My Blonde GF: Exploring Image Ownership, Advanced Technology and Consent

My Blonde GF is a short film that explores the lived experience and mental health impact of non-consensual deepfake pornography and image-based abuse.

In 2020, poet, writer and performance artist Helen Mort discovered that 15 years’ worth of images from her social media had been deepfaked and uploaded to a porn site by an anonymous user who referred to her as ‘My Blonde GF’.

The impact on her mental health was compounded by the consequent discovery that there are currently no laws addressing the harmful use of deepfake technology.

In November 2020, an acquaintance knocked on Helen’s door to tell her he had seen explicit photos of her on a porn site. Helen had never shared intimate photos, so she didn’t believe it, until she saw for herself.

She had been deep-faked. Her face had been digitally edited onto images of women in sexually explicit and violent scenes. Helen stares into the viewer’s eyes as she describes the deepfakes which appear to be of herself, but depict her face on other women’s bodies in rooms she has never entered and scenarios she has never experienced.

Helen felt violated and paranoid. She called the police to report the crime, but they told her there was nothing they could do, no crime had been committed. It is not illegal to make deepfake images.

Helen’s mental health deteriorated as she began to live out these scenes through nightmares. The fictious images took on a life of their own, altering her own memories and perception.