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Samantha Bee on Rep. Katie Hill’s Resignation, Inadequate Revenge Porn Laws


On Wednesday’s Full Frontal, Samantha Bee examined the inadequacies of American revenge porn laws, using the upcoming resignation of first-term Congresswoman Katie Hill (D-Calif.) as a springboard into that important discussion.

Hill will step down on Friday after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a campaign staffer — a decision that Bee described as “the right call.” But the politician is also a victim: She says explicit, private photos of her were leaked without consent by her estranged husband and published by conservative political blog RedState and British tabloid the Daily Mail

“Revenge porn weaponizes people’s sexuality against them,” Bee said. “And it doesn’t just hurt people living public lives: 12% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have had intimate photos shared without their consent. That is horrible.”

And the blame, Bee noted, should never fall on the person taking nude images. “The issue is with the people who share them without consent,” she said. “You may be thinking, ‘What, aren’t there laws against this?’ And yes, 46 states [and the District of Columbia] do have laws against revenge porn, but those laws don’t always go far enough.”

“The name itself shows you the problem: revenge porn,” she continued. “In many states, the law forces a victim to prove the person who released her nudes did so maliciously, and that is a very high bar. Revenge is not always the motivation for sharing someone else’s nudes. There’s also horniness, boredom, greed and boasting, which is coincidentally the ‘Special Skills’ section of Trump’s resumé.”

Several states, including Illinois, have managed to write logical revenge porn laws. So why can’t the rest of the country catch up? “A few states … have laws that don’t require proof that the nonconsensual image was shared specifically to be mean,” the host said. “They focus instead on whether an image was shared without consent.”

That structure, Bee noted, would help prevent the very common negative effects of revenge porn. One study showed that victims often suffer from PTSD, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and other mental health effects. PTSD, she said, “doesn’t go away just because you weren’t hurt on purpose.”

“It would be great if all our state laws took this as seriously as Illinois. And hey, since the Internet doesn’t stop at the state border, a federal law would be great too,” she concluded, pulling up an image of President Trump. “If there’s one politician who definitely has intimate recordings he doesn’t want to get leaked, it’s this guy.”





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