This past Sunday, a number of nude photos of various female celebrities were leaked to the public by way of an anonymous hacker. No doubt, many of you have heard of this event by now. It is in light of these events that we feel the need to draw attention to what is an important, and often ignored, issue.

We urge you not to look at these photos. To do so would be to endorse an action that has not only invaded the privacy of a number of women, but which is also a form of sexual assault.

To argue that these women invited their photos to be publicized by taking them in the first place is the equivalent of blaming a rape victim for their choice of clothing. Feeling comfortable in one’s body is something for which we too often condemn others. If these women decided to take intimate photos of themselves, for whatever reason, they have the right to do so as well as the right to expect them to remain private. Their status as public figures does not at all mean that we have a right to access the most intimate moments of their lives.

Furthermore, though we readily admit that both males and females have had their privacy invaded in such a manner, the fact remains that the photos released are only of female celebrities. This only adds to the popular notion of thinking it is acceptable to sexually objectify women without their consent. The women who were targeted are women of high esteem who have suddenly been reduced to the level of a sexual object.

We write this, not only because we rush to defend the Jennifer Lawrences and Ariana Grandes of the world, but also because we rush to defend all those people who have ever had their private moments made public against their will. Many of us probably know someone who has been a victim of this practice. It’s likely that we’ve seen firsthand how casually the public can react when this sort of thing happens to someone, sometimes stooping as low as blaming the victim or applauding the attacker as some sort of jokester.

Loyola students, this is not acceptable on any level. We should not dismiss the actions of this attacker as either a joke or fair game. We should be outraged on the behalf of all men and women who have had their privacy invaded in a similar manner. To be clear, none of these women have invited any of us into their personal lives. Not one of them has consented to being ogled by millions of people around the world. These women have literally had their bodies offered to the rest of the world, without any regard for whether or not they desired to do so.

The individual(s) who released these photos is not a hacker; this individual is a sexual assailant. And we should know better than to be accomplices.