Peeping Toms must be punished

In a head-scratchingly problematic move Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts declared unconsented upskirt photos “not illegal” when taken on public transport.

The decision in question was in relation to a court case concerning Michael Robertson, a man who had been arrested in 2010 for discretely taking many pictures and videos up the dresses of female public transit riders.

Though Massachusetts does in fact have a Peeping Tom law in place, it did not extend to cover this situation because the women in question were not “nude” or “partially nude.”

Additionally, because the photos themselves were taken on public transit that maintains a video surveillance system, the high court argues that these women never had a reasonable right to expect privacy in the first place.

As a result, the complaints against Robertson were dismissed and he was released to the public — presumably to find less obvious means to continue his hobby.
I find this verdict appallingly thoughtless.

Court decisions like this — based circumstantially on loopholes — allow the criminal to go free while instead shifting the blame to the
victim.

By saying that women shouldn’t expect any sort of privacy in public places, we are teaching them that their bodies are not really theirs, not wholly under their control.
 
Though most of us are uncomfortable at the prospect of becoming objects under a lascivious gaze, this decision tells us that we should expect it.

Some might say that wearing skirts “invites” such unwanted behavior. But I believe that everyone, especially women, should feel safe wearing whatever they damn well please.

Women shouldn’t need to worry that some freak is going to stealthily snap a photo of their bodies in a way that is purposefully meant to penetrate clothing, whatever it may be.

Moreover, the idea that men can’t control their creepy “urges” when presented with a woman showing some leg is an incredibly reductive conception of the male gender as a whole. I’d like to think that my male peers here at IU aren’t so overcome with biblical lust that they must secretly snap a picture for later every time a girl wears something nice to class.

In a similar vein, I resent the idea that this decision doesn’t affect men as well. If you’re riding the bus in Boston and some girl snaps a picture of your business through the leg hole of your baggy athletic pants, there’s nothing you can do about it.

If some large, threatening woman begins taking a video of the outline of your penis through the fabric of your especially tight jeans, tough luck.

In essence, this decision tells us, women and men alike, that we do not have the right to keep our bodies to ourselves, despite the clothes we carefully place over them.

And in the inevitably upcoming heyday of surveillance products like Google Glass, that is a truly frightening prospect.