How Internet stalkers made an Olympics volunteer an unwitting sex object

[ismnotwasm]

Not my favorite blog, but this goes in the "saw this coming" file. Good for this tweeter not to play. The comments are typical.

In multiple places on Reddit, you’ll find a photo gallery of a random Sochi Olympics volunteer, including beach photos, glamour shots, and pictures taken with friends. It's gotten thousands of views over the past week.

But we're not linking to it. Here’s why.

Last Thursday an Associated Press photographer snapped a photo of a female Olympics volunteer. She’s leaning against a railing before a backdrop of fresh snow, casually sporting bright, loose cargo pants, colorful socks, and a midriff-revealing top. The photo appeared in Washington Post and Atlantic galleries about athletes and workers at Sochi enjoying unexpectedly warm weather.

Some people on the Internet saw something different. When they read that the volunteer was standing next to a sign that read “Sochi 2014—Hot. Cool. Yours,” they assumed more than just the banner was on display.

The photograph landed on the Reddit forums r/randomsexiness and r/Ohlympics, a forum for “Anything that makes you go ‘Oh’ or is sexually invigorating from the Olympic games.”

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/sochi-volunteer-reddit-online-stalking/

[redqueen]

1. Ugh ugh ugh...

So sick. So messed up. I don't think I should read the rest.

I can't help thinking of this, from a powerful article about this creepy behavior which is all too common and deserving of a much harsher adjective than just "creepy".

Laws has been researching possible legal routes for victims of such sites, which has brought her into contact with Mary Anne Franks, associate professor of law at the University of Miami. "What unites creepshots, the Middleton photographs, the revenge porn websites," says Franks, "is that they all feature the same fetishisation of non-consensual sexual activity with women who either you don't have any access to, or have been denied future access to. And it's really this product of rage and entitlement."

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2012/sep/22/creepshots-revenge-porn-paparazzi-women?fb=native

[JI7]

2. i didn't go to the link but from what you posted, i see this a lot and if you remember the iran

protests some years back which was made up of a large number of women protesting there were creepy people who picked out some of the pics of attractive women and did the same with it.

the thing is some people think women should feel complimented by such things when it's just fucking disgusting and gross. as i said in another thread, the models themselves who pose in swimsuits or even strippers are grossed out by certian type of attention.