Women In Bed Are “Just Asking” To Be Videotaped

There have been some interesting discussions of privacy in the public sphere lately. For example, debates about the legality of stores with mirrors on the ground at the entrance so that men can see up women’s skirts–but this is not illegal because once in public, women do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy? (I’m sorry I can’t find a link at the moment; I will keep searching and come back.)

And now there is this.

Two students videotaped naked women in the neighboring dorm without the women’s knowledge or consent. They then put the video online.

But the best part is that Roxbury District Court will not be pressing charges, at least not until Wentworth finishes its investigation (fine, yes, investigate–but not pressing charges?).

The boys were in their dorm room when across the street in a neighboring dorm, two women got into bed together without closing the blinds. Sure, that was silly of them, and as disgusting as it is, it is not surprising that two college juniors would then watch. What is surprising and disgusting is that they not only videotaped it, but then uploaded it onto the internet. That is absolutely dehumanizing to those two women and utterly indicative of a sense of ownership over bodies that the two men in question were in no way related to.

One of the two Wentworth students doing the filming tried to cover his tracks by saying, “This all would have never happened if their windows were closed.”

This reeks of victim-blaming, not unlike rape courts saying that a woman’s clothing is to blame for her rape.

Forgetting to close the blinds does not mean that the girls were asking to be videotaped and uploaded onto the internet. End of story.

[Read the Boston Globe article here]