Poll: 6 percent of voters say revenge porn is more damaging to men

Just 6 percent of voters believe revenge porn is more damaging to men than women, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released on Tuesday.

The same survey found that 47 percent of those polled said nude photos that are leaked online without someone’s consent are more damaging to a women’s career than a man’s. 

Another 47 percent said gender makes no difference one way or the other.

Unsurprisingly, there was a sizable gender gap: 51 percent of women said it was revenge porn was more damaging for a woman’s career, versus 42 percent of men who said the same.

Voters aged 18-34 were more inclined than older generations to say that revenge porn is more likely to negatively effect women’s careers. Just over half — 53 percent — of those in that age bracket said leaked nude photos were more damaging for women, compared to 48 percent of those aged 35-49 and 40 percent of those aged 50-64.

The survey comes less than two weeks after freshman Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) announced her resignation when nude photos and allegations of inappropriate sexual relations with staffers were published online.

In her final floor speech last Thursday, Hill called out a “double standard,” highlighting the contrast between allegations leveled against her and those against President Trump as well as other men in powerful positions.

“I am leaving, but we have men who have been credibly accused of intentional acts of sexual violence and remain in board rooms, on the Supreme Court, in this very body and — worst of all — in the Oval Office,” she said from the House floor.

A group of Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have banded together to advance bipartisan legislation on a “revenge porn” law. 

The Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution (SHIELD) Act, introduced in May, aims to “address the exploitation of private, sexually explicit or nude images.”

—Tess Bonn