All Dressed Up And Somewhere To Go

Once again the celebrity news sites are full of it, something to really get your teeth into: the leaking or attempted sale of intimate, erotic, nude and compromising selfies by prominent female stars of stage and screen. Someone is offering photographs for anyone who cares to pay in Bitcoins, or through PayPal according to some, which, apparently, have been garnered from the iCloud. Which brings all the tech sites into play – even Fox & Friends managed a reasonably acceptable report – with details of how it is possible, who is behind the whole thing, where you can get your own copies and how to stop hackers from getting their grubby hands on your most private recorded moments.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

To be honest, anyone who takes a selfie which might be considered compromising – whether rising starlet, accomplished celebrity or simply Aunt Betty from down the road – and then uploads it anywhere is asking for trouble. And here we should differentiate between those who share, and those who simply store for the memories. Sharing a photograph to all and sundry is completely different to having your special images stored somewhere completely out of your control, just the same as sending the most revealing photographs to that special friend is considerably more dangerous – as far as trust goes – than keeping the results of a few moments fun safe and sound on your smart phone.

Anything we share, and these photographs are a good example, is likely to find a wide audience by one means or another. People send their selfies to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google Plus and many other social networking sites fully aware that all their friends – and sometimes friends of friends who they do not know – will get to see and marvel over them. That is, after all, the whole point. We want to be seen, we want other people to comment, to like and, sometimes, to share. We are promoting ourselves with an image of ourselves, with a snapshot of a moment in our lives. This is not the same as storing photographs in what is supposed to be a safe and secure environment.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

Although, to be honest, I cannot find any good reason anyone would want to let their most intimate photographs leave the relative security of their own smart phone. Technology is advancing quickly, quicker than most of us can imagine, along with the security measures implemented to protect what is ours, to safeguard our privacy. So too are the abilities of hackers and criminals: when a piece of software is created to protect, you can bet your last dollar someone, somewhere, will seek out a backdoor, a mistake, a small area where they can breach that security, can get to the information which has been stored. It is almost human nature, we want to know how something works, how it is put together, and we want to have that feeling of success when we break it, when we show that we are better than someone else.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

Of course hacking has its good side too, in a manner of speaking. Those who are working to improve security will also attempt to break a secure code, in order to show where there is a problem, a bug, a backdoor which could be used to infiltrate. Software companies employ them all the time, as testers, to see how good their own work is. There is always the possibility that the wrong type of hacker could gain access; the days of breaking in to an office and reading through paper files, taking snapshots of spreadsheets and company accounts, secret memos and plans for the future, are the stuff of older films. Today the hacker sits at home, waiting for Mom the make them dinner or finish their laundry, and plays around on a computer screen, many miles away from the object of their interest.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

Not that this should bother most of us. To be honest, as with the photographs I am showing here, most of the images taken, shared, stored, are harmless. They are personal to a certain extent, but hardly harmful. No one is going to lose their job, their credibility, their livelihood over anything here. Instead we see people as they really are, or as they wish to be seen by the masses. A nude photograph of Jennifer Lawrence displaying herself across a couch in a private moment designed for the eyes of someone special, or no one at all, is completely different. There are enough photographs of her already available, admittedly decently dressed, but what do we have our imagination for?

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

Clearly, though, there is something of a market for such images or, as one person seems to believe, a market which will pay money for compromising images. The person offering intimate, stolen images of celebrities for sale has demanded a tidy sum of money, and not managed to get it. Is the demand waning? With so many revealing scenes in modern films, with so much flesh being shown on the red carpet, does anyone really want to pay for less clothing? In fact, does anyone even need to? Aren’t ordinary people far more interesting, regardless of their state of dress? And these images can be found all over the Internet, free of charge and willingly offered.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

Here we have more than enough beauty to light up our hours, from women – and men – who are not posed with a ton of make-up on their faces, not dressed up in clothing most of us could never afford, not supported by a team of advisers who regulate everything that they do. I can understand the pull of the glamorous, of the stars and starlets attending a film premiere or awards ceremony, of pop stars greeting their fans and spurring them on to buy even more merchandise, but everyone gets to see them. Everyone shares exactly the same moments, the same images, the same feelings – in a way – simply because that is what these people do, that is their role in life, their job.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

Ordinary people, like you and me, that is where the real interest lies. People who dress as we do, who go to the same places, have the same interests or inspire us to find something new. People who have interesting lives, or lives which are completely different to our own, who enjoy themselves without worrying that a news reporter, a fashion photographer, a gutter-press journalist is going to be spying on them. People who have a single wardrobe, and make the most of what they have without the need to pose for public attention.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

Don’t get me wrong, I am not taking anything away from the lives of people like Jennifer Lawrence, Madonna, Rihanna and all the rest, but they are not us. They are marionettes, puppets, commercial entities. They have real lives, a private side to their public persona, but are still influenced, still controlled by a mechanism geared to preserving their public image. Few want to go the same way as Lindsey Lohan.

Photo Source: unknown, via Tumblr

We, the ordinary people, can live out our lives and our fantasies freely, without being called to task, without the media hype surrounding someone like Miley Cyrus, and without the fear that our most intimate moments, caught in digital form, will become the basis for a thousand different newspaper stories. We can live out our fantasies, as far as it is possible, without worrying that some journalist is going to pull out innocent yearbook photographs and compare then and now, the rise and fall. All we have to worry about are our fellow workers, the boss, perhaps Mom and Dad, but at least we know who they are and, hopefully, they appreciate who we are too.

Love & Kisses, Viki.

The post All Dressed Up And Somewhere To Go appeared first on Viktoria Michaelis.

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