Revenge porn domestic violence for all to see
An Emmy-nominated filmmaker bringing her revenge porn documentary to Boston College has come to the defense of Democratic Rep. Katie Hill, saying the congresswoman shouldn’t have resigned over nude photos her estranged husband heartlessly posted online.
“Those pictures have nothing to do with her capacity as a leader,” said Cynthia Lowen, who grew up in Amherst and directed “Netizens,” a documentary that tells the stories of three women who are targets of brutal online harassment and revenge porn.
Hill, a political rising star from California, said she feared for her life after getting thousands of vile and threatening emails, calls and texts.
“I am leaving because of a misogynistic culture that gleefully consumed my naked pictures, capitalized on my sexuality and enabled my abusive ex to continue that abuse, this time with the entire country watching,” Hill said.
These types of images, Lowen told me Monday, have a much greater impact on a women’s professional life, private life and physical safety. “If an intimate image of a man gets out there, it does not have the same potential and power to ruin or alter his life as that kind of image has on a woman,” Lowen said.
Revenge porn is also part of a system of domestic violence, said Lowen, who also produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Bully.”
The abuser “always” sends the nude photos of the woman to her boss and her father, Lowen said. “The point is to make her lose her job and to isolate her from her friends and community so that she becomes increasingly dependent on the abuser,” Lowen said. “These pictures are also often used as ammunition in child custody disagreements.”
The documentary, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and was widely released on TV and online platforms last month, follows a trio of women, including Brooklyn attorney Carrie Goldberg, a victim of revenge porn who is now representing Katie Hill. Goldberg started her own law firm to help others who fall prey to cyber abuse.
The film also features Anita Sarkeesian, who endured violent and ruthless online threats after criticizing how women are depicted in video games, and Tina Reine, whose Wall Street career was destroyed after an ex-boyfriend posted harmful information about her past online.
On Thursday, Lowen will host a discussion after her documentary is shown at Boston College Law School.
Given the Hill scandal and the #MeToo movement, it’s a timely talk and one that is sadly impacting more and more women every day.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2NSzUOD
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