Jennifer Lawrence is speaking out about the nude photos stolen and posted online in a hack that has, according to TIME, recently affected over 100 celebrities.
Lawrence, who appears on Vanity Fair’s November cover, explains to contributing editor Sam Kashner that this illegal violation of privacy goes far beyond the tabloid headlines that it has made in recent months. “It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime,” she says. “It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change.”
The Hunger Games star is not only angry with the hackers who obtained the photos, meant for a former long-distance boyfriend (Nicholas Hoult), but also with anyone who has viewed the photos, including her loved ones.
“Anybody who looked at those pictures, you’re perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame,” she tells the mag, on newsstands October 14. “Even people who I know and love say, ‘Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.’ I don’t want to get mad, but at the same time I’m thinking, ‘I didn’t tell you that you could look at my naked body.’”
While many celebrities, including Kate Upton, Vanessa Hudgens and Nick Hogan (the first male victim of the hacks) have had their photos leaked, Lawrence makes it clear that her fame does not give anyone the right to access her private property.
“Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this,” she says. “It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting.”
As for the hackers, Lawrence says that their future is not important in her moving-on process. “I can’t have my happiness rest on these people being caught, because they might not be. I need to just find my own peace.”
On another note, now that Nick Hogan (son of Hulk Hogan) has become the first male victim of the hack, it throws into stark relief the disproportionate ratio of males to females who were targeted in the attack. What does this say, when women are targeted first and foremost when someone (or multiple someones) decides to invade the privacy of (and sexually objectify) celebrities? Whether the hackers represent the root of the problem or are a symptom of a greater issue is a larger conversation, but what we do know is that we’re angry that women in particular (including our hero J. Law) were specifically targeted.