Yesterday I was running around having meetings and doing interviews. By the time I finally got home and had settled back in front of my computer, everyone had seen Lenny Kravitz's penis. Somehow genitalia had become a trending topic. This very site covered the news — the story being that Kravitz's pelvic thrusts at a Swedish concert caused his leather trousers to rip and expose his privates — and I hurriedly clicked over to see what all the fuss was about. Then I stopped.
In that instant I was reminded of a quote from Jennifer Lawrence. Kravitz's Hunger Games co-star knows what it's like to have your naked body hit the Internet. She, of course, was one of the most prominent victims of last year's nude hacking scandal, in which several female stars found their intimate bedroom photos being shared online, to much outrage.
Lawrence spoke about the ordeal in the November 2014 issue of Vanity Fair.
"I can't even describe to anybody what it feels like to have my naked body shoot across the world like a news flash against my will," she told the magazine. "It just makes me feel like a piece of meat that's being passed around for a profit.”
She also spoke out against those who looked at her nude photos online.
"Even people who I know and love say, ‘Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures,’" she added. "I don't want to get mad, but at the same time I'm thinking, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body.”
Judging from his Twitter feed, Kravitz is laughing off what — for many of us — would be the most mortifying wardrobe malfunction possible. Unlike Lawrence's experience, his exposure wasn't a "sex crime." It was an accident. But there's that line again: "I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body." So I didn't.
Or, I didn't mean to. While prepping this story, I went to our photo agency to purchase a stock photo of Kravitz. To my shock, images of his penis-flashing moment were available to purchase. Against my best intentions, I caught a glimpse.
If Kravitz were a porn star, doing an extreme photo shoot, or stripping down for a film role, his nudity would be up for grabs, but he wasn't. And while yes, he was in public, his body is still private. Why are we cheering him on and sharing the photo when it's really no different than those upskirt photos of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Anne Hathaway that seemed so ubiquitous just a few years ago?
Is it okay because he's a man? If Taylor Swift split her crotch during a concert, people would be outraged on her behalf if photos surfaced. Why doesn't Kravitz deserve the same response? Also, why is he deemed cool, whereas a woman in a similar situation is branded a slut? A guy can get away with not wearing underwear, but a female celebrity exiting a limo can't. He's a dude, whereas she's clueless and skanky — or so the public response would have you believe.
So, let's give poor Lenny a break. Let's also try to not be so eager to turn another person's genitalia — male or female — into online fodder that we can gobble up. If Ryan Reynolds wants to joke about the possibility of a photo of his penis getting out there, so be it. But, he might also remember the time his own then-wife, Scarlett Johansson, got her private nude photos hacked into. It might be hard to tell in this climate of Tinder dick pics and Magic Mike XXL, but it's not always a laughing matter.
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