A deepfake porn victim confronts the pain
of having her likeness stolen and vandalised
‘This girl, this woman, this… me?’
In My Blonde GF (2023), the UK writer Helen Mort discusses the confusion and horror of
learning there was violent deepfake pornography featuring her likeness on the web,
seemingly created using old, publicly available Facebook photos. Mort was left facing a ‘tide
of anxiety and fear’ whenever she considered who might have created the images and why, as
well as a feeling that treasured memories of her past had been polluted. In her disquieting
exploration of Mort’s experience, the UK filmmaker Rosie Morris draws out how society is
still struggling to understand the nature of deepfake pornography and its harms as the
problem accelerates and laws struggle to keep up. The film also reveals how this disturbing
innovation perpetuates age-old issues of sexism and objectification.