# Filming up women's skirts is ruled legal **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2002, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924 "2002-09-21T03:23:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/1 "2002-09-21T03:23:14Z")
[Filming up women’s skirts is ruled legal](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/87863_voyeur20.shtml) How is this different (morally) from being a peeping tom? > [@](#): > > On Thursday, the state Supreme Court ruled that filming up women’s skirts, though “disgusting and reprehensible,” isn’t actually against the law. > > “I think that’s ridiculous,” said Jang, now 28, who lives in the Seattle area. “I feel a little bit vulnerable about it being known that it’s OK.” > > The high court unanimously agreed the state’s voyeurism law “does not apply to actions taken in purely public places.” > > It overturned the convictions of Sorrells and another man, Sean Glas, who was accused of taking photographs under women’s skirts at a Yakima County shopping mall. > [@](#): > > The state’s voyeurism law protects people who are in a place where they “would have a reasonable expectation of privacy” – meaning the person could expect to be able to undress in seclusion or “be safe from hostile intrusion or surveillance.” > > But the court found the law doesn’t apply to filming people in a public place, even if it’s underneath their clothes. > > “It is the physical location of the person that is ultimately at issue, not the part of the person’s body,” Judge Bobbe Bridge wrote ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/2 "2002-09-21T03:25:54Z")
WTF!!! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/3 "2002-09-21T04:00:20Z")
I hope it’s also legal to kick said photographer in the balls. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/4 "2002-09-21T04:12:29Z")
The State obviously has a poorly written voyeuerism statute. It will be corrected. Other states take notice. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/5 "2002-09-21T04:13:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*I hope it’s also legal to kick said photographer in the balls. \*\* Probably not. If he’s not doing anything illegal (per the article) you would be changed with assault, not him, if you interfered with his right to snap away at your crotch and under your skirt, so long as he’s not in your face and not touching you. Creepy isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/6 "2002-09-21T06:37:53Z")
Did anybody notice the part about the guy who got caught doing upskirt photography because he was _using a flash_? Don’t these people even think about, you know, subtlety? Not that I condone their actions or anything, but still… ---
**Author:** ![zen101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c68b51/32.png) [@zen101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zen101)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/7 "2002-09-21T06:56:00Z")
Still cheaper to glue mirrors to your shoes. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/8 "2002-09-21T06:57:15Z")
Another good reason to be sure that your skirt isn’t short enough to let such a thing happen. ---
**Author:** ![Omnipresent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@Omnipresent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omnipresent)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/9 "2002-09-21T08:13:11Z")
Whew, and all this time I thought I was doing something wrong!. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/10 "2002-09-21T08:24:37Z")
For my uncle’s retirement party, we gave him a cane with a little swing-out mirror attached at the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/11 "2002-09-21T13:36:55Z")
Cretin! I’d likely deck him, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![zen101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c68b51/32.png) [@zen101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zen101)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/12 "2002-09-21T13:49:25Z")
anya: Why do you want to hit Walloon’s uncle? I don’t think he really used his mirror cane, I think it was a joke gift. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/13 "2002-09-21T14:02:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zen101 \* > \*\*anya: Why do you want to hit Walloon’s uncle? I don’t think he really used his mirror cane, I think it was a joke gift. \*\* I think she’s replying to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/14 "2002-09-21T15:00:09Z")
She wants to punch the OP? ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/15 "2002-09-21T15:03:57Z")
“A citizen has to be warned by clear language in a statute that particular conduct is a crime in order to be punished as a criminal,” he said. “Something can be wrong and offensive and still not be a crime.” - the article WTF? Whatever happened to “ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law?” Just because a criminal can’t understand unclear language doesn’t mean that what he did is ok. “Police said Glas planned to sell the pictures to an Internