The Comparison between China and America—Nude photo scandal

Hollywood nude photo scandal has occurred a period of time and has become widespread throughout the internet in a short time， the large scale made people naturally think of the 2008 Hong Kong nude photo scandal. Though these two events are nude photo scandals， the parties of these two events have different reaction. This is why？

As we all know， many famous actresses were involved in the 2008 Hong Kong nude photo scandal such as Zhong Xintong and Zhang Bozhi. And after the event occurred， all these actresses were subject to reproach and their career also were deeply influenced by this event. Under that circumstance， all these actresses were faced with huge pressure of public opinion and they eventually chose to apologize to the public for the bad influence caused by the nude photo scandal. They cried and repented as if they committed a serious crime. However， after the Hollywood nude photo scandal occurred， those Hollywood actresses didnt do the same thing which Chinese actresses did as people expected. Instead， they were angry and accused those people who released these nude photos. Jennifer Lawrence， one of these actresses involved in the Hollywood nude photo scandal said that “this was not a sex scandal but a sex crime. I didnt know what I should apologize for and I didnt tell you that you could look at my naked body.” And eventually she decided to take to court to safeguard her rights and interests. Maybe Chinese people would feel confused about the reaction of Jennifer Lawrence， but if you knew the values and beliefs of her country-America， you will understand why she did this. The Declaration of Independence declared that “we hold these truths to be self-evident， that all men are created equal， that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights， that among these are life， liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. From this， we can see that American people attach importance to the individual freedom and individual rights. They believed that they only need to take responsibility for themselves and they owe nothing to any man， as Jennifer Lawrence said that “this is my body and I control it by myself.” So， they thought that they had freedom to take any photos about themselves and they didnt think they should take responsibility for the public even though they were actresses. Because they thought they were victims in this event and people who should take responsibility for this event were those spreaders. Besides， not only those people who spread those photos but also the public who saw those photos all should feel ashamed because those photos were not used to be seen by them， and they also should appreciate her rather than criticize. Of course， some opposing voices also have an effect on their reaction. The second day after Hollywood nude photo scandal occurred， under the leadership of the Lena Dunham， a American critic of Girl magazine， lots of feminists started the movement of resisting persecuting women. These feminists claimed that “dont call those who stole nude photos hacker， they were sex violence criminals.” Daniel Citron， a columnist of Forbes magazine also later published a review why always women rather than men were harassed and slandered？she quoted the New York polices crime record and said that over 80% victims who were harassed on the internet were women. At the same time， there were also some men standing out to safeguard women such as the Italian director Seth Roger， he thought this kind of behavior is like thieves selling things what he stole， and he added that he didnt mean women are things. Under these pressures， Twitter frozen those accounts which forward nude photos of those actresses and the Federal Bureau of Investigation also started the project of searching those who were suspected of internet harassment. These actions brought an intense effect： five days after the occurrence of the scandal， those nude photos could not be found on the United States website. That cannot be imagined in China.

In fact， in terms of the nude photo scandals， whether China or America， who really should be accused are those thieves and spreaders.

作者簡介：宋麗（1996-），女，山東青島人，漢族，本科（在讀），主要研究方向： 翻譯。