Pop Cultured: Scarlett Johansson

Preface: I know I haven't blogged in some time, I'm just too busy.  I know that's not a good excuse, just as it wasn't the other hundred times I've said it.  Between school work and my work at my university's newspaper The Contraband, I literally have no time, nor the urge to write anything else.  To hold you over until a time when I might be more willing to write something again, here are some pieces that originally appeared in The Contraband.  I write a weekly pop culture piece, sometimes they are funny, sometimes they're not trying to be.  Although I think if you look hard enough you'll see some of me in there.  I hope you enjoy them, as I'm posting them one right after the other.

   If you’ve been online at all in the past week, you’ve either already seen or heard about the recently leaked photos of Scarlett Johansson.  The photos hit the internet on Sept. 14, 2011, and flew around the world like a vicious strain of gloriously naked bird-flu.  Hours after the outbreak Johansson’s lawyers demanded that the hundreds of high-profile websites that had posted them, take them down at once.  As everyone knows, there is no quicker way to make sure everyone sees something than telling them that they can’t.  Johansson’s lawyers have contacted the FBI to address concerns that the pictures were stolen from her iPhone.  The hackers alleged to have been involved with Johansson’s case are believed to be associated with the past phone-hackings of celebrities such as Jessica Alba, Vanessa Hudgens and Mila Kunis.

    

 Imagine you’re Scarlett Johansson for a moment, won’t you?  You’ve been in a handful of big budget movies.  You’ve been married to Ryan Reynolds.  The general public agrees that you are both mildly talented and wildly beautiful.  You should have no need for validation from anyone.  So, why would you take naked pictures of yourself?  To show them to someone else, so that they can tell you how good you look?  What is the thought process behind that? 

   Though, this most recent case of a celebrity’s naked portraits getting out into the general populace does at least seem to be different from the others.  It doesn’t smack of desperation as Vanessa Hudgen’s literally hundreds of nude photos, in which she appears to be auditioning for any pornographic magazine that will have her, did.  If Johansson’s photos were legitimately stolen from her, then it is easy to understand her embarrassment and outrage.  Though, it does seem odd that a celebrity as widely known as Johansson would be foolish enough to take photos of this nature in the first place. 

   It’s obvious that sexting is a widespread epidemic at this point; the public service announcements played on radio stations during every commercial break, admonishing the behavior proves it.  But are people really taking that many naked pictures of themselves?  There is pretty much no reason for this behavior.  If you need someone to see you naked that badly, you should go to their house and take your clothes off.   Unless you want strangers to see you naked (which they will, because these things never stay private), then you should become a stripper, rather than take naked pictures of yourself.  Even if you don’t have the daddy issues normally associated with the exotic dancer, it’s still a better idea than letting people see you naked without your permission.  So let Scarlett Johansson be a lesson to us all before we press the shutter button.