In all of the discussions of the Jennifer Lawrence/et al scandal, there seems to be a split between those who can’t believe people would do it (or think it’s a Generation Y/millennial thing) and those who can’t believe the disbelief. Thus the question posed in the title. Yes/no, and why or why not?
My experience: just turned 40, Generation X, in relationships before smart phones and digital cameras made such things easy.
Of my five primary relationships, four of them have involved some kind of exchange along these lines (as well as several non-relationships). A few predate the current era, involving things like Polaroids, phone calls, and written exchanges. I started out feeling awkward about it, but as time has gone on, it seems to almost be a normal part of any relationship I find myself in. The one exception was someone from a locally prominent political family, who (ten years ago) was worried about the types of leak we see now.
So, I went from feeling weird about it to almost kind of expecting it. And, frankly, it has been much appreciated when I find myself separated from the person I’m seeing… it’s nice to get a message that says “I’m thinking about you right now, like that.” It continues the fun part of the relationship when I don’t get to see them. I don’t think it’s weird, I think it’s almost healthy. Yeah, there’s now the possibility of leaks or revenge, and I’d be wary if I were in the public eye. But a couple of nobodies… even if the images leaked, I can’t see much fallout. And in the mean time, when I’m feeling a bit lonely, it’s nice to open the photo roll and think “damn.”
41, male, received/sent in the Polaroid era of the 90’s and had a VHS sexy time tape. All destroyed now unless she kept the one picture she had of me. I’m not terribly worried about it.
Wow. I can’t even imagine firing up a clunky VHS camcorder just to take a lewd video. I’m 33, I have seen and used those cameras but they were obsolete when I was in college.
And then you’d mail or hand the tape to someone, they’d have to go to their house, pop in in the VCR and fire up their CRT to watch it in low quality. Wow.
Firing up a VHS (or Beta!) camera wasn’t much of a problem. Power on, connected to A/V inputs that are common even today, and hit the record button is an issue? Have at it. Not much harder than aiming an iPhone and hitting record. I think the big difference would be ease of duplication. Mine were sexy-time hand-offs. “Here’s the tape we made. Enjoy.” A pretty personal home movie to be enjoyed. Now, duplication and spread through social media was harder, but I imagine (in many cases) that’s not even the goal. even now. It’s meant to be a private hand-off. Popping a cassette into a machine to relive a personal thing isn’t much harder than hitting “play” on a video on a phone.
One long-ago GF (come to think of it, *all *my GFs were a long, long time ago; it’s been 27 years since I’ve been intimate with any woman besides the one I married) and I took some nude pix of each other. We didn’t send them through the mail or anything. When we broke up, I returned the pix of her to her, and she gave me back the ones of me.
Tangential to the topic, but imagine those of us codgers who have over 100 VHS tapes of movies we purchased before DVDs existed that are virtually unwatchable now because of the low quality video, forgetting about having to pull the VCR out of the attic in the first place. Apocalypse Now, Starman, Deer Hunter, etc… all unwatchable. Began replacing my VHS movies with DVD versions about 10 years ago, but now that DVD is dead (and don’t fool yourself, BluRay is too) I have given up on that.
Back to the OP, no, I have never sent or received nude pictures, of myself, or anyone else for that matter. Count me as another who believes this behavior is generational.
No. But that’s not meant to imply agreement that it would somehow be my fault if I did, and they got out. People who hack and disseminate private images are a special kind of evil, and we need to stop supporting them by blaming/shaming the victims.
Decent people don’t download or look at stolen photos.
30, and numerous relationships have involved such exchanges. Not particularly concerned about it. Feels pretty “normal” to me, now.
My reaction to the celebrity leaks was, “oh, that’s gotta be a bit embarassing” but I certainly don’t judge them for it. On the contrary, I think it’s kind of charming to know that such folks have “ordinary” sex lives.
Gay male in my early 30’s. It’s fairly common for my demographic. And not limited to significant others and the sort, but I’ve opened up various social media applications where the opening communication I received was either some dude’s chest, junk or his ass.
Not only have I been on both ends of the deal, but on more than one occasion, I’ve received texts from people who have sent me pictures of me, where they are claiming that it is them. (Some of these pictures even include my face. People are clueless.)
Yup. And I’m glad I do - they’re pre childbirth pics of my nude or scantily clad body, and handy for reminding me that I **did **always have that beer belly and I can’t blame the kid
I also have dick pics my ex sent me. We agreed at the time it was a Mutually Assured Destruction scenario - if mine went public, so did his.
