Jennifer Lawrence, pictured with Gloria Steinem, has spoken out against revenge porn. Image by Getty Images

In the New Yorker, Margaret Talbot profiles Carrie Goldberg, “a thirty-nine-year-old Brooklyn attorney with a practice specializing in sexual privacy, a new field of law that has emerged, in large part, to confront some of the grosser indulgences of the Internet.” Goldberg represents victims of what’s commonly known as revenge porn, although as Goldberg makes clear in the profile, it’s part of a broader phenomenon that includes the dissemination of stolen or Photoshopped images:

“Goldberg tries to impress on her clients that they should not feel ashamed. I once asked her how she responds to the argument that people who value their privacy should not send naked pictures in the first place. Goldberg replied that this was judgmental and reductive. [….] Goldberg went on, ‘But, even if you did take a naked picture and send it to somebody, that’s not necessarily reckless behavior. That’s time-honored behavior! G.I.s going off to war used to have pics of their wife or girlfriend in a pinup pose. It’s often part of intimate communication. It can be used as a weapon, but, the fact is, almost anything can be used as a weapon.”

Noble, pioneering work? Check. A spot-on perspective on a difficult topic? Check. And Jewish! The New Yorker profile doesn’t mention her Jewish background, but Goldberg herself has made reference to it on Twitter. Oh, and she just sounds generally wonderful:

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“She has a Chihuahua named Meshugenneh, and drives a 1966 GTO. She starts most days boxing at the gym and keeps a silk apparatus for acrobatics hanging from her apartment ceiling, but she often eats candy for breakfast.”

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

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