Introduction

This essay starts by dealing with the narrative of Hunter Moore’s controversial website that used to depict naked women as an act of revenge. The analysis of this text seeks to aim at how shame can cause behaviour such as this misogynistic conduct by Moore. In this demonstration, it ceases to answer that perhaps Moore acted this way because he felt shame about his life. 

Is Hunter Moore's Misogynistic Behaviour Due To Shame?

Hunter Moore hates women even though the irony is that he is the most hated man on the internet (Vrajlal, 2022). He is a misogynistic abusive man who would upload revenge porn on a website he created called ‘Is anyone up’, around 2010 (Vrajlal, 2022).

" Me and my friends would post a bunch of girls on 'Is Anyone Up?' and we just got a bunch of traffic one day, and I was like 'Yo, I can make money of titties and f**king people over' " - Hunter Moore

The women were innocent victims who were unaware of him having these pictures and did not consent to him uploading the content on his website. Their exes or acquaintances would get a hold of their naked pictures. They would send them to Hunter and he would upload these videos/pictures. This is how he was able to find and upload revenge porn. This was going on for several years until the FBI started investigating this case in 2012.

One of the victim's mothers was able to grab their attention and prove that her daughter's and other victims' naked pictures were unwillingly being exposed on his website. Eventually, in April 2012, the website was shut down and sold to an anti-bullying group, because Hunter was threatened by a hacker. It is good to see that this problem was solved. However, what would drive Hunter to create such an awful website and continuously abuse the victims by sharing their private content and not stopping? 

© Screenshot/ Book 'Is Anyone UP ?' by Hunter Moore

Figure 1. This Book is from Hunter Moore that is supposed to be 'fun'.

By looking at this problem from a more philosophical approach, it is possible to assume that his actions stem from shame. As Aristotle defines shame as a pain or disturbance, that is over a ‘bad deed in the present, past or future’ (Bartlett, 20212). This means that Hunter must have felt in some way ashamed about something that has happened to him in the past, that would drive him to do this. He obviously wants to hurt these women, by uploading these pictures and videos without their consent. And it seems as if he is justifying his behaviour.

He thinks it is his right to upload this content since there is nothing explicitly stopping him, like the law. Some websites claim that he was heartbroken by girls and so the creation of the site was considered an act of revenge (Weston, 2022). Nobody can confirm this fact, so it is not really true. Another rumour is that apparently Hunter's original idea for the website was to create a nightlife site, but he and his friends received a lot of sexually explicit pictures from women (Vrajlal, 2022). This gave him the idea to expose them, which made him incredibly rich since the site made money through people visiting the site and for advertising.

One fact that is certain is that Hunter did not feel guilty for what he has done. He had a grandiose self-esteem, that would not budge under any certain circumstances. He was not apologetic or gave up the site until he was officially sued and the site had to be given up due to the continued hacking. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, Moore was convicted for his crime, but the bigger picture is to understand his intent. This has been done through analysis of how shame, according to philosophical works from Aristotle, possibly relates to Moore’s behaviour. It is, therefore, plausible to conclude that he is misogynistic and will not stop to behave like in this case. This means that Moore will not change as long he is ashamed of his life. 

References 

Bartlett, R. C. (2021, March 12). Aristotle’s “Art of Rhetoric” (First). University of Chicago Press.

Vrajlal, A. (2022, August 5). Who Is ‘The Most Hated Man On The Internet’ Hunter Moore & Where Is He Now? Refinery29. Retrieved October 8, 2022, from https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2022/08/11075373/where-is-hunter-moore

Weston, C. (2022, August 4). Why did Hunter Moore start IsAnyoneUp and does he regret it? HITC. Retrieved October 8, 2022, from https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/08/04/why-did-hunter-moore-start-isanyon...