The Thinking ‘Kat: The New Age of Perversion (Content Warning: Sexual violence, exploitation)
One of the recent trends that people have taken to using AI for is also one that if translated into real life, would be considered a crime (or at least, one hopes it would be considered a crime). What’s happened is that women have uploaded photos of themselves on social media, and men have used AI to undress them.
Does this disgust you? It should. If this were a real-world scenario, we would consider it sexual assault. It’s the non-consensual altering of someone’s photo for explicit and crude purposes, and it is intended to be demeaning. There is no aspect of this can be seen any other way. In fact, it arguably definitely isn’t about sexual gratification, because if it was, the men using AI to doctor women’s photos would seek out pornography, which is easily and freely available on the web.
This is about power dynamics. A woman has felt good and happy about themselves, and has shared a picture. Men, feeling they must put this woman down, proceed to behave like base animals to create wanton images of this woman, so that she does not even think of rising above her station again. It’s all about control.
The situation only goes downhill from here. The victims of this cowardly practice have rightly spoken out, only to face a swarm of comments that seek to justify and defend this abusive behaviour. ‘You consented to having your photo edited by uploading it’, is what they say. I call bullshit to that notion. Uploading a photo is not consent to have it altered, least of all for someone else’s power or sexual gain. It’s no different to seeing a woman in a bikini and assuming you have the right to touch her. Consent has to be granted, it is not automatically given, and anyone who argues otherwise belongs on a register.
It’s very simple fellas. Would you secretly take pictures of women at the beach, or at the gym, and use them to embarrass and degrade those women? No? Glad to hear it. Now adopt that same behaviour online. If you are using AI to try and humiliate women for merely existing, then pause to reflect on how your behaviour could encourage similar acts against women you do care about, such as your mothers, sisters, and daughters. None of this will be funny or harmless once it happens to someone you love.
In general terms, just don’t be a dick. It’s not difficult. Oh, and stop with the crappy white knight arguments when confronted by a man who is opposing such behaviour. I’ve seen this so many times. ‘Dude, she’s not gonna fuck you!’ What that tells me is that you view good, honest, reasonable behaviour toward women as transactional; you expect kindness and compassion to be rewarded with sexual favours. It speaks volumes about how little you regard women.
Let’s not be perverts. Like I said, it’s not difficult.
‘Kat Comments