The Conservative Cat

I mention this because of the recent controversy surrounding Vanessa Hudgens, but she is not the first person to fall victim to this problem. A similar thing happened to Dr. Laura Schlesinger in 1998. The Doctor Laura of today is a crusader for traditional values, but in her distant past she was a counter-culture feminist and let her boyfriend get intimate with a camera, with painful results. Before that, Vanessa Williams lost her crown as the 1984 Miss America because of photos which she thought were legally protected from publication.

Once upon a time, you could eliminate a photograph's potential for harm by destroying the negative. Today, not only does the average person have the ability to copy any image, negative or positive, he can alter the image to make it into something entirely different. In the film Shattered Glass, one of the characters points out that Steven Glass could not have got away with creating his phony stories if the New Republic magazine used pictures. You can be sure that wouldn't stop him in today's world.

What bothers me is the possibility of young women letting a boyfriend loose with a digital camera while they're in their underwear or less. It may seem sexy now, but after the breakup, when everyone is feeling the need for revenge, there's no way to prevent the pictures from appearing on MySpace. Actually, I'm not even sure you should allow someone to take a picture of your face. It would take only 20 minutes with Adobe Photoshop to put your face on Bruce's body, and then you'll never get another date for the rest of your life. (I love my pet, but he's never been what you'd call an example of ideal female form.)

So do yourself a favor and think before you pose in front of a camera. It may seem real nifty to flout society's conventions and proclaim that you're proud of your appearance, but you're not going to be young and crazy forever. Trust me on this.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat