Akkam’s Razor

South Jersey girl Antonella Barba has had someone leak some erotic (and pornographic, go look for them yourself if you want them - NSFW) photos of her on the internets, prompting some to say that she may get the boot from American Idol.  Is this yet another example of schadenfraude gone wild? Are Americans too anxious to see the rich and famous, infamous, and newly-famous fall from grace?

Perhaps Craig Ferguson had the right answer in some cases. And in a time when nearly everyone has digital cameras, there's mountains of homegrown pron out there [survey, no images, just text, probably SFW]. Even the judge in Brittney's "sex-tape" libel suit [pdf, 3rd page, lines 3-9] thought it's not that big a deal.

"Applying any legal standard propounded by the Plaintiff, is it "sexually deviant,"¹ "immoral sexual condict,"² "lustfull and sexually promiscuous,"³ pornographic,⁴ "extremely promiscuous,"⁵ or "serious misconduct"⁶ for any married couple to tape themselves having sex for their own personal use, in this day and age?  Arguably not."

Is it really a big deal? Is the big deal that the photos exist, that they were leaked, or that she allowed them to be taken?  And what of the guy in the pictures?  Is this the double standard at work?  When you read some of the comments by people criticizing her, it sounds like they are making an analogy to American Indians and fears that having their pictures taken would steal their souls - does Barba become cheapened by those photos?