Voyeurism is Allowed Public Spaces?

In Washington state, there has been several news articles about men who have elaborate camera set ups using shoes and iPhones, to look up women's dresses. The most recently publicized case involves Jenifer DeMarre who was at the Seattle Home Show in Feb of 2012 with her husband when a man tried to film up her skirt. DeMarre's husband caught the man and the voyeur was quickly arrested. However, it is taken almost a month for DeMarre to get an anti-harassment order against this man.  Why? 

The story I have been following was written by Denise Whitaker for Komo news in Seattle. Now, I follow Komo on Facebook and I was a bit horrified to read on comment thread one man who wrote:

shes blowing this up so much omg

Unfortunately, the questionable comment above is not a rare opinion regarding these types of events, and other events like. What's the big deal? After all, she was wearing a skirt, right? Easy access. She's basically asking for it.

The idea privacy is changing drastically in our society. Social networks, Facebook, GPS and digital surveillance have all come together to redefine what is often called the public sphere. Some of the problems regarding this redefinition the murky, gray waters of what can be considered public access as compared to what is considered private acts. And this includes issues of voyeurism, and fashion.

Shoe Cameras

In a way, DeMarre was lucky that the incident occurred in a private Facility rather than a public space. Indeed, as I wrote on Facebook when replying to this news story, if this act of voyeurism had occurred in a public space, DeMarre might not have gotten any legal help whatsoever, because wearing a skirt in public doesn't give you a reasonable expectation to privacy.

How do I know this?   First, it is clearly written in the Washington state voyeurism law; the laws pasted towards the end of this post.  But more importantly, I saw this happen myself during Seattle SLUT walk 2011.


For those who do not know, SLUT Walk is an activist movement comprised of people who have been sexually assaulted and raped, and then blamed for that assault because of what he or she was wearing - this is slut-shaming and victim blaming.   I was taking part in the protest, when a man was seen taking photographs of women's underwear, and up women's skirts.  Keep in mind, this was a group of women, and men, most of who had been raped and/or sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Regardless, this man was repeatedly reported to the police who happened to be present at the protest. What did the police do? Nothing. They asked him to stop doing it, but they did not run him off, they did not arrest him, they only offered a firm word and then let him loose, to start filming all over again.


Many of the women were horrified and, rightfully so, angry. The question was this: why on earth did the police not arrest him from voyeurism? Well, because none of us at that protest had reasonable expectation of privacy. We were in a public location, Westlake Square, and having a public protest. As a result, our public space did not allow us to have private expectations.


The irony is this: we now have laws that allow a form of "slut-shaming" for women evening wearing the most tasteful of dress or skirt. It doesn't matter if the woman is wearing fishnet stockings and a miniskirt,  or if she is wearing a full-length skirt that covers all the way down to the ankles–if she is out in public, any guy with the camera on his foot can likely get away with filming her, and there will be little that she can do about.  Even though a skirt that covers a person's intimate areas, and legs, suggests a desire for privacy, just being in a public place can counteract that gesture.


 I write about this today only to make people aware of the conflict in law, social mores, and everyday life. One of the women who wrote on the Facebook post by Komo said: this is one of the reasons I never wear a skirt in public. It is terribly sad that we live in a world that suggests that people deserve to be taken advantage of just because of the close they wear.  Just fodder to think about.

Washington State:RCW 9A.44.115 Voyeurism.

(1) As used in this section:

     (a) "Intimate areas" means any portion of a person's body or undergarments that is covered by clothing and intended to be protected from public view;

     (b) "Photographs" or "films" means the making of a photograph, motion picture film, videotape, digital image, or any other recording or transmission of the image of a person;

     (c) "Place where he or she would have a reasonable expectation of privacy" means:

     (i) A place where a reasonable person would believe that he or she could disrobe in privacy, without being concerned that his or her undressing was being photographed or filmed by another; or

     (ii) A place where one may reasonably expect to be safe from casual or hostile intrusion or surveillance;

     (d) "Surveillance" means secret observation of the activities of another person for the purpose of spying upon and invading the privacy of the person;

     (e) "Views" means the intentional looking upon of another person for more than a brief period of time, in other than a casual or cursory manner, with the unaided eye or with a device designed or intended to improve visual acuity.

     (2) A person commits the crime of voyeurism if, for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of any person, he or she knowingly views, photographs, or films:

     (a) Another person without that person's knowledge and consent while the person being viewed, photographed, or filmed is in a place where he or she would have a reasonable expectation of privacy; or

     (b) The intimate areas of another person without that person's knowledge and consent and under circumstances where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, whether in a public or private place.
 Read the full law here.


What do you think about the changing reality of pubic vs private spaces?  What do you think about slut blaming?

Workamping job: Housekeeping

George and I have made it to Albuquerque, NM and we enjoy the desert surroundings.  At the RV park we are staying, George is doing maintenance/site cleaning, and I am doing housekeeping.  I thought I would write a post on the housekeeping job out of respect of all of those people who clean public places, but also to ask the question of "why"?

I am going to briefly describe the three different types of housekeeping I have done for comparison:  working for private families, doing industrial cleanup of newer buildings, not yet occupied by the tenants, and cleaning public spaces as well as vacated apartments. This last category is the worse one of the three - let me give you a glimpse into what I am suggesting.

Private Homes

Whenever I have had anyone come help me with cleaning my home, or when I have gone out and cleaned other people's homes, I have found myself confronted with only slightly dirty spaces.  I find that many people, including myself, will do a general cleaning before having a service come over.  If you are like me at all, then you do not want someone to have to come in and clean "disgusting" in your home.  It's embarrassing, and I generally go out of my way to make sure I do not look like a disgusting slob before asking someone to clean my house.  I have also found this mostly true when I have gone to clean the homes of others as well.  Except for the elderly, who cannot always clean up after themselves, the places I have cleaned were dirty but not disgustingly so.

This does not hold for when I was an apartment manager, and I had to clean apartments after people moved out.  Yes, some clean the space so they can get their deposit back.  But I found that most assume they will not get their deposit back, and so they say "screw it," and they normally say screw it in a big way.  I have confronted the most unfortunate messes in apartments - so they are a lot like having to clean public spaces.

Industrial Buildings

I have only done this type of cleaning once, with my sister and a friend of hers that own a cleaning company.  This type is cleaning is for getting up the dust left from building the structure, and cleaning up bathrooms after the workers.  Not a bad gig, but the chemicals were harsh.  In the end, the dirt was not the kind of dirt that really makes you feel puzzled for human nature. It is building residue and that was fine.  Not much else to say here.

Public Places

leaving stuff in inappropriate places!

I have done public cleaning a few times in my life, and each time I am amazed at how thoughtless, and unemphatic humans are to others that use the the public space, and to those who must clean those spaces.  In the two weeks I have cleaned at my new job, I have found human waste smeared on the floor, once on the wall, on toilet seats, and on toilet paper left (hidden???) behind the toilet.  I have found a used tampon and pad left open, face up, and shoved inside a plastic plant (see photo -  I closed the pad for this picture to save us all the visual I was confronted with).  This is in two weeks and gloves are my best friend.  Women's bathrooms tend to be worse then the men's bathrooms, but men forget to flush the toilet - regularly.

As I said, this is the not first time I have seen such a lack of consideration for those who may use a public facility, or may have to clean a public facility.  I am baffled ... why?  Laziness?  Fetish?  Do people think it is ok to leave public places in such a mess, but that it is not ok to do so in their private homes?  I welcome you thoughts on the subject.  I also promise to write a more uplifting post next time!

R