2014 saw yet another group of high profile celebrities’ private lives invaded by ruthless hackers. With the leaking of over 500 private images, celebrities, primarily females, such as Jennifer Lawrence found themselves not only having to cope with this massive intrusion into their personal lives, but also having to fight for their right to a private life. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lawrence expressed her utter anger and disappointment to find that we live in society where it is becoming common for people and public figures to have their right, as all human beings should, to privacy, taken away: “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. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world. ” Unfortunately, Lawrence is one of many on a list of female celebrities who have needed to take legal action in order to expose the utter injustice that persists in the lives of females both within and out of the entertainment industry. What individuals choose to share with the world should be a decision made entirely by themselves; that we live in a society where it is not is disheartening and ultimately inhumane. Hackers demonstrate not only a violation of celebrities’ private lives but also a violation of their emotional well being by leaking images or information without consent.
Not even a full month into a new year and hackers have chosen to disrupt the life of another notable celebrity: Taylor Swift. Swift’s twitter and Instagram accounts were breached along with threats made by one such hacker claiming they had nude photos of the musician. The tweets that were not posted by Swift were taken down the same day, and the popstar took the returned control of her account to send a message to the hackers’ evidently idle threats: “PS any hackers saying they have ‘nudes’? Psssh you’d love that wouldn’t you! Have fun photo-shopping cause you got NOTHING”. While Swift handled this invasion of privacy with as much confidence and grace, as any one of her adoring fans would expect, it ultimately demonstrates the disturbing notion that there are malicious members of society that feel they can simply take or alter what is not theirs without permission, and moreover attempt to change the perception of respectable individuals. The immense invasions of privacy permeating the entertainment industry as well as the entire world demonstrate a complete failure on the part of human beings, the media, and modern society that we should all seek to rectify.