Imagery of nude celebrities

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Annette Kellerman in nude scene from A Daughter of the Gods (1915) Annette Kellerman LCCN2014702264.jpg
Annette Kellerman in nude scene from A Daughter of the Gods (1915)

There has been demand for imagery of nude celebrities for many decades. It is a lucrative business exploited by websites and magazines. [1]

Contents

Types include authorized images, such as film screenshots, copies from previously published images, such as shots from magazines or stills or clips from movies, to unauthorised images such as celebrity sex tapes and paparazzi photos capturing unintentional or private scenes, and faked or doctored images. [2] [3]

There has been a commercial demand for images of nude celebrities for many decades. [2] [4] Playboy magazine was known for offering celebrities large amounts of money to appear nude in its magazine, and more downmarket pornographic magazines search far and wide for nude pictures of celebrities taken unaware for example, when they are bathing topless or nude at what the subject thought was a secluded beach, or taken before the individual was well known. Paparazzi-produced photos are in high demand among sensational magazines and press. [5] [6]

In some countries, privacy law and personality rights can lead to civil action against organizations that publish photos of nude celebrities without a model release, and this restricts the availability of such photos through the print media. On the internet, the difficulty of identifying offenders and applying court sanction makes circulation of such photographs much less risky. [7] Such photographs circulate through online photo distribution channels such as usenet and internet forums, and commercial operators, often in countries beyond the reach of courts, also offer such photos for commercial gain. Copyright restrictions are often ignored.

In some cases, when the depicted person is young and the photo is an actual photo, nude media of celebrities may fall under the purview of child pornography laws, a legal regime with harsh penalties for distribution. [8] When such photos are faked or doctored, the media is classified as simulated child pornography.

History

There has likely been interest in nude images of celebrities for as long as artistic nude imagery and pornography have existed. One of the more famous examples is Playboy's inaugural December 1953 issue, which featured photos of Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 photo session as its first Playmate of the Month . [9] [10] The commercialization, promotion, and organized supply of nude celebrity images can be traced to another men's magazine, High Society , and the efforts of its first female Editor, Gloria Leonard. This began as a feature that showcased risqué photos of celebrities like Jodie Foster and Goldie Hawn, usually lifted from film stills, [11] and in 1986 became a spin-off venture of High Society called Celebrity Skin magazine. Over its 25-year run, Margot Kidder, Ann-Margret and Barbra Streisand tried unsuccessfully to sue the magazine for publishing nude photos of them. [12] Yet another magazine, Penthouse , earned notoriety for its publication of nude photographs of models who at the time were not celebrities, some of whom later attained fame. Penthouse published nude photos in its September 1984 issue of a young adult film actress, Traci Lords (later found to be underage at the time), [13] and Vanessa Williams, then-Miss America; the ensuing scandal caused Williams to be stripped of her crown. [14]

Types of nude celebrity media

Nude celebrity media falls into six main categories:

Notable incidents or image leaks

See also

Related Research Articles

The Pubic Wars, a pun on the Punic Wars, was a rivalry between the American men's magazines Playboy and Penthouse during the 1960s and 1970s. Each magazine strove to show just a little bit more nudity on their female models than the other, without getting too crude. The term was coined by Playboy owner Hugh Hefner. In 1950s and 1960s United States, it was generally agreed that nude photographs were not pornographic unless they showed pubic hair or genitals. Mainstream mass-market photography was careful to come close to this line without stepping over it. Consequently, the depiction of pubic hair was de facto forbidden in U.S. pornographic magazines of the era.

<i>Penthouse</i> (magazine) Erotic magazine

Penthouse is a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione and published by Los Angeles–based Penthouse World Media, LLC. It combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictures of women that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore pornographic pictures of women.

<i>Hustler</i> (magazine) American pornographic magazine

Hustler is an American pornographic magazine published monthly by Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). Introduced in 1974, it was a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter, originally conceived by founder Larry Flynt as cheap advertising for his strip club businesses at the time. The magazine grew from an uncertain start to a peak circulation of around 3 million in the early 1980s; it has since dropped to approximately 500,000. Hustler was among the first major US-based magazines to feature graphic photos of female genitalia and simulated sex acts, in contrast with relatively modest publications such as Playboy. In the 1990s, Hustler, like several of its competitors, began featuring depictions of sexual penetration and oral sex.

