A proposed Oklahoma Senate Bill (SB 1257) seeks to make it illegal in Oklahoma to post revenge porn, or the posting of images or video of someone in a sexual act or situation without their consent in an attempt to exact revenge on them.
Why should Her Campus Oklahoma State readers care about this issue? Revenge porn happens most often to young women under the age of 30, and right now it is NOT illegal in Oklahoma.
In fact, it is currently illegal in only 26 states. State Sen. David Holt, a Republican legislator representing the Oklahoma City district, recently proposed SB 1257, which if passed would add Oklahoma to that list. It is currently in the judiciary stage of review but needs support from other Oklahoma lawmakers to enact into law.
Because revenge porn is a relatively new issue, it hasn’t quite reached the eyes or ears of many legislators around the country. As more people find out about how much more prevalent it is becoming, more bills like Oklahoma SB 1257 could find their way to the floors of several more state capitols.
“It’s not ever the woman’s fault, you know,” State Sen. Holt said during an interview with Tulsa’s KTUL Channel 8 reporter Maureen Wurtz. “It is absolutely the man’s fault, and I think this law is going to make that statement to that effect.”
Some of the bigger websites like Pornhub have begun to take a stand against revenge porn. They can afford to. The unfortunate fact is that many small websites have thriving sections dedicated to user-submitted revenge porn. These sites make it much harder to take down revenge porn.
I’m going to get personal with you and let you in on a little known fact about myself. I am a survivor of revenge porn. While I haven’t found any images of myself floating around the Internet yet (fingers crossed), an ex-boyfriend of mine has access to images of he and I engaged in what I considered (and still consider) to be a private sexual act that took place within the house we shared when we lived together.
He may not have posted them on a porn site that I know of, but after I ended our relationship, he began sharing those photos with my family and friends through social media. After getting his parents involved, his crazy behavior ended quickly. I was lucky. Others are not.
Some women have their personal information, including phone numbers and even addresses, posted on the Internet with these images. These women get flooded with crude and offensive text messages, emails and even death threats. So the situation isn’t always as “easy” as getting the images removed.
Next week, Her Campus Oklahoma State will feature a detailed interview with Heavin Taylor, an Oklahoma State University alumna, who even today is still dealing with an act of revenge porn by an ex-boyfriend long after he posted images of her with some of her personal information online. Taylor has taken the next step to head a movement to end revenge porn in our state.