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Pop CultureMarch 29, 2022

What we can learn from MAFS AU’s nude photo scandal

FeatureImage_MAFS

The recent nude photo scandal on Married At First Sight Australia has caused a huge controversy across the ditch, so what can local audiences take from it in Aotearoa? 

This month on Married at First Sight Australia, the show was rocked by the latest in a string of controversies. But where previous scandals this season have involved grimy contestant affairs, a groom putting his feet on the coffee table and another doing an ill-timed shoey, this one pierced through the reality show walls and into the real world. 

After contestant Olivia Frazer circulated an intimate photo from fellow bride Domenica Calarco’s OnlyFans account without her consent, the show became an unlikely platform for a complex conversation about image-based abuse. Although she claimed to have just been “passing it on”, a well-documented grudge held against Calarco by Frazer suggested there were sinister motivations behind sharing the image, a fact which audiences quickly picked up on. 

When grilled by the show’s relationship experts as to her reasons for sharing the image, which was publicly available but sensitive in nature, Frazer simply shrugged “I don’t know”. Although unfazed by her OnlyFans being exposed, Calarco was clearly hurt by the way it was shared behind her back, saying through tears at the weekly commitment ceremony that she felt there had been “malicious intent to hurt her.” In a private interview, Frazer unblinkingly told the camera: “She deserves it”. 

Domenica Calarco during the MAFS AU nude photo scandal (Photo: Married At First Sight Australia)

Last week, things got even more real. The New South Wales police confirmed that a complaint had been made to officers “about the alleged distribution of an image without consent that occurred in late 2021,” a police spokesperson said. “Inquiries are continuing and no further information is available at this stage.” Elsewhere, a petition for the E-Safety Commissioner to take action against Frazer gathered 123,932 signatures.

Sean Lyons, Netsafe’s online safety operations centre manager, says that the petition is a “natural reaction” when someone appears to be suffering harm on a very public platform like reality television. He also finds it encouraging. “I think it’s great that a number of people will get together to express that this isn’t OK,” he says. “It’s really important, when these things do happen in public, that they are taken seriously and they are looked at and investigated.” 

The outcomes in Australia for both Frazer and the MAFS production remain to be seen. Lyons says Netsafe, if put in a similar position here, would be taking the matter very seriously. The first thing that would be examined, he says, is how the content was used, rather than what the content contained. “We’d really be looking at the intent behind the sharing of that information – was this done in some way to harm an individual, to cause shame or embarrassment?”

The petition

The television element could also exponentially increase the level of harm caused, he says. “When these things play out in public, people are more inclined to try and contact the person involved, or make their own posts sharing and talking about it,” he says. In recent years, there have been multiple comparable examples locally, including Anna Saxton’s sex tape revelation on MAFS NZ and the exposure of an MKRNZ contestant’s porn background in the media. 

“We’ve seen through history that reality shows like this, where you take someone who is not a celebrity and then you thrust them into the public eye, there certainly is a responsibility for the show to support the emotional wellbeing of the individual,” says Lyons. “It needs to be ensured that people on these shows understand the potential for what could happen online if their name and their image is suddenly a tradable commodity.” 

But even if this hadn’t happened on television, Lyons says the negative impact of this kind of photo sharing would remain. “If was only those eight people who ever saw the content, that alone is still important. If those people are significant to you, or you are worried about how they will look at you, treat you, talk to you, or think of you as a result of that sharing, that can frankly be as harmful as a post that was shared with a million people.”

Liv is confronted by Dom in the fallout from the MAFS AU nude photo scandal (Photo: Married At First Sight Australia)

The malicious sharing of sensitive images is “not uncommon” in New Zealand says Lyon, and has been on a “worrying” rise in recent years. “We commonly see these things after relationship breakdowns, when individuals may at times use the images or use the threat of their possession to manipulate their ex-partner.” On OnlyFans, where creators monetise their intimate images and share them with an audience, Lyons says the same harm assessment still applies. 

“Where the intent is to directly and deliberately harm people, it doesn’t matter if it is OnlyFans or not, it is not something that any of us should have to put up with.” 

Another of the MAFS AU contestants, Tamara Djordjevic, repeatedly uttered an unhelpful sentiment that Netsafe have encountered before – “if you post something like that, you have to face it.” Lyons says it doesn’t matter whether the content is private or art or music or adult. “It matters about somebody’s rights to be able to produce material and function online without someone taking that out of their control.” 

Although the storyline created a deeply uncomfortable situation on Married at First Sight Australia, Lyons hopes it can be used to raise awareness of the nuances of image-based abuse for New Zealand audiences. “Our hope is that nobody would have to experience this kind of situation but, given this has happened, it would also be a real loss if nothing came of it,” he says. 

“If what people see from this is that the internet can be a place where people can participate safely, without fear of harm, then perhaps that is the silver lining that comes from this particularly ugly cloud.”


