Inside Reddit's Nude Traders Club: Dark forum where men swap wives' nudes WITHOUT consent
A secret world of online nude trading has been recently revealed. Here men — mostly without consent — trade their partners’ pictures. Cosmopolitan writer Jennifer Savin, who exposed this world, noted that there are a number of online groups available on sites like Reddit, “where users – anonymous with names like H4lfP4stMidnight* and Mr_Yellow_Guy* – scrutinize, rate and trade nudes of women they allegedly know or are in relationships with, like human Pokemon cards.”
Reportedly, ‘Wife Pic Trading’ is one of the many such online forums found on Reddit. This particular group, which was created in mid-2015, has more than 270K members and the description reads, “DO NOT MAKE ANY POSTS WITHOUT POSTING A PIC!!!!!!! Please read our Pinned Posts. for candaulists, couples, husbands, wives, gf's, etc. to connect and trade pics, videos, and whatever else. who knows, you might even meet after a casual conversation. Hey everyone. Over the past year this sub has grown a tremendous amount. While seeing so many new members contribute is wonderful, unfortunately means more issues that pop up.”
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For her Cosmopolitan piece, Savin also spoke to a woman, whose name has been changed to Aimee, who recalled an incident when she found out how her then-boyfriend shared a naked photo of her to his friends' WhatsApp group without her knowledge. She told the author, “We’d been together for years at that point, so I completely trusted him. George [her ex whose name has also been changed] got embarrassed and told his friends to shut up, but I wouldn’t let it drop — which is when one of them said George had put the picture in their WhatsApp group chat.”
Aimee opened about her trauma: “The thought of them all discussing my body, without my knowledge, made me feel so small and so attacked. Even though they were saying nice things, it didn’t make a difference,” before stating, “When I asked why George thought sharing my naked photo was acceptable, he just said I ‘looked fit’ and that he wanted to ‘show me off’. So, in turn, you almost feel silly, or like you’re not allowed to be upset or annoyed about it.”
Savin then mentioned, “My discussion with Aimee got me reflecting: we think we know what revenge porn is. But do we really? If put on the spot, the majority of us would likely say it’s when a vengeful ex-partner (or current abusive partner) shares an intimate video or image(s) without your consent. And while this is correct, it’s certainly not the whole story.”
Savin also spoke with Dr Laura Vowels, principal researcher at sex therapy app Blueheart, who told her: “If [someone] views [their] partner solely as a sexual object, they might think there’s nothing wrong with non-consensually sharing these images — or might know it’s wrong but choose to share them anyway, perhaps as a way of asserting control over their partner.”
However, it’s not that only men are involved in these kinds of activities. Savin in her article mentioned that “some women on these forums say they are actually in on it, finding it hot that others online are getting turned on over them, or that their partner is sharing them,” as she added: “This act is known as ‘candaulism’ – wherein one person exposes their partner to others for pleasure, and it’s made evermore possible by websites like Swap Smut or Fab Swingers (where couples can create joint profiles) to mutually masturbate over the same material, potentially meeting in person later on.”
When Savin reached out to Reddit asking about these forums, a spokesperson responded by saying, “Our site-wide policies prohibit intimate or sexually explicit media of someone without their consent. We will continue to remove content that violates these policies and take action against users that engage in such behavior.”