Woman Finds Her Photos on ‘Hot or Not’ Site After Shaving Her Head

Kevann Carter made a disturbing discovery online. (Photo courtesy of Kevann Carter)

Kevann Carter was shocked when she discovered photos of herself on a stranger’s Instagram account, through which he asked others to rate her appearance. Carter, a 24-year-old musician and copywriter in Canada, had recently shaved off her long hair after being inspired by the hashtag #girlswithbuzzcuts. Hoping to inspire other women to do the same, Carter posted some selfies with the hashtag. That’s how the man — who gives his name as John on the Instagram account lifetooshortforboringhair — found photos of her and then reposted them, asking his 2,000-plus followers whether she looked hotter “before or after” shaving her head.

“This user liked one such photo [of mine], and out of curiosity, I went to his page,” Carter tells Yahoo Beauty. “I saw the way he was putting people up for discussion and was really uncomfortable with it. I scrolled through and saw he’d used my photos. Seeing it made me feel incredibly violated. I shaved my head in hopes of freeing myself from the male gaze, but instead, I was being sexualized for it.”

A stranger asked his followers to rate Carter’s appearance in this post. (Photo courtesy of Kevann Carter).

For Carter, shaving off her long locks was supposed to be a symbol of independence for her. “I have always felt that I needed long hair to feel beautiful, to feel feminine,” she told Canada’s CBC News. “I was always concerned with, ‘What will men think if I don’t have long hair?’” She had hoped that shaving it all off would free her from that. Instead, Carter says it somehow got warped into an excuse to objectify and discuss her “like a sculpture.” “My looks, my body, my face, my hair, anything like that, is not up for discussion,” she says. “Making my appearance a matter of public opinion is saying that my body is public property.”

Carter says this issue isn’t just about her, noting the ongoing trend that seems to dictate that anything a woman does or doesn’t do is for male consumption. “It’s ridiculous, and it’s infuriating,” she says. “I want the world to let me and every other female-presenting person in the world exist without someone making it about them or their opinion. I want people to understand that it’s OK to appreciate a hairstyle or eye color or freckles or anything like that. But it’s not OK to dehumanize someone because of it, even if you think it’s complimentary. If you want to use someone’s photos, ask consent, and make sure that person understands the context under which they will be posted. Because the only one who has the right to invite criticism to my look is me. Period.”

Tamara Shepherd, a University of Calgary media studies professor, agrees. “At the surface level, it seems like something somewhat flattering is the argument people might make on the opposite side, but by the same token, this whole issue of consent is clearly a big problem,” Shepherd told CBC News. “The other problem is the gendered nature, the way that women’s photographs in particular circulate in masculine online spaces.”

Although having privacy settings can help, Shepherd added that they still may not protect you from having a stranger use a photo of yours. “As soon as something goes online, even if you think you have privacy settings on it, there are all kinds of ways you can screenshot or circumvent those settings,” she noted. “Anything you ever post Facebook, even if you delete it, it still exists somewhere.”

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