Ok Boomer, here’s the naked reality!
By: Radhika Sikhakhane
The events that led to Katie Hill’s resignation brought to the forefront of how problematic society is in discussing women’s issues. The words “Revenge Porn” has been plastered across headlines all across America. Why is it that we continue to justify the action of men and continue to put the blame on women? The words revenge porn imply that the congresswoman inflicted hurt or harm on her ex-husband and therefore deserved retaliation. The fact is we need to stop using the words “Revenge Porn.” The act of uploading private photos to public spaces is cyber exploitation and electronic assault. Katie Hill is just another victim in the growing list of women who are being degraded on the internet.
You hear it all the time, “sex sells”, but at what cost? For Katie Hill, it cost her a job, her reputation and her future. The media and political operatives capitalized on a woman’s sexuality and illustrated how ugly this world is. I acknowledge that there are other issues at play here and it is more than just some racy photos posted online, but I think an important discussion rose out of this. How do we move forward in this day and age with Millennial women entering the workforce and having compromising photos of themselves? How do we take the power out of the abuser’s hands? The first challenge is changing the narrative of how these stories are told. Cyber exploitation is a form of sexual violence. We need to speak about it in that same way.
Senator Kamala Harris was one of the first people to call the congresswoman after she heard about her resignation. She was one of the only 2020 presidential candidates to condemn the actions of the political right and the media. In an interview with Buzzfeed, she told them that “there’s so much that people do about women and their sexuality that’s about shaming them.” Harris gets it and gets the struggle of powerful women trying to find their way to the top. What would have been easily pushed aside by a male in that same scenario has dominated the news cycle for Katie Hill.
When Senator Kamala was Attorney General of California one of the issues important to her was cyber exploitation. She was one of the first people to criminally prosecute a website operator for uploading private and explicit photos. There is a growing negative trend in this nation to make individuals feel shame and embarrassment in their homes, workplace and communities. Instead of asking women why they have lewd photos of themselves, we should ask why someone would post them online? The shame should be on the person who made the decision to share intimate photos without consent.
There is a huge generational divide forming between millennials and older generations. I think it can be said that every millennial has at least one photo that they do not want out in the public. In this digital age where all our personal information is stored in a handheld device, cyber exploitation will be the new problem that we are going to have to address head-on. How do we protect this generation from being victims? More so, how do we let millennial women know that they should not be discouraged from running for office. We can not let what happened to Katie Hill to happen to another female or male. Already so much stands in the way of women running for office, this hypothetical belief that a photo may be shared or released into the public domain may be enough to stop women.
Katie Hill vowing to go to war in the fight against revenge porn and cyber exploitation is the solder that millennials need. There are thralls of men involved in sexual assaults, yet they fill our boardrooms, courtrooms and the highest office in the country. Like I’ve said before, how we talk and address women’s issues is problematic. How we view women in society and in public roles is problematic. We need our presidential candidates in 2020 to talk more openly about the issues that affect women and we need these issues to be at the forefront of conversations. We can not let Katie Hill and the millions of other women who will follow her be defined by photos.
