Emily Green's Introduction

My name is Emily Green; I grew up in Orchard Park, New York. I am an English Adolescent Education major with a Women's and Gender Studies minor. I'm pansexual, genderqueer, an intersectional feminist, and have been dating my supportive (and also feminist) boyfriend for three years. I am one of two directors for WSU's Production of The Vagina Monologues and am focusing my teaching on including diversity in non-diverse classrooms.

My sign says, "I need feminism because #iftheyhackedmyphone, I would be told that I 'shouldn't have taken those photos if I wasn't prepared for the whole world to see them.' My body is not public property, and neither is Jennifer Lawrence's." I chose this topic because of the released naked photos of many female celebrities, which has been the biggest leak of unconsented photos in recent history. #Iftheyhackedmyphone is another Twitter campaign aimed at what women are told for taking explicit photos after they are forwarded, released, or go viral without their consent. 

The quote "shouldn't have taken those if I wasn't prepared for the whole world to see them" is a direct quote from what my mom said when I mentioned it. Women are raised to believe that whatever someone chooses to do to their body is ultimately their own fault. In other words, our society teaches us to victim-blame; how often do we hear of the police asking a girl what she was wearing when she got raped, as if her clothes consented for her? As Adichie explains, we raise girls to think they are inherently guilty of something. As if they are born guilty because they have a vagina. Perhaps this notion is why women are also guilty of victim blaming; if she took those pictures, she was being irresponsible with her vagina and her body. It makes women who were uninvolved feel more secure about their role and morals.

This issue is very personal to me, because I've been blackmailed with photos before. I know exactly what it feels like for someone to take very private photos of me and threaten to spread them. I was fortunate because I was underage when it happened and they were taken without my consent and knowledge. As such, they were technically a felony possession and were deleted, but if it happened now I'd be telling a completely different story. If someone hacked my phone's history, they could find photos that would end my career as a teacher. Just because I work in a public field does not mean that my body is public property and the public is free to do whatever it so pleases to my image. If I didn't consent to having those pictures spread, and they were anyway, career professionals would hardly care. As a woman, I should be able to take pictures with the security to know that they can remain my private property.