Upskirt photography, upskirt pornography.

Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon has an informative piece up about the increase of creepy upskirt photography. What is upskirt photography? When someone stands behind you or below you and snaps a pic on their camera phone up your skirt when you don’t realize it. Then shares it with other upskirt fetishists on the internets. It is gross, offensive, violating, and a very popular form of pornography.

When it comes to voyeurs who photograph or videotape up a woman’s skirt (known as “upskirting”) or snap a photo down a woman’s shirt (“downblousing”), though, “there are not many practical, legal remedies available to people who find themselves the victim,” says Anita Allen, a privacy expert and professor at Penn Law. That’s if the woman even realizes she is a victim in the first place, which is unlikely, as the voyeur typically manages to go undetected. If the photo or video is published online — which, increasingly, it is — it would be difficult for the subject to ever come across the material. Even if she did, how could she recognize one underwear-clad rear as her own?

Unfortunately, the debate that ensues is a question of whether or not your privacy is being violated since you are on the street and as a public place is free to be photographed with all participants or as John Morris, from the Center for Democracy & Technology, says in the article, “If you don’t want to be photographed walking the street, don’t walk down the street — it’s a public street.”
But as Clark argues and I agree, there is a big difference taking a picture of someone on the street and strategically placing a camera between a woman’s legs or down her shirt for kicks and jerk off material. Suggesting if a woman doesn’t want to be upskirted, she shouldn’t be on the street or shouldn’t wear a skirt-well that just sounds like a “blame the victim” line of defense to actually be a legitimate excuse for a blatant violation of privacy.
Thoughts?