If you go on Facebook, you get recommendations on products you may like: foods, stores, newspapers, “world’s cutest guy and girl”, you name it, you can like it. You go on Twitter, and everyone is sponsoring something. You can read up on the most shocking news and happenings across the world, all in less than 140 characters.
Social media has become the best way for magazines, especially celebrity tabloids, to keep people updated on what their favorite celebrities are doing. Of course, this coverage is just as bad as regular tabloid press is.
About two months ago, social networks were bombarded with news of Kristen Stewart cheating on her then-boyfriend Robert Pattinson with Rupert Sanders. Pattinson was her Twilight co-star, and Sanders directed her latest film, Snow White and the Huntsman.
This man has a wife and children, and is 19 years older than her, and lets keep in mind the fact that he is a man.
In a very Victorian manner, this male isn’t the one painted as the villain. Even after it happened, I still find articles about how Kristen Stewart ruined this man’s marriage and this could mark the downfall of her career as an actress.
Meanwhile, Rupert Sanders is regarded as a victim, as if he fell for this siren’s spell unconsciously. There is absolutely no way he could be the homewrecker, simply because he’s a guy.
This “slut-shaming” isn’t exclusive to the United States, either. Recently, all hell broke loose because someone took pictures of Kate Middleton topless and sold them to the public.
Don’t get all excited, you won’t see these pictures on the October issue of Maxim or GQ. She wasn’t getting naked for the camera. She went topless in the privacy of one of their houses in France. A house that is surrounded by hundreds of meters of land, meant to ensure the concealment of the royal family.
Here’s where the punchline kicks in: British tabloids are all over her, criticizing her for taking her clothes off, in private. “How unworthy of being royalty,” said no one, except D-List actress Emma Roberts, who tweeted, “I love Kate Middleton…but when you’re a princess you shouldn’t be topless anywhere except the shower or the bedroom.”
In 2012, ignorance still exists. Women are not only sought after for expressing their sexuality, but some of them are also the attackers.
Case in point, Emma Roberts, who seems to be blinded by her alleged purity to mention that Kate Middleton was actually going topless in her bedroom.
These pictures are not an act of lewdness. They are an act of invasion of privacy.
This would not be the first time the royal family is caught in the middle of a nudity scandal: recently, pictures of Prince Harry naked in his hotel suite in Las Vegas surfaced, and the reaction was not nearly as close to that with Kate’s pictures, even though no one invaded his privacy.
The pictures were taken by one of the guests, who may or may not have been naked as well.
The question is, when will this double standard of human sexuality stop? Will it ever be acceptable for women to express their sexuality without fear of being attacked or shamed? Will tabloids stop criticizing women for doing things men do, but are praised for doing?
In 2012, there may be a thousand ways to see men as victims, heroes or completely acceptable womanizers, but there are only two ways to see women: as pure, virginal saints or homewrecking, naughty sluts.
This is shameful. For guys, for girls, for any human being, this ignorance is unacceptable. This stigma of female sexuality is a shame, and it should be stopped.