Samantha Bee uses Rep. Katie Hill's resignation to tackle the complicated scourge of 'revenge porn'

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Full Frontal)

published 31 October 2019

First-term Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) will give her final floor speech on Thursday and resign on Friday after she acknowledged an inappropriate relationship with a campaign staffer but denied allegations about a sexual relationship with a congressional aide. Her departure may raise issues about double standards for male and female politicians. But "Hill's resignation is the right thing to do — you should not have sex with the people who work for you," Samantha Bee said on Wednesday's Full Frontal, making one exception for Capt. Von Trapp of Sound of Music fame.

"So yes, Katie Hill is making the right call, but she herself is a victim of something that is disturbing and wrong," revenge porn, Bee said. "Hill says her private photos were leaked, without her consent, by her estranged husband, and published by RedState and the Daily Mail, two of the vilest, nastiest things to exist on the internet. ... Revenge porn weaponizes people's sexuality against them, and it doesn't just hurt people living public lives — 12 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have had intimate photos shared without their consent."

"The issue isn't with people taking nude pictures, the issue is with the people who share them without consent," Bee said. Almost every state — 46 of 50 — has a revenge porn law. "But those laws don't always go far enough," some requiring the victim to prove malicious intent, while in Arizona, for example, they "went way too far," she explained. "No one is saying this is easy to get right," though Illinois hit the sweet spot by focusing on consent, not motivation. But Bee saw hope for a federal law, too, because "if there's one politician who definitely has intimate recordings he doesn't want to get leaked," it's the guy who would sign the legislation. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.