‘Navajo Nude Trading’ becomes a new form of sexualizing Diné women
PHOENIX
What started as a simple “selfie” ended up being a way for men to sexualize Navajo women over the internet.
Reddit is an online platform to share posts and join communities with similar interests. One of the communities on Reddit is called “Navajo Nude Trading.”
Community members in that group share pictures of Navajo women they like and ask the community if anyone has that woman’s nudes.
Renae Blackwater, Navajo, and Oglala Lakota student at Arizona State University, said posting a Navajo woman’s picture is dehumanizing.
Blackwater found out she was on the Reddit account from another person, and somebody had used her face on someone else’s nude photos. In her picture’s comment section, community members said she “looked easy.”
“It’s worrisome if you put yourself out there on social media now and someone takes advantage of who you are and what you post and then sexualizes you,” Blackwater said. “It’s a hard feeling. Personally, it doesn’t make me feel like a human. It makes me feel like an object.”
While the community members on Reddit can stay anonymous on other social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, users are typically not anonymous.
Read the full story in the May 18 edition of the Navajo Times.
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