Secretly filmed videos of drunk northern women

[Northernnnnnn]

I haven't posted before, so apologies if this is the wrong place.

I keep seeing videos on my Facebook and Instagram from a few different accounts, of people secretly filming very drunk, mostly dressed with very few clothes, women on nights out in northern cities.
I had a further look and there seems to be quite a few accounts of I'm assuming men (I can't imagine any woman I know doing this but then I could be wrong!) just dedicated to this secret filming of women who seem to be walking home very drunk. There is even one video where the cameraman is literally filming a very drunk woman walking being followed by a very drunk man. Why wouldn't you step in and help??

I have so many problems with these videos I don't even know where to begin, but they have brought up a lot of bad memories and feelings for me, and I hoped the feminism board might be a good place to have a discussion around this.

Firstly, there is the issue of secretly filming women who are not in a fit state to know what is going on. There is a lot of skin on show- obviously it's the woman's choice what she wears, and I often went out as a teenager of wearing similar- but I can't imagine any of them would want videos of themselves in this state, with so much skin on show being broadcast to the whole world.

Then there's the issue that, from experience, a lot of these women are going to be under 18, and many under 16- I made loads of stupid decisions as a teenager, and was raped as a young teenager while walking home from a night out dressed similar to these women- obviously what I was wearing wasn't the issue, but the whole culture of this getting so drunk you don't even know what's going on, and the fact that someone might have filmed me. This is not very well articulated but it just really upsets me.

Then there is the stereotype of northern women. There seems to be this idea that northern women are 'scummy' and 'chavvy' (words taken from video comments). There is the dressing in this way, in the middle of winter, when all the men are dressed comfortably - I don't know.ow what my friends and I were thinking going out dressed up to look so much older trying to impress men who hadn't even brushed their hair. The group of girls I was friends with at this age all had similar life stories to myself, leaving home at 15, getting raped/sexually assulated, often at work. I know that some of the old friendship group are still going out, doing drugs, drinking now we are nearly 40, which again is their choice and fine, and I have no judgement, but I've just been really shaken by these videos, and I'm struggling to put my feelings on this into words.

Thank you if you managed to get through that!

From a legal perspective it’s irrelevant if you feel it is distasteful. It is a legal activity unfortunately.

@Northernnnnnn Then there's the issue that, from experience, a lot of these women are going to be under 18, and many under 16

Well clearly that's not possible because you need to be 18 to be admitted to a club in the first place.

Under 18s generally drink in empty houses or sometimes on street corners. There is no way they would be walking around a city centre and going to clubs.

Despite not following these types of account, quite often these videos will pop up in my SM titled something Night out in London/Liverpool/Manchester.

The women often get a man approaching them, who looks like they are in on the recording.

I've never managed to get FB to delete anything, including adverts for dogs for sale, race hate speech, misogynistic hate speech etc.

Conversely, I have a number of friends who are musicians who have had videos of themselves playing deleted for supposed copyright infringement - I'm talking string quartet type of music, so it's not for writing royalties but for performances - Sony music has some kind of block-bot on classical music. People get messages to say they've uploaded content from Lang Lang or similar, when it's just them in their local church hall.

Facebook is a shithole imo.

I can assure you that under 18s can and do get into nightclubs. I'm not sure where abouts you live, but as recently as last month my 16 year old cousin and her friends were clubbing in Leeds. Obviously not something to encourage but it does happen, and they are just normal teenagers

That's definitely not normal for a teenager and I'm surprised a 16 year old girl would ever be able to find her way into a club. Where does she even get the money from?

Yikes how naive!

No, it's called lived experience.

You hang around street corners with teenagers?

When I was a teenager I hung around street corners with other teenagers, so that's correct. And then when I was older, I went to clubs. I am bemused as to why you think any of this is unusual.

Teens now have fake ID or borrow older sibling's/mate's IDs. Underage clubbing has always been a thing, I did it myself and this was 30+ years ago.

When I was a teen, 14yo girls were regularly getting into clubs.
That was more than 30 years ago.
IDing teens might be more common these days so maybe it's not as common, I don't know.

Same! I started going clubbing at 16 (mid-80s) and don't remember ever being turned away for being under age. Once or twice I got 'we'll need to see proof of your age next time' but I was never actually turned away. I wasn't a particularly older-looking 16 y/o either.

OP I'm northern and I agree re the stereotypes, they're disgusting.

Consent is still a thing.

Did you consent to the distribution of you being filmed?

There are a number of countries within Europe where it is illegal to film / distribute images of identifiable individuals without consent.

We are slowly moving towards this I suspect.

In the meantime it is likely that doing this is already covered under sexual harassment laws which are not being enforced as they should be.

I can remember the debates about CCTV camera's only 15 years ago. Its amazing how we've gone from that (and massive public concern about being filmed everywhere, big brother) to everything needs to be filmed. I like the fact it might help catch criminals/injustice. It feels like a massive loss of privacy and a huge shift in a really short space of time. That a lot of that footage ends up on the internet for the judgement of strangers and this is normal now is... bleurgh. But possibly I'm just old.

Its always been legal, but its only in very recent times its become possible and normal for everyone to carry around very high quality recording devices in their pockets. What very bad things were you thinking of? Do you mean like censorship/authorities covering up their abuse of power? Or something else?

Yes, we did it too. It was technically a disco attached to a hotel, but there were bouncers who were supposed to check you were 18. We were getting in from 15 years old at least. Every now and then there were rumours of a police 'raid'.

‘Essex girls’ has the same connotations.

These men are vile

I noticed years ago..tbh it has been perpetuated by the media (newspapers etc on new Year, st Patrick's etc)...and mostly just women wearing minimal. However i think its abhorrent anyone videoing someone not at their best rather than helping or showing concern, or, just leaving people alone

Well the type of establishments that allow this are not the kind of paces even 18 year olds should be going. Turning a blind eye doorman….