From a recent article in the Newnan Times-Herald, Newnan, Ga.: “It is not wise to have photos of nude or scantily clad women on your phone, especially if your girlfriend will find them. But such was the case this weekend. And that ended up with the man and his girlfriend both being arrested on battery charges and ending up at the Coweta County Jail. Coweta County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to the Forest Circle Apartments early Saturday to break up a fight.
According to Major Jimmy Yarbrough with the sheriff’s office, it all started when (the girlfriend), 21, got up to get a drink of water. “‘She heard her boyfriend’s phone go off and saw that the number was from another woman,’ Yarbrough said. ‘She then started going through the phone and saw photos of other women … in various stages of undress.’
“‘That’s when things got ugly.’”
Ah, the joys of modern technology.
Here’s what I simply do not understand: Why do women, and even teenage girls, allow men and boys to take nude or revealing photographs of themselves?
Here’s the dirty little truth, ladies: Men show the pictures to other people.
Oh, I know he promises that he won’t, but he will. The photos, you see, are trophies. They are like a school letter on a letter jacket. Guys assume they are meant to be shown off. When Bubba gets that 10-point buck, Bubba will brag about it, tell the story of the kill in great detail to anyone who will listen, and may even go from friend to friend and house to house with the dead deer in the bed of the pickup truck, proudly displaying the beast and boasting what a mighty hunter he is.
They do the same thing with your nude photos. Trust me. They do.
If you are fortunate, they will only reveal your intimate poses (and your betrayed naive trust) to their best buds. If you are not, millions of guys from every nation on the technological earth will view you in all your glory on the Internet for decades to come. There are even websites where men can go to post nude photographs of their wives, girlfriends, or ex-wives and ex-girlfriends.
Now to say that all guys will do this, I realize, is a generalization. Like, “All Japanese like rice,” or “all Southerners like grits.” It is, however, safe to say that the large and vast majority of Japanese like rice and that most Southerners like grits. Some minuscule few do not. It’s the same with guys and their trophy photos.
I also realize that this article will not make me popular with the men and teenage boys who have been pressuring the females in their lives to let then take the nude pictures. However, I now have eight granddaughters whom I care about far more that the opinions of guys who do not care anymore about the women they want to photograph than they do the 10-point buck in the back of the pickup.
And, ladies, you think your husband would never, ever show these photos around? Well, maybe you are right. You better hope he never becomes your ex-husband. What if the photos get lost? And what if they are someday found by your kids, or grandkids?
Some things are not meant to be shared with the world. It’s one thing to be a trophy wife or a trophy girlfriend. It’s quite another to have these trophies displayed all over town or, worse, all over the world.
Don’t take the chance. You may live to regret it. Stay dressed for the camera.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, 4881 Hwy. 34 E., Sharpsburg, GA 30277. Services are held Sundays at 8:30 and 10 a.m. (www.ctkcec.org). He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese (www.midsouthdiocese.org) and is the mission pastor of Christ the King Fellowship in Champaign, IL. He may be contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]
