An elderly, male psychiatrist offered his opinion that women alone are to blame for the existence of revenge porn, and Icelanders – women and men alike – are not taking it lightly.
Nútíminn reports that psychiatrist Óttar Guðmundsson was, for whatever reason, asked for his opinion on revenge porn in an interview broadcast on radio station Rás 2. This is what the doctor had to say on the matter:
“Something that is symptomatic of women in their communications on the internet is their trusting nature. … These women, they send naked photos of their breasts or genitals to someone they trust – some lover who took the photos, and when the relationship sours, he naturally posts these photos online and then she’s all of the sudden become some kind of victim. … She’s been betrayed and all that. But she can’t blame anyone but herself, because everyone is responsible for what they put on the internet themselves.”
Vísir reports that men and women alike have not been taking Óttar’s remarks lightly. Numerous Icelanders have questioned Óttar’s ability to even be a psychiatrist, as well as the contradiction he makes in a single sentence by saying that “she can’t blame anyone but herself” but also “everyone is responsible for what they put on the internet”.
Lawyer María Rún Bjarnadóttir, amongst these many others, responded to Óttar’s remarks from a legal standpoint. She points out that people are free to take photos and distribute them at will, thanks to Iceland’s freedom of expression laws, and that sending the photos to one particular individual does not imply that this person then has the freedom to distribute them elsewhere; in fact, she points out, courts have quite often ruled in favour of the victim of revenge porn.
Underlining this is a charge from Reykjavík District Prosecution, wherein a man had sent pornographic photos of his ex-girlfriend to her Facebook friends. This offense, the prosecution contends, was a sexual assault. However, parliament has yet to define revenge porn as a criminal offense, meaning that other charges related to the offense must be employed instead.
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