One blogger and mother of two, Meg Ireland, has a warning for fellow moms after making the unfortunate discovery that her pregnancy pictures were being reposted on a preggophilia site.
Apparently, these sites are advertised as "forums for admirers of pregnant women," which basically means pregnancy porn. While Meg had her first child two years ago, she reposted a selfie of her baby bump on Instagram this week to warn other moms about these predatory websites. In the caption of her post, she wrote,
That time my bump went viral in a not so good way. This bump pic along with around 15 other pictures ended up on an online "preggophilia" site. Which is a porn site for people who like pregnant women. I see so many people upload their bump pics and now I just gasp and hope to god they don't get into the hands of someone they shouldn't. We shouldn't have to worry about people stealing our photos, but unfortunately it happens ALL THE TIME!
Meg went on to explain that when she posted the pictures, her profile was private. She explained to MailOnline that the person who stole them was impersonating a member on a private mom's forum.
After threatening the preggophilia website with legal action, they agreed to take her pictures down. However, while looking for her own pictures on these sites, she discovered husbands, brother-in-laws and even colleagues were reposting images without the women's consent.
It's one thing to have a fetish, but it's another thing entirely to use a woman's personal photos for a sexual purpose without her consent. To be perfectly clear, personal fetishes aren't disgusting, but a blatant invasion of privacy is.
While some criticized Meg for posting images to the Internet at all, she bounced back with the best answer, writing,
Was I to blame for this? People would say I should only blame myself for uploading 'personal pictures' and that it was my own fault (even though my profile was then private). I see it differently. I didn't care that someone had screen shot my photo to show someone, it's was what they did with my photo that made me physically sick to my stomach.
Ultimately, the onus should be on the creeps stealing other people's private pictures, not the mothers who are joyfully sharing updates with their friends and family. This is just one of the many ways our patriarchal society is trying to shame women into keeping quiet and staying out of the public sphere.
Well fuck that. I say share all the pregnancy pictures you want and sue the bastards behind these sites for all they're worth. That should send a message.
Citations: Woman shocked to find her private pictures on preggophilia fetish site (Metro)
