Another Day, Another Semi-Nude Photo Scandal

What’s worse?  (a) having racy pictures of you in your bra and panties leaked over the internet, or (b) having an explicit video of you and your lover getting it on leaked over the internet?

If you’re a female, teenaged pop star, you’d be inclined to say the latter, but if you’re a celebrity or a public figure, who happens to be a man, the correct answer is definitely (a).   Just ask East Cleveland, Ohio mayor Eric Brewer.  Last week these untoward photos of him were released by an anonymous source.  Once the photos hit the web, they quickly went viral forcing the mayor to address the matter publicly less than a week before the town’s residents return to the polls to decide whether he should be given another term in office.  Few are speculating as to whether or not this will destroy his chances at getting re-elected, but it’s probably not a bad idea for him to start updating his resume, just in case.

Some may recall that boxing’s former golden boy Oscar De La Hoya found himself in a similar predicament two years ago when photos of him wearing a fishnet body suit with high heels and a wig went viral on the web.  Unlike Brewer, who has yet to confirm or deny whether the pictures of him are authentic, De La Hoya immediately wen t into denial mode, alleging that the pics were photoshopped.  Although public opinion was split as to whether De La Hoya was telling the truth, the whole incident eventually blew over.  Unfortunately for Mr. Brewer, however, by the time that period arrives for his scandal, the damage may be irreversible.

In this age internet sex tape and photo scandals, you’d think that celebrities and public figures would know when to put down the camera.  But every few months a new video clip or photo series pops up with celebrities being depicted in compromising positions forcing their publicists to perform emergency damage control.  In the past couple of years alone, the internet has provided a window into the intimate lives of Rihanna, Cassie, Gene Simmons, Adrienne Bailon (pictured below), and Vanessa Hudgens to name a few.

What makes the De La Hoya and Brewer cases different - apart from the fact that any one of the other scandals mentioned could easily have been publicity stunts orchestrated by the celebrities themselves – is that these photos revealed something about the these men that the public didn’t know about them, while destroying preconceived notions that we thought we knew, not just about these particular men, but about all men like them.  These images challenge societal constructions of men of power and influence or top athletes in ultra macho sports, and in some cases they force us to re-evaluate the system of neatly-arranged boxes we’ve designated for the various compartments of humanity.

In this sense, these scandals can have benefits beyond their inherent humourous quality, although not for those situated in the centre of the controversy.  If only the internet had been around during the time of J. Edgar Hoover, the world might have been spared a true tyrant whose derangement went far beyond his eccentric taste in clothing or his perceived sexual orientation.