In the past week, information has leaked out regarding Melania Trump and her modeling career prior to moving to the United States. When the wife of presidential candidate Donald Trump was 25, she was a professional model. In 1995, Melania did a largely nude photo shoot for a French men’s magazine.
Reactions to the images seem to be geared toward the scandalous. The public seems to view this information as being detrimental to the Trump campaign. Trump spokesperson Jason Miller has this to say about the images: “They’re an artful celebration of the human body as art, and [there’s] nothing to be embarrassed about with the photos. She’s a beautiful woman.”
Also in the news was Orlando Bloom. Bloom was seen in Italy, on vacation with his girlfriend, Katy Perry. On vacation, images were taken of Bloom paddle-boarding stark naked. The photos were taken and submitted for release to the New York Daily News and the Daily Star, where they were published with minimal censoring.
The reaction to these leaked images was similarly mixed. A large group of people were applauding the images as something to lust after, while others claimed that the aforementioned lust is unwarranted and unfair. The argument being that when female celebrities’ private images are leaked, the public gets enraged at the invasion of privacy.
In both cases, large groups are either enjoying the images or shaming them. There is a significant difference between the two, however.
Melania Trump was a willing model for her photo shoots. She consented to the photos being taken, and it was a significant part of her job as a model. Orlando Bloom’s photos were taken without his consent and were released without his knowledge. There is absolutely an invasion of privacy, yet a substantial amount of the public seems to give the photographers a pass. On the other hand, Melania is almost demonized for her photo spread.
There is a degree of sexism involved in these stories. Women are constantly oversexualized in the media and are typically shamed because of it. Melania is not exempt from that. However, the images taken of her were things that she wanted and knew would exist in the world. She is not ashamed of them, and she should not be. The previously mentioned societal stigma surrounding female celebrity nudes has the opposite effect on male celebrities. They are celebrated for their bodies, either in protest of the way women are shamed for their bodies or in lust.
The important thing to consider with these stories is that these are affecting people in their personal lives. Well, for Melania, it was her professional life that the public is using to interfere with her personal life. For Orlando Bloom, his body has been leaked to the world. Whether celebrated or shamed, both of these people have had something personal shared with the world. The difference being that one of them had no idea it was happening until after it had happened.
When stories like this are released, the public generally forgets the celebrities’ personal feelings toward the situation and they rely on the little isolated information they have. Dehumanizing celebrities like this only encourages this kind of subtextually sexist behavior. What is important in this situation is to acknowledge the way the public is reacting to these images and why. In this case, the public sees a man and a woman being naked for the public to see with little regard to the circumstances of the images’ existence, which is wholeheartedly inconsiderate to the parties involved.
