And so, a month after the first tranche of female celebrity nude pictures were leaked by hackers on 4Chan, a male victim has emerged.
‘Who?’ social media chorused.
For those who aren’t familiar with his work (and – full disclosure - I wasn’t), Hogan, 24, is a former reality TV star and son of wrestler Hulk Hogan.
He reportedly had personal photographs stolen from the iCloud and released over the weekend, alongside those alleging to feature Winona Ryder, model Erin Heatherton and actress AnnaLynne McCord.
The leak comes after female celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens and Jessica Brown-Findlay had nude images and intimate video footage published online without their consent. More than 100 female celebrities in all are reported to have had their personal accounts hacked.
We didn’t know if any men had been subjected to the same treatment – until now.
The images purporting to show Hogan (he has claimed that some are not of him) also feature his high school girlfriends.
And that, to be frank, is about all there is to say about them.
Simply, Hogan isn’t as high-profile as Lawrence or Rihanna. We’re unlikely to see any ‘Nick Hogan pictured out and about following naked photo scandal’ headlines splashed around, or an in-depth analysis of the slogan t-shirt he’s been snapped wearing (Lawrence was ‘spotted’ with a Roald Dahl quote on hers: ‘'If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely").
But does that mean we shouldn’t care that he’s been hacked? Shrug our shoulders and go back to thinking about the female A-listers?
Of course not. Hogan might not be a global household name, but he’s just as valid-a-victim.
What’s more, the publishing of his personal pictures tells us something extra about the hackers themselves.
Following the suggestion that naked images of Emma Watson were to be released (later proved to be a hoax), I wrote in these pages that the hackers had exposed their true motive and deep-seated misogyny.
This was, I said, a mission to remove power from women in the public eye and make them vulnerable. By exposing celebrities such as Kim Kardashian – who have publicly taken control of their body image – they sought to bring them down. To crush them.
I stand by that. The people responsible are unscrupulous, unethical, money-grabbing criminals.
But now it seems that they’re laughing at us. Consider the timing. The release of Hogan’s nude photographs comes just a couple of days after more than a dozen unnamed female victims of the hacking scandal threatened to sue Google for $100 million
Marty Singer, a prominent Los Angeles entertainment lawyer, accused Google of "making millions from the victimisation of women" in a letter written on behalf of his celebrity clients. They had, he said, failed to adequately remove the images from its search index and websites.
His words made headlines around the world. It seems inconceivable that the hackers wouldn’t have seen them, or read the phrase ‘victimisation of women’.
Is it a coincidence that we now have a male victim, too?
The hackers seem to be poking fun at us – at the weeks we’ve spent railing against the unfair targeting of female celebrities. This isn’t a message about gender, though. It’s them saying: "We can victimise anyone we want. It’s in our power and you won’t stop us."
Not only that, the implication seems to be that the hackers are prepared to respond to our attempts to speak up. If we – or the current victims – dare put our heads above the parapet, there will be retribution.
It might seem like the celebrities are the victims here and their nude images are being provided for our titillation. But, with this latest move, have the hackers shown that they’re actually making fools out of us all?
I'd love to ask them, of course. Not being able to offer the right of reply is disconcerting. So if any hacker wants to let us know just what they're hoping to gain, do drop us a line @TeleWonderWomen on Twitter.
But, to me - and even though Nick Hogan is a minor celebrity - this latest hacking is the surest sign yet that we simply can’t afford to look the other way.
Join the conversation with Claire and TeleWonderWomen.
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