Ratajkwoski’s claims, which are shared in a personal essay: ‘Buying myself back: when does a model own her own image? ’, are undoubtedly shocking. But what’s possibly even more shocking is Leder’s response.
In the New York magazine article, he is quoted as saying: ‘You do know who we are talking about right? This is the girl that was naked in Treats! magazine, and bounced around naked in the Robin Thicke video at that time. You really want someone to believe she was a victim? ’
These words suggest that someone who is sexually empowered – someone who, like Ratajkowski is confident in their body, and likes to show it off – cannot be a victim of sexual assault. That being a survivor of sexual violence and a woman who posts nude selfies are mutually exclusive. It’s a view that’s appallingly sexist, outdated and frighteningly inaccurate, but sadly it’s not an isolated one.
Emily Ratajkowski, the model and actress, has alleged that photographer Jonathan Leder sexually assaulted her back in 2012. In an essay that she’s written for New York magazine, she says it happened at an unpaid photoshoot at his home that required an overnight stay. During the shoot, which required her to be shot in lingerie and nude, she says she drank ‘so much wine that giant black spots were expanding and floating in front of my eyes. ’
She then writes: ‘Most of what came next was a blur except for the feeling. I don’t remember kissing, but I do remember his fingers suddenly being inside of me. I brought my hand instinctively to his wrist and pulled his fingers out of me with force. I didn’t say a word. ’
Leder has since distanced himself from the quotes. In a statement to Glamour sent by his company Imperial Pictures Publishing, he firmly denies Ratajkowski’s ‘outrageous’ allegations of assault, and also states that his comments ‘were completely taken out of context’ and he is now pursuing legal action.
None of this is new to Ratajkowski. Several years earlier, she was a victim of a hacking scandal where nude images of her were released onto the internet without her permission. In her essay she writes about the toll this had on her mental health, causing her to lose weight and even lose hair: ‘I’d been destroyed. ’ But back then, online commenters questioned her right to be upset. She posed nude for magazines, so why did she care that private nude photographs of her were released?
A few years later, she says her images were then used without her permission by Leder, who published a book featuring the photographs he’d taken of her back in 2012. His team said on the matter: “We have every legal right to publish our books of Ms. Ratajkowski – despite what she has tried to maintain to the press. Ms. Ratajkowski knows that, and her lawyers know that. She knows she has no legal recourse to stop publication, so bad mouthing the photographer (again) with false and salacious, baseless accusations seems to be her newfound answer. ”
He was legally entitled to do so, but Ratajkowski, who says she was unaware of his plans to do so and hadn’t been paid for the photographs, took to Twitter to express her feelings. The responses? ‘You could always keep your clothes on and then you won’t be bothered by these things,’ as written by one woman.
It is this recurring idea that women who are sexually empowered cannot be deemed victims of sexual harassment or assault that makes Ratajkowski’s essay so moving to read. She’s just one woman who has experiences of this and is sharing them publicly. But victim blaming is all too prevalent in our world, even in light of #MeToo. Women who wear revealing clothes, or like to have lots of sex, or work in the sex industry, are all judged – so much so that they’re often blamed for acts of sexual violence committed against them.
Recently Megan Barton-Hanson, former Love Island contestant and glamour model, shared that her ex sent her messages where he slut-shamed her for her sex work. ‘Don’t ever let anyone belittle you for using your femininity to get that dollar’, she wrote on her Instagram. But belittling is just the tip of the slut-shaming iceberg, where women who proudly show their sexuality and nude bodies on social media are told they’re ‘asking for it. ’
Back in 2016, Ratajkwoski acknowledged this reality in an essay for Lenny Letter, saying that her decision to strip off is a feminist one. But she also accepted that it’s complex. And four years on, the question she asked back then still stands today, perhaps even more pertinent in light of her recent claims: ‘Honoring our sexuality as women is a messy, messy business, but if we don’t try, what do we become? ’