<i>Playgirl</i> American womens magazine

Playgirl was an American magazine that had historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, and celebrity journalism, as well as original fiction. For most of its history, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to women, though it developed a significant gay male readership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Softcore pornography</span> Erotic still photography or film that is not sexually explicit

Softcore pornography or softcore porn is commercial still photography, film, or art that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. It typically contains nude or semi-nude actors involved in love scenes and is intended to be sexually arousing and aesthetically beautiful. The distinction between softcore pornography and erotic photography or art, such as Vargas girl pin-ups, is largely a matter of debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photograph manipulation</span> Transformation or alteration of a photograph

Photograph manipulation involves the transformation or alteration of a photograph. Some photograph manipulations are considered to be skillful artwork, while others are considered to be unethical practices, especially when used to deceive. Motives for manipulating photographs include political propaganda, altering the appearance of a subject, entertainment and humor.

A celebrity sex tape is typically an amateur pornographic video recording involving one or more famous people which has, intentionally or unintentionally, been made available publicly. Such videos have often been released without the consent of their subjects and have damaged celebrities' careers. In 1988, for example, a sex tape caused significant damage to Rob Lowe's career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pornographic magazine</span> Magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature

Pornographic magazines or erotic magazines, sometimes known as adult magazines or sex magazines, are magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature. Publications of this kind may contain images of attractive naked subjects, as is the case in softcore pornography, and, in the usual case of hardcore pornography, depictions of masturbation, oral, manual, vaginal, or anal sex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotic photography</span> Art photography using erotica, and sexually suggestive appeals

Erotic photography is a style of art photography of an erotic, sexually suggestive or sexually provocative nature. It is a type of erotic art.

<i>Oui</i> (magazine) Adult pornographic magazine

Oui was a men's adult pornographic magazine published in the United States and featuring explicit nude photographs of models, with full page pin-ups, centerfolds, interviews and other articles, and cartoons. Oui ceased publication in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Depictions of nudity</span> Visual representations of the nude human form

Depictions of nudity include all of the representations or portrayals of the unclothed human body in visual media. In a picture-making civilization, pictorial conventions continually reaffirm what is natural in human appearance, which is part of socialization. In Western societies, the contexts for depictions of nudity include information, art and pornography. Information includes both science and education. Any image not easily fitting into one of these three categories may be misinterpreted, leading to disputes. The most contentious disputes are between fine art and erotic images, which define the legal distinction of which images are permitted or prohibited.

<i>Celebrity Skin</i> (magazine) American pornographic magazine

Celebrity Skin is a pornographic magazine which specializes in showcasing images, either photographs or movie and TV screencaps, of nude or semi-nude celebrities. It is not to be confused with its rival Celebrity Sleuth. The magazine has ceased publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nude photography</span> Photography of the naked human body

Nude photography is the creation of any photograph which contains an image of a nude or semi-nude person, or an image suggestive of nudity. Nude photography is undertaken for a variety of purposes, including educational uses, commercial applications and artistic creations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glamour photography</span> Photography genre; subjects are portrayed in glamorous poses

Glamour photography is a genre of photography in which the subjects are portrayed in attractive poses ranging from fully clothed to nude, and often erotic. Photographers use a combination of cosmetics, lighting and airbrushing techniques to produce an appealing image of the subject. The focus lies in the beauty of the subject's body or portrait; as such, beauty standards are often a key determinant of glamour model trends. A popular subset of this type of photography is "pin-up", for women, and "beefcake", for men.

On August 31, 2014, a collection of nearly five hundred private pictures of various celebrities, mostly women, with many containing nudity, were posted on the imageboard 4chan, and swiftly disseminated by other users on websites and social networks such as Imgur and Reddit. The leak was dubbed "The Fappening" or "Celebgate" by the public. The images were initially believed to have been obtained via a breach of Apple's cloud services suite iCloud, or a security issue in the iCloud API which allowed them to make unlimited attempts at guessing victims' passwords. Apple claimed in a press release that access was gained via spear phishing attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XVALA</span>

XVALA is a contemporary artist who is known for using controversial celebrity images and artifacts in his work and for his "Fear Google" campaign addressing loss of privacy in the Internet Age. The artist has cited his concerns about the public nature of personal information in the Internet Age as the driving force behind the campaign but also says that he does not believe in censorship. XVALA describes his work as belonging to the "Post-PC era".

