This past week, a story developed surrounding Playboy Model Dani Mathers and her “ignorance” when it comes to using Snapchat. For someone who makes their living off of nudity, this story is nothing short of ironic and frankly, has much greater ramifications than body-shaming alone.
As I read different stories and social media reactions, many of the opinions surrounded her body-shaming and making a complete stranger feel less than by sharing her picture with the entire interwebs. Mathers’ apology was downright disgusting and pathetic:
“That photo was taken to be a personal conversation with a girlfriend, and because I am new to Snapchat, I really didn’t realize that I had posted it and that was a huge mistake.” {partial}
So you personally share mocking nude photographs of a stranger without her consent with your girlfriends?
Yep, you sound like a decent human being.
But here’s the rub.
This is about so much more than body-shaming (albeit disgraceful in its own right).
Mathers’ actions are criminal. She doesn’t just deserve to lose her job, she deserves to go to prison and face real life consequences for what she did.
She took a NUDE picture WITHOUT a woman’s consent and then proceeded to distribute that around the internet. This goes far beyond being the “Peeping Tom” (which in and of itself is also criminal, even without the pictures) and violates the privacy of this woman. Also ironically, Mathers’ distributed nudity for FREE – photographs that if of herself require payment.
In our society, we are working hard to make sure that people understand the word NO and that they listen to someone when they say it. But we’ve also come into a time where when people are unable to communicate no, common sense should tell you when you do not have permission to do something that REQUIRES consent.
If Dani Mathers does not receive a harsher punishment for her actions, we will undo the progress made on the lessons of consent and our progress will move backwards.
Mathers said that she had “accidentally” posted the photograph.
Did you “accidentally” hide like a creep to take the picture too?
No means no. And being unable to say no also means no.
Just in case you were confused, Dani.
YES. Yes to this all. She needs to go to jail. And NOT be treated like a celebrity. This was a crime, plain and simple. She is a pathetic excuse of a person. She has been suspended from her job (if you can call it that) and is banned from ALL LA Fitnesses everywhere. It’s a start…but there needs to be legal ramifications.