On a seemingly ordinary Thursday, a Twitter user shared a disturbing image. It depicted Lauren Nostro, an editor at Complex, juxtaposed with a printed photograph of Amber Rose. This photo, placed next to Nostro’s image, was defiled with what appeared to be semen. Nostro, who had recently written an article about Amber Rose’s Los Angeles SlutWalk, was understandably horrified. “You guys wanna help me report this man who came on a printed out photo of my face?” she tweeted to her followers, seeking support and action against the perpetrator.
Her followers rallied, and the Twitter user, whose avatar was a picture of Isla Vista shooter Elliott Rodger, was eventually suspended. However, this incident is not isolated. It’s a grim illustration of a widespread issue: women across the internet are routinely subjected to similar acts of online sexual harassment.
This act of ejaculating on someone’s image, often a woman’s, is known as a “cum tribute.” While some instances of cum tributes are consensual – existing within specific NSFW online communities on platforms like Reddit or Tumblr where individuals willingly share images or videos and invite such tributes as part of a kink or agreed-upon foreplay – a darker side emerges when these acts are non-consensual and carry malicious intent.
These non-consensual “tributes” frequently source images from social media platforms like Facebook or Snapchat, often targeting women the perpetrators have never met. Disturbingly, women who publicly advocate for feminist or sex-positive views, like Nostro, are disproportionately targeted. In these cases, “cum tributes” are far from being celebratory or complimentary. Instead, they become a brutal and public form of sexual degradation, designed to violate and assert dominance over women from behind the anonymity of a screen. They are a vile manifestation of misogynistic online harassment.
xhamster
From Kink to Crime: The Non-Consensual Cum Tribute
Navigating through cum tribute threads on platforms like Reddit, Tumblr, and dedicated websites like Cum On Printed Pics, the line between consensual and non-consensual content often blurs. In some instances, the lack of consent is explicitly highlighted.
One website’s description chillingly asks, “Want to see someone cum all over your wife’s face, but she ain’t having it?” promoting non-consensual fantasy. Another disturbing example is found on the pornographic website xHamster, where a user posted videos of himself masturbating over images of actress Emma Watson, verbalizing his intentions to ejaculate on her face. This user has created over 50 such “tributes” dedicated to Watson.
Celebrities are not the only targets. Meaghan Garvey, an editor based in New York City, experienced a similar form of harassment when she discovered a “tribute” made using her photo on Twitter. “Some miscellaneous account with lots of dumb meninist-related sloganeering in his bio had sent me a ‘tribute,'” Garvey recounted to Mic. “I didn’t know that was a thing that existed, though I’ve seen it a handful of times since, and was totally revulsed.”
Websites are dedicated to hosting images of women, often taken from their Facebook profiles, accompanied by derogatory descriptions labeling them as “sluts” deserving of cum tributes. One user posted images seemingly taken from a young woman’s Facebook and Snapchat accounts, captioning them: “She is one of the biggest sluts I’ve ever seen,” followed by instructions to “Destroy her, degrade her, fake her, cock her, tribute her.” In an even more alarming case, a man on Reddit sought “tributes” to a photo he claimed was of a 13-year-old girl sourced from Facebook, offering images of his mother or sister in exchange.
These online spaces are unequivocally designed to humiliate and degrade non-consenting individuals, especially those who are public figures or outspoken advocates for feminist causes. A 2015 article in the art journal Rhizome discussing dick pics and cum tributes noted a surge in cum tributes targeting Emma Watson after her impactful speech on gender equality at the United Nations. In a similar vein, a thread on Cum on Printed Pics was titled “Reduce this Feminist Bitch,” featuring multiple unauthorized photos of an anonymous woman, including candid shots taken at a coffee shop. The poster described her as a “feminist blogger” and urged others to use her image for masturbation, writing, “Please show how much you appreciate this girl’s intellect and feminist thinking. Let her know what she means to you. Unzip yourself and give her a few minutes of your time by emptying your balls over her ugly face.”
Mic/Getty Images
Cum on Printed Pics as a Symptom of Broader Online Misogyny
The normalization of such acts is deeply concerning. On IsItNormal.com, a platform for anonymous questions, a user shared her experience of finding a video of a man masturbating over her picture on a pornographic website. “It’s just a picture of my face, and my shirt … I am embarrassed and curious,” she wrote, expressing her anxieties: “What if I meet a guy who recognizes me? Or a guy who has done this to me (my picture)? Is that gonna be on his mind, and he is going to want to do this on my face?”
On the site, users overwhelmingly voted “normal” (79%) and offered justifications, with comments like “Maybe he was just attracted to you,” and “while it was a bit creepy, the man in question probably just had a crush on her.” This widespread perception of such acts as “normal” reveals a significant problem.
Pew Research Center
Women face rampant sexual harassment online, ranging from unsolicited dick pics and rape threats on Twitter to the non-consensual sharing of nude images. Data from Working to Halt Online Abuse, analyzing 3,787 online harassment incidents, indicated that 72.5% of victims were female. Pew Research Center data further underscores this disparity, showing that women experience sexual harassment online 12% more often than men.
Compounding the issue is the difficulty women face in reporting harassment and ensuring accountability for perpetrators. Garvey described the frustrating experience of reporting the “tribute” she received, highlighting the hurdles Twitter Support imposes. While platforms like Twitter have made recent attempts to address online harassment, many women report that the site’s actions are insufficient in banning or suspending trolls, even in cases involving serious threats.
Cum “tributes,” while particularly repulsive, are just one facet of a larger problem: the lack of agency women have over their bodies and images online. This is especially true for women publicly engaged in feminist discourse, but it extends to all women who share photos online, even within private circles, only to find themselves exploited on pornographic websites.
Garvey reflected on the seemingly random nature of the harassment she endured: “I don’t think [the cum tribute] was apropos of anything specific I had written,” she stated. “Just sort of day in the life ‘being a remotely prominent woman on the Internet’ shit.” This highlights the pervasive and often arbitrary nature of online misogyny, where women are targeted simply for existing in the digital space.
