Triggered by Recent News

[Peonies]

The recents news of this past weekend's crime against several celebrity women (involving a hacker posting private photos of them online) has unfortunately triggered awful things for me and I am limiting myself to only visiting Scarleteen and Netflix on the internet until this has died down. I met with my therapist on Tuesday as soon as I was bombarded by news posts from reputable news sites that I visit every morning telling in detail what happened. My therapist and I discussed taking an internet hiatus from the internet except for those sites I listed. We agreed to stick to checking e-mails from my smartphone as opposed to signing in on Yahoo! or MSN and finding more gory articles on the subject in the news feed.

I realize that this news may not seem like an obvious trigger to major news networks, but I hope one day ALL major websites that report or collect news articles will include trigger warnings. Certainly over the years this has improved, but there is still much work to be done. I am sorry for any other users here who may have been triggered by this information on the internet or TV.

[Redskies]

I absolutely recognise that the way this has been reported has been mostly very disrespectful and completely ignoring of issues of consent and the fact that women's bodies are not, in fact, public property. It's a crappy thing anyway even before that.

I'm sorry it's been so triggering for you - that's lousy. Big, big kudos to you for taking such immediate steps to take care of yourself.

If there's anything further we can do to support you, do let us know.

[Mo]

It really has been terrible - especially since so many folks are saying "well if you don't want those PRIVATE PHOTOS to be leaked you shouldn't take them in the first place." Yes, hackers exist, but there's no fault in assuming something meant to be private will stay private. It's just the tired old song of victim-blaming dressed up a little differently.

[Peonies]

I absolutely recognise that the way this has been reported has been mostly very disrespectful and completely ignoring of issues of consent and the fact that women's bodies are not, in fact, public property. It's a crappy thing anyway even before that.

I'm sorry it's been so triggering for you - that's lousy. Big, big kudos to you for taking such immediate steps to take care of yourself.

If there's anything further we can do to support you, do let us know.

Thank you, I used to be so bad about taking immediate steps for self care. I would keep things to myself and wait weeks or months to do anything about it. Recently I made a pact with myself that I would no longer let that happen. I get a lot of support just by posting here and sharing this discussion with others. If I talk about things, I feel small bits of that weight on my shoulder being chiseled away. Thanks for being here

[Peonies]

It really has been terrible - especially since so many folks are saying "well if you don't want those PRIVATE PHOTOS to be leaked you shouldn't take them in the first place." Yes, hackers exist, but there's no fault in assuming something meant to be private will stay private. It's just the tired old song of victim-blaming dressed up a little differently.

It really us the tired old song dressed up differently. That's a great way to put it. I ask victim-blamers to think about it a different way. For example, I live in an old house without an alarm system but I am good about locking my doors before I leave. I trust that those doors stay locked and my valuables won't be stolen. However, a criminal could break in and steal something. Do you think in that case someone would victim-blame me for having valuables in my house? "If you don't want your computer and TV stolen you shouldn't have them in your house". When I ask people that, sometimes they realize how silly they sound in blaming someone for having their private photos stolen.

I am so glad I can talk freely here without ridicule, it helps and supports me so unbelievably much, thanks guys!