Subtle objectifying in the upskirting debacle

[ChipsForSupper]

Today at work I had to research various articles from different media sources regarding last week's news story about the "upskirting" bill being rejected after MP, Christopher Chope's, objection to the passing of a private member's bill.

Nearly all of the articles were, to some degree, critical that this bill was not passed and definitely reported upskirting as a bad thing which was demeaning for women. However, nearly every article/news-site/blog etc also showed a posed picture of a woman's skirt and legs - generally quite a pretty skirt and attractive legs. There were no posed pictures of aggressive looking men holding cameras.

So, even when reporting how terrible it is that women are objectified - the images accompanying this outrage are objectifying and titillating. And, of course, the emphasis on the these pictures implies that this is all a problem in the first place, not because men are predatory, but because women are just so attractive - it can't be helped, really. Unavoidable.

Plus

Even if you are bolshy enough to try and "deal with it youself" then you often end up with an extremely aggressive man shouting in your face and trying to have a physical fight with you.

Why should it be up to women and girls to handle aggressive men and men who commit sex assualts themselves?

the case with the teacher

If Ella Whelan were here I would be interested to know why she thinks this should not be a criminal matter.

Interestingly when I googled, it seems that shcoolchildren are taking upskirt shots of their female teachers and posting them on line. I think it would be good if this were illegal for this case as well. Unlike some people

Teachers and issues with mob phones www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/cheltenham-news/schoolchildren-humiliate-teachers-post-upskirt-1410538

Errol, the kind of man who wants to photograph women's knickers is already researching how to do it, and using Tor/VPNs to hide their search traffic from their ISP. The information is already out there in the "wrong hands" so we might as well educate ourselves. Security through obscurity is no security at all.

OP in response to your original post: I thought exactly the same thing.

@ErrolTheDragon Hum... there would probably be some who'd see that as a 'how to' lesson. I sometimes used to think the same after watching Crimewatch. For instance it would report in detail how cashpoint fraudsters used zoom lenses to watch people putting in their PIN, and then improvised a card using cardboard with a strip of videotape stuck on the back.

It's an old problem; how do you report on inappropriate behaviour without the side-effect of putting ideas in perps' heads? I also wonder how "upskirters" are caught; is it because they often put them on the internet, like the "happy slappers"? I do agree it's wrong to always have the backdrop picture on the news as a woman's legs; a bit like when Savile's gratuitously grinning face was shown every time he was mentioned on the news.

I remember in the 90's there was a TV documentary about men who collected "arty" but inappropriate photos of naked children; it showed samples of albums of them, and this programme also mentioned when perfectly innocent ones (e.g. children in paddling pools) were pounced on at the chemist's, and one dad was dragged through the mud over a proudly displayed framed photo of his teenage daughter which was just a little too sexy (with her shirt open, but nothing visible). The irony is that this programme itself must have been recorded by perverts all over the country; loads of the pictures were shown on TV, and not so many people had the internet then. (This programme didn't show any of the really nasty kind though, or even mention them as far as I remember.)

Photo could have been a really angry woman snacthing a phone out of a defensive lookng man's hand, and the police approaching...

Or a man in prison.

Or anything really other than "COR! Look at these pins! And you can see up her skirt nearly to her knickers!!!" which is sadly what all the media people (consciously or subconsciously) went for.

@Vicky1990 I'm afraid your 'what about the men' is redundant. Scotland, where the majority of kilt wearers are, has already made upskirting illegal. You see, when men suffer something, it is taken seriously.

In answer to the "why don't women stand up for themselves and have a go at the perpetrator" brigade: Gina Martin, the woman who first brought this issue to the attention of her MP and thus prompted the creation of the private member's bill in the first place, did stand up for herself when she became a victim of upskirting. She took the man's phone off him and ran with it to the police - were, shockingly, she discovered that it was not a crime and there was nothing she could do but watch as the police returned the phone and images back to the triumphant perpetrator. That's why she stood up for herself further and campaigned to get the law changed - and it almost certainly will be changed, as a result, very soon.

So, yay, us women do stand up for ourselves and we do get things done and even men in skirts/kilts/fancy dress togas will also be benefiting form Gina's efforts when this bill becomes law.

And when we spot bias and objectivity in pictures accompanying news articles about objectifying women, we can start online discussions about it and raise awareness.

Go us.

Ella Whelan is a moron.
She doesn't believe women need petty laws to protect us from ourselves. Not an exact quote but the words 'to protect us from ourselves' were definitely used on question time last night. We know we don't need laws to protect us from ourselves, it's not ourselves we need protection from its men.!!
Also that #metoo infantalises women and means men can't approach women even in an innocent way. We've heard it all before and it's still bull.
Ella should watch the mash report.

I think the 'upskirt sexylegs' photo is a bit like the 'headless fatties' who are used to illustrate every media article on obesity eg charlottecooper.net/fat/fat-writing/headless-fatties-01-07/

its more dehumanising of women, more reducing them to body parts with no agency, and its a casual shorthand by the media that then becomes a recognisable meme. Like the obligatory ' children playing in poor street/desolate playground/unkempt urban environment' photo that illustrates every Guardian article on austerity or poverty. Or the way every misery-lit book has a faded black and white or sepia photo of a lone child looking traumatised on it.
The cliche gets created, perpetuates itself and then becomes inextricably linked to the story

What's sad is that I didn't notice this. You are right OP

Otoh I see Vicky

Another example of the media blaming women by willfully ignoring the perpetrators and their tools, networks and deviancy

What's sad is that I didn't notice this. You are right OP

Me too. I did comment to DH that I've never seen so many short skirts and legs on the news, but it didn't register with me that there should have been footage of the perps not the victims.

Very good point OP. reminds me of the old cover on the penguin edition of Lolita. 'Sexy' little girl wearing heart shaped sunglasses and sucking a lollipop (ffs)

Now replaced by a picture of a little girls shoes with the shadow of a man looming over them

Took a while but at least someone spotted the issue