It seems like there are countless ways that women are sexually harassed, with perpetrators coming up with sneakier ways of achieving their ends. For example, the disturbing trend known as upskirting. It’s a pretty self-explanatory term. It involves taking a picture up a woman’s skirt or dress using a phone or hidden camera. Even girls as young as 10 have experienced this based on police data, the Huffington Post reported.
Although I’m sure this behaviour isn’t necessarily new as the word ‘trend’ would imply. In this increasingly digital age, it’s becoming easier for perpetrators to take, upload, and distribute such photos.
Sometimes there will be two (or more) perpetrators with one distracting a woman by engaging her in conversation whilst the companion takes photos of or films the woman.
Perpetrators likely view the situation as victimless because of the lack of physical contact, the lack of the woman’s knowledge of what has happened, or because the pictures or videos are faceless. When confronted, some perpetrators just laugh it off as some sort of prank.
It’s annoying to bring up safety in such instances because I know it can come across as victim-blaming – as if women are responsible for their own safety instead of directly addressing the behaviour of the perpetrators. I have seen discussions that basically ask why women don’t just wear longer skirts and dresses. But the truth is even women in knee-length (or longer) clothing can be targets.
What is more frustrating is that laws take a long time to catch up with some of these crimes and many countries say this behaviour isn’t technically illegal unless it involves a minor.
Gina Martin* experienced upskirting at a music festival last year. After initially being dismissive about the case, the police eventually decided to investigate it after Gina’s online petition garnered enough attention and led to public scrutiny.
Even when perpetrators are caught, it is hard to find an applicable law to charge them with so charges end up being something along the lines of public disorder, public indecency, voyeurism, etc. This basically sends the message that the perpetrator is just a minor nuisance. This can leave many women feeling as if their safety concerns are not being heard or prioritized.
I guess I don’t have any neat solutions as to how to tackle this issue besides raising awareness. Hopefully continuing to pressure lawmakers will eventually make them take upskirting seriously and treat such behaviour as it should be – as a crime against the dignity of women.
*Originally broadcasted on the BBC Woman’s Hour “Creepshots, Ella Fitzgerald, Vaginal mesh, Kids” programme on Radio 4 on 3 Aug. 2017.
