Celebrity Hacked Nudes: What really needs to be said

We live in a society where sex sells: whether it's plastered on page three of a newspaper, a woman's naked physique used to advertise a product (this is actually objectification and is beyond bad), or a provocative joke on a sitcom.

But the recent trend of hacking into multiple celebrity iCloud's to retrieve naked photos takes this to a whole new level. You only need to look to twitter or facebook's trends to see who the latest victim is. Then you see a never-ending list of people who are asking for a link to the photos. This is the big problem.

Instead of doing so, we need to be teaching each other and spreading the news of how awful this is, that someone had it in them to steal these, which are private property. Jennifer Lawrence has been quoted saying to Vanity Fair:

                "It's not a scandal. It's a sex crime,"

But this is not the way people are seeing it. Many are holding the position of 'they shouldn't be doing it in the first place', or 'they had it coming', or that 'they're a slut'. I beg to differ, and so should everyone else: that's why the property (in these cases, naked pictures) was passworded, so it remained private.

There also needs to be a break the chain of this slut shaming. The general definition which people tend to follow (which is also derogatory), is someone who has a lot of sex. Yet, from what I can tell from several of these cases, it was for one specific person, as was the case of Jennifer Lawrence (she has explicitly said they were for her boyfriend of four years, while they were in a long distance relationship) or each other, for example Matt Smith and Daisy Lowe.

The real "slut" is the person who is leaking these: throwing their dignity out the window and fucking people over all over the world (metaphorically, that is).

Celebrities will make a large sum of money, and percentage of income from placing their name against a product, and a lot may lose those contracts. Their families may be taunted by those people who hunt and consume these photos. They may also lose friends who have been taught to think by the media that they are shameful and disgusting, and are not someone to associate with.

I urge you to break the link and teach each other that it is not these people's (yes, whoa, celebrities= people) fault, and to support them by maybe sending a friendly tweet, or simply to not hunt down these pictures. This is the only way to stop this and end the criminal activity: it ends with a change in your behaviour.

The September Issue: a Scottish Teen's view on the Referendum

The 18th of September is rapidly approaching, and for you, it might be a normal day, but for me, and over 5.2 million others, our lives could change forever.

I'm talking about the Scottish Referendum: where everyone over the age of sixteen, may vote to decide if the country becomes independent from the rest of the UK or not.

I'd like to take a different view of the whole charade than all the politicians, journalists, and campaigners have.

You can attempt to avoid the media, and damn it, I've tried, but you'll still somehow end up being bombarded with "the facts", from both sides.

Let's go back to the word "fact". The Oxford Dictionary states that it is "a thing that is known or proven to be true".

Forecasted numbers and persuasive statements seem to have been plugged together and fed to the country on a drip, from both Yes and Better Together. A quick google search is all it takes to be insulted by the millions of results that appear, or to turn on the tv to hear about some other poll or statistic. It's as if we've all of a sudden we have become a marketing competition, and the prize is an independent country, or remaining part of the UK, depending on your political affiliation.

This is where I suppose my choice comes into play. I love answers, as an accounting student, but the inner modern studies pupil comes out when events like this happen.

I'm all for Better Together, but why? 

Scotland has a history of success behind it as a part of the UK. Real, actual things that have happened... facts!

Another thing I am also fearful of is, what will happen to the three main parties, which want to remain united, if we become independent? I can only see one outcome of an SNP takeover with very little check or balance.
The "Yes people" continue to talk about the opportunities we need to take, how it will be "difficult", a "challenge", but it will help us in the long run (...right?). I'm yet to be enlightened as to who will put in this effort if yes is voted. As a part of the United Kingdom, we really do have a lot of privileges that will be virtually impossible to rebuild independently.

In short, I'm scared. No one know's what's going to happen, and don't let anyone else try to tell you what will. Unless some guy called Marty McFly comes up to you with a Sports Almanac including results for the next fifty years, then put all your money on those results.

What is your opinion on the way Scotland has been treated by the Yes and Better Together Campaigners, as well as the media?

More Soon!
-Jen