Uncut

Schadenfreude, in German it means happiness at the misfortune of others. We don’t have a word for this in English, but if we did it would be www.isanyoneup.com 

If anyone is still somehow oblivious to uproar this website has caused, let me enlighten you. Remember those naked pictures you took for your boyfriend when he went away last summer? Remember the other dozen pictures you sent to random guys because sexting when you’re bored seems like a good idea? They’re all up there. At least they could be, that is the premise for the website, pictures you intended for one person to view, shown to all. This site is not limited to female pictures, on the contrary the exhibitionism goes both ways, displaying bad tattoos on both genders in the “scene” niche it seems to be catered to. 

Many of the male photos are of musicians, varying from arena selling artists to the guy still living with his parents and jamming in his garage. As for the pictures of the girls, they are for the most part of the type to be enthralled with this profession. The photos are then left to the mercy of the spectators, anonymous hecklers critiquing or condoning your most intimate of areas. This displays what I believe to be intrinsic to human nature, our sense of narcissism. Everyone on the website either self submitted or not felt confident enough in themselves to take such revealing photos. I whole heartedly believe there is nothing wrong with self fascination, to enjoy the way you look and desire to share it with others, however perhaps the world wide web was not your chosen audience.

The most appalling factor of the website is not that these genuine photos of nudity have been elevated to mass accessible view, but that somewhere along the line someone broke your trust. Sending photos of yourself to another is a sense of gratification because you intend to hear their response, you willingly put it in their hands. When that control is taken from you suddenly the appeal is lost, mortification. This is of course only prevalent to those pictures that are submitted by others, those who self submit are still consciously acting out of their own narcissism. When I was blackmailed by a former lover, someone I had previously trusted, threatened with being submitted if I did not comply with his demands it was not shame for my body which alarmed me, but the vicious act itself. 

I for one find is anyone up? thoroughly entertaining, I absolutely partake in happiness at the misfortune of others. My only gripe would be that it creates a platform to easily betray the trust of others, which I consider the greater harm rather than a naked photo which the participant is obviously comfortable with taking.