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Tuesday, November 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Porn in a flash

A troubling surge in creepy "upskirt" photography has lawmakers in a twist -- and the body parts of women posted all over the Internet.

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  • Monday, November 24, 2008 06:52 PM

    The deeper questions

    I may be hit with a barrage for not joining in the predictable chorus of outrage, but things like this always make me think of the fundamental issues at hand. The argument that you are in a public place and no actual assault or physical contact is taking place is, in my opinion, not one that can be so easily dismissed. The question that no one thinks to ask is: why exactly is it that half the population (and, in fact, only that specific half) is vulnerable to an invasion of privacy even when in a public place and without even being touched? And the answer is something so self-evident that no one ever thinks to consider it - that it is the norm for women to wear clothes that partially reveal the sexual areas of their bodies.

    No one is saying that women who put on a blouse or a skirt consciously intend to be gawked at. On the contrary, it is not a matter of individual choice precisely because these clothes are the norm. But isn't their revealing nature part of their very design? Isn't the whole intent behind low-cut tops and miniskirts not only to reveal as much as possible, but also in that process to make a suggestion of and arouse the desire for those very parts that it conceals? Imagine the metaphorical Martian observing this debate - the first question would be "if they don't want their genitals seen, why do they wear clothes that seems specifically designed for this purpose?"

    I'm just throwing this out there for consideration. Clearly the underlying issue is the same one we've rehashed over and over within this comments section, which is the imbalance of power and desire between the sexes, and we can't expect that nothing be done in concrete cases until this paradox is resolved. Laws specifically prohibiting photographing a person's genitals seem fairly reasonable and hard to object to. But if we take it further, could not an argument be made to criminalize simple gawking or leering, as I imagine these have a similar disconcerting effect upon women? You would be hard pressed to find a man who has never tried to see up a girl's skirt or down her blouse. If it is simply the act of making a permanent and distributable record of this view that makes it into a criminal act, then we need to be clear about that. Is the crime in the photography or the distribution?

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