Sara Rigon, Italy, SSH Blog Correspondent

A few weeks ago my sister and I were talking about street harassment and she told me the story of a man who was caught taking pictures up the skirt of women traveling on Milan public transport. Apparently most victims never suspected their crotches and buttocks have been photographed as the man was smart enough to hide his camera in what looked like a harmless cardboard tube.

When asked about the 5000 upskirt shots, the man explained he had a passion for Italian neorealism cinema: he was giving voice to such fine art. The wannabe director was found not guilty for his épreuve d’artist, but could not enjoy freedom as police also retrieved child pornography material at his apartment along with illegal bullets and for that he was convicted to 2 years and 10 months behind bars. He is in jail, but not for uperskirting, because that is not a crime, not in Italy at least.

I felt shocked and outraged for quite awhile, I could not believe it possible. Not the upskirting, that is no surprise, it is a tragic reality. Sadly as a woman you are definitely aware of and sort of expect such violation of your body from men and society as a whole. It happens everyday when you walk down the street to work or from your yoga class: you may be victim of street harassment (catcalling, blocking path, following, masturbating or spraying semen on women , etc..) or in the best case scenario you are just bombarded by images of partially nude or stripped women or women’s body parts on gigantic billboards inviting you to buy all sort of products.

What really struck me was and still is the fact that upskirting is not a crime. Secretly taking (stealing?) pictures of private parts of clothed and unsuspecting women is allowed and within the law in Italy and in many other countries around the world, maybe even in yours. I couldn’t turn my head around it and so I did what I usually do when I can’t make sense of something: I researched the subject.

First, to my big surprise, I learned there is in fact a specific term to identify such an outraging and offensive practice: upskirting. Next, in the attempt of grasping the magnitude of the problem, I looked the “new term” up on the internet and to my dismay I discovered that upskirting is very much spread through out the world as well as the cyberspace. The amount of FB pages and Twitter accounts dedicated to or named after upskirting is alarmingly shocking.

Mercifully, among the hundreds of websites displaying what, in all likelihood, must be thousands of upskirting snapshots from all over the world, there are several bloggers, women’s right activists and journalists who discuss upskirting ethical and legal issues, raising awareness on this demeaning practice. The main issue discussed is impunity: upskirting is commonly perceived as wrongdoing, nonetheless is legal.

Most judges around the world have difficulties convicting upskirting enthusiasts as in most countries there are no specific laws that prohibit such a practice. And yet, upskirting is such an abusive practice that you would easily think other acts and decrees must regulate it. No need for another law. After all upskirting is a non-consensual, unwanted sexual misconduct, it must infringe some other already existing regulation on voyeurism, decency or at least privacy and the right to feel safe in a pubic place. But no, that’s not the case.

You would think that upskirting is voyeurism, but that is just common sense. Legally voyeurism is about images of completely nude bodies or body parts and it occurs in a place where people have a reasonably expectation of privacy. A public place does not give any assurance of privacy, therefore in a public place voyeurism is not a crime. And there is more, while a growing number of US states have laws against upskirt photos, last year a US Superior Court Judge stated that “women who dress and position themselves so that their intimate parts may be viewable in public have no ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ (District of Columbia v. Cleveland, 2014). No matter if underwear and intimate area were only visible from an unanticipated vantage point, that is your problem.

I personally admire law-makers and respect jurisprudence, the philosophy of law. However, such interpretation is narrow-minded and discriminatory, it is victim-shaming. Such a statement says: “Hey what is the fuss about? You are the one that started it, if you did not want your crotch area photographed you should not have worn a skirt”. This is institutionalized victimization and it is not acceptable in any civil and egalitarian society.

Forget voyeurism, so what about the violation of privacy and dignity? Apparently taking a picture up the skirt of a woman cannot be considered an misdemeanor if the victim is not aware of the offense in the first place and the image doesn’t allow the identification of a person (Italy 2015). Let me get this right: I had no perception of what they were doing to me so it didn’t happened, is that right? But it did happened. What if one of those panties was me? And I feel violated even if it was not me, because it could be me.

I wish I lived in a world where there is no need for a specific law against upskirting, a world where a woman does not have to worry about what she is wearing. Until then I am pleased and grateful to know that legislators around the world are making an effort to put a stop to such a mortifying offense

We need to update our legislations to modern technology that puts a camera in a portable phone and make it possible to take a picture up the skirt of a woman in a public and crowed place without anyone noticing. Most of all we should work strenuously to update our culture and perspective on women. We should educate people, especially young generations, that women are human beings and not just bodies, objects to increase sales or possess and disposed of as one wishes.

Sara is a registered General Practitioner in Italy and New Zealand. She is the founder and current lead of the newly established Equally Different group within the European Junior General Practitioners Organization, the Vasco da Gama Movement, branch of the World Organization of Family Doctors. Follow her on Twitter @rgn_sr.