Celeb Jihad is a website known for sharing leaked private videos and photos as well as faked ones of celebrities as a form of jihad satire. The Daily Beast describes it as a "satirical celebrity gossip website."

Fake nude photography is the creation of nude photographs designed to appear as genuine nudes of an individual. The motivations for the creation of these modified photographs include curiosity, sexual gratification, the stigmatization or embarrassment of the subject, and commercial gain, such as through the sale of the photographs via pornographic websites. Fakes can be created using image editing software or through machine learning. Fake images created using the latter method are called deepfakes.

Deepfake pornography, or simply fake pornography, is a type of synthetic pornography that is created via altering already-existing photographs or video by applying deepfake technology to the images of the participants. The use of deepfake porn has sparked controversy because it involves the making and sharing of realistic videos featuring non-consenting individuals, typically female celebrities, and is sometimes used for revenge porn. Efforts are being made to combat these ethical concerns through legislation and technology-based solutions.

References

  1. Multiple sources:
    • O'Neill, Brendan (September 3, 2014). "Gawping at nude celeb pics is not a crime". Spiked!. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
    • Kiberd, Roisin (September 3, 2014). "The Fappening Has Revealed a New Type of Pervert". Vice.
    • Marcotte, Amanda (September 3, 2014). "'The Fappening' and Revenge Porn Culture: Jennifer Lawrence and the Creepshot Epidemic". Tech + Health. The Daily Beast.
    • Leonard, Andrew (September 2, 2014). "Reddit's pathetic nude celebrity selfie rage". Salon.
    • Kurtz, Howard (September 4, 2014). "Nude Photo Hacking: Why the mainstream media are part of the problem". Fox News.
    • Marcotte, John (September 3, 2014). "Sinister Motives and Victim Blaming: The Ugly Truth About Leaked Celebrity Nudes". Huffington Post.
    • Valenti, Jessica (September 1, 2014). "What's Wrong With Checking Out Stolen Nude Photos of Celebrities". The Atlantic . Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Gay, Roxane (September 1, 2014). "The Great Naked Celebrity Photo Leak of 2014 is just the beginning". The Guardian. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  3. Grisham, Lori (September 2, 2014). "Psychology behind hacking and sharing nude celebrity photos". USA Today . Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  4. Cubrilovic, Nik (September 4, 2014). "I explored the dark side of the network behind the nude celebrities hack". The Guardian. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  5. Lorraine Devon Wilke (3 September 2014). "The Bigger Issue: Will Americans Ever Get Past Their Peeping Tom Mentality?". The Huffington Post.
  6. Marcus, Stephanie (2 September 2014). "America's Sweetheart Got Hacked, But It's Been Happening For Years". The Huffington Post.
  7. Vincent, Alice (3 September 2014). "Mr Skin on Jennifer Lawrence leak: 'these actresses will ultimately benefit'". The Telegraph.
  8. Marcus, Stephanie (2 September 2014). "McKayla Maroney Was Reportedly Underage In Hacked Nude Photos". The Huffington Post.
  9. Harding, Les (2012). They Knew Marilyn Monroe: Famous Persons in the Life of the Hollywood Icon. McFarland. p. 75. ISBN   978-0-7864-9014-1 . Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  10. Gunelius, Susan (2009). Building Brand Value the Playboy Way. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 16. ISBN   978-0-230-23958-6 . Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  11. Slotnik, Daniel E. (February 5, 2014). "Gloria Leonard, Publisher, Pornography Star and Advocate, Dies at 73". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  12. "Gloria Leonard". ffeusa.org. Feminists for Free Expression. Archived from the original on 2009-04-18. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
  13. Lords, Traci Elizabeth. Traci Lords: Underneath It All. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
  14. Kane, Gary (2010-10-21). "Bob Guccione, 'Penthouse' magazine founder, dies". USA Today. Associated Press. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  15. Kushner, David (November 2003). "These Are Definitely Not Scully's Breasts". Wired. Vol. 11, no. 11. Retrieved 2009-05-19.