’s full-frontal, naked penis went viral.
I Underestimated Bieber’s Penis, a memoir.
— Lauren Nostro (@laurennostro) October 7, 2015
Justin Bieber’s penis is technically called a “Bienis”
— Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) October 7, 2015
Justin Bieber's penis is on the internet what a time to be alive.
— Boo-is Frightsman (@LouisPeitzman) October 7, 2015
Considerations of privacy, non-consent, double standards, invasive paparazzi, the perils of fame, and human dignity went out of the window, for all but a few.
Just because Justin is Justin Bieber, doesn’t it give you the right to take pictures of him naked at HIS place. It’s called privacy.
— ?? (@drewsspotlight) October 8, 2015
If it were a woman who had naked photos taken of her, people would go insane. Doesn’t Justin Bieber deserve the same right to privacy?
— Skye Littlejohn (@SkyeLittlejohn) October 8, 2015
Pretty sure nude photos of Bieber is as bad as any of the fappening posts and everyone should be equally outraged/respectful in this case
— Simone (@simone_au) October 8, 2015
Now, Bieber has broken his silence about how it feels to have a private moment (taking a naked swim in a pool on private property), turned into a peep-show by uninvited and undetected paparazzi whose shabbily-obtained wares were sold to the highest bidder for the mass entertainment of strangers.
Speaking to Access Hollywood in an interview that will begin airing in segments from Monday, October 19, the 21-year-old shared his feelings on the matter.
“My first thing was like…how can they do this?” Bieber told the host Billy Bush. “Like, I feel super violated. Like, I feel like I can’t step outside and feel like I can go outside naked.”
He added, “Like, you should feel comfortable in your own space…especially that far away.”
It’s worth noting that paparazzi who took the nude, telephoto-shot photos of the heartthrob were so far away that some of Bieber’s lighter tattoos weren’t even visible in the snaps. This means the singer would not have seen the paparazzi when he was in Bora Bora, and — as he implied in the interview — he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in such an exotic location.
Evidence of how seriously the Biebs has taken the “violation,” resulted in his legal team sending a cease and desist letter to the Daily News and other media outlets who published the nude photos, demanding that they remove the pics from their websites, on the grounds that publication breaches the singer’s privacy, publicity, and trademark rights. The Daily News has not yet taken down the pics.
Opinion-centric programs like MTV’s Girl Code series, The View, The Young Turks, E! News, Refinery29, and a swathe of ordinary online users, speculated that Bieber either deserved the invasion of privacy, or Team Bieber planned the nude photos brouhaha to ramp up publicity ahead of the release of the singer’s new Purpose album on November 13.
Others, including model/TV host Chrissy Teigen, numerous Beliebers, Troye Sivan, the U.K’s Independent and The Telegraph, The Federalist, MTV, and the Inquisitr, voiced strident rebukes of the double standards that raged over similar violations of female celebrities in The Fappening last year, and Kate Middleton’s 2012 topless exposure by paparazzi, but did not stand up for Bieber when his naked body was gorged on last week.
No one is ever disgusted by the pig who preys on, photographs and sells pictures of someone naked. Just the celebrity for being naked. Ok.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) October 8, 2015
While Bieber offered some levity during the Access sit-down, at one point jokingly saying, “That was shrinkage for me,” in reference to the size of his member, it’s worth remembering that he’s a famous 21-year-old who says he feels violated.
Implicit in his admission are feelings of humiliation and powerlessness. It’s very possible Bieber’s public humor about the nude photos is his way of trying to minimize a sense of victimhood. In other words, we shouldn’t allow it to negate the real bottom line.
From the Independent.
“Any intrusive naked photograph taken without consent and shared for millions to see on the internet is a violation of privacy.”
Shrinkage or no shrinkage, Justin Bieber says he felt “super violated” by the naked pics that were taken of him without his consent or knowledge.
That’s not only an understandable feeling, it’s important that it’s heard and recognized as Bieber’s right to feel that.
Why Justin Bieber’s naked pictures highlight feminist double standards – @horton_official http://t.co/VDcepLJlm3 pic.twitter.com/JMsqdK69Ch
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) October 12, 2015
[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]