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You’ve been thunderstruck, James Fraser (Design: Tina Tiller)
You’ve been thunderstruck, James Fraser (Design: Tina Tiller)

Pop CultureMarch 29, 2022

Outlander recap: Jamie Fraser is greased lightning

You’ve been thunderstruck, James Fraser (Design: Tina Tiller)
You’ve been thunderstruck, James Fraser (Design: Tina Tiller)

Jamie Fraser’s face told a thousand stories in this week’s episode of Outlander, and all of them were sad. Tara Ward recaps episode four of season six.

Friends, we are at the halfway point of our Outlander journey, and season six is turning into the tenderest season yet. Like the three before it, this episode was filled with quiet moments, emotional conversations and inspiring wisdom. We also had Claire drugging her mates in the name of medical progress, and a bit of Fraser hanky panky involving the phrases “lubricated brilliance”, “greased lightning”, and “were you not thunderstruck there at the end?” Oh Outlander, never change.

Ian and his wife Wahionhaweh

Episode four belonged to Young Ian, who finally revealed why he came back to Fraser’s Ridge. As he and Jamie visited the Cherokee to deliver weapons from the Crown, Ian opened up about his life with the Mohawk. He told Jamie he had loved a woman named Wahionhaweh, but their child died at birth. Ian was banished from the tribe to return to his own family, only to discover his friend Kaheroton – who happened to be with the Cherokee as Jamie and Ian arrived – had taken Ian’s place with Wahionhaweh.

The flashbacks explained why Ian struggles to find a place he feels he belongs, and nobody understands that quandary better than his favourite uncle. Jamie Fraser is a rebel, a loyalist, an agent of the Crown and an enemy of the king. He’s got a lot on, and I guess if they had personalised plates in 1773, Jamie would struggle to find the perfect word to sum himself up. No pressure, but pretty sure “B1GG1NGE” would do the trick.

B1GG1INGE was mad

Things were tense in North Carolina. Everyone wanted to fight and there were lots of big weapons, and nobody was more worried than Jamie Fraser. He looked into the distance, he stared into his soul. Did he need a tissue for his issue? No. God blessed Jamie with a furrowed brow, a clenched jaw and a face that tells a story without a single word falling from those tightly strained lips.

Jamie was frustrated when Brianna told him what would happen to Cherokee Nation in sixty years time, and he fumed when drunk Scotsman Alexander Cameron picked a fight at the Cherokee camp. Poor Jamie, he never wanted any of this. He just wanted to go home and pick wild strawberries with his hot wife while he harmonised the chorus to ‘Greased Lightning’ like he was Danny Zuko in a T-Bird jacket.

Loves a high note

But wherever Jamie Fraser’s face goes, we go too. In a heartfelt scene, Ian opened up about the grief of losing a child, and Jamie revealed that he and Claire had experienced the same trauma. These are the  moments that Outlander does best, when the melodrama is stripped back and the emotions hit you like a thunderbolt. Is that what Jamie meant with the whole thunderstruck thing? Slap me on the back and call me Jim Hickey, I’m here for the weather.

Jamie was automatic, he was systematic, he was hydromatic. Maybe he was trying to help his nephew work through his pain, perhaps he was trying to remember if Claire had said “lubricated brilliance” or “brilliant lubrication”. You can see his 18th century cogs whirring, and they came up with plenty of worthy advice for Ian, like it doesn’t matter what your name is or where you come from. All that matters is your heart. And your greased lightning.

It’s fine, all the kids are doing it

Back at Fraser’s Ridge, Claire continued to welcome the locals into her freaky cult of modern medicine by encouraging them to partake in recreational drug use. Lizzy and one of the Tonsil Twins were thrilled to be Claire’s medical guinea pigs for her DIY anaesthetic, as Malva watched on with fire in her eyes and mischief in her brain. There’s trouble ahead with Malva, and I’m guessing most of it will stem from Malva spying on Jamie and Claire playing thunderstruck in the barn.

The episode finished as it began, with Jamie and Claire putting the sex into sexagenarian. After Jamie warned Tehwahsehkwe that future governments will displace Cherokee Nation off their lands, he returned home to a warm welcome from the good doctor. Malva secretly watched their barnyard escapade, even standing on her tiptoes to get a better view. Oh Malva, call yourself a villain? The least you could have done is bring a stepladder and some binoculars with you.

Something tells me this may be the last bit of happiness Jamie and Claire enjoy for some time, if Malva Christie has anything to do with it. What will happen when her strict father Tom finds out? If he couldn’t stand the filth in Claire’s 18th century novels, wait until he reads the lyrics of ‘Greased Lightning’.

Outlander screens on Neon, with a new episode every Monday night. Read more of Tara Ward’s Outlander recaps here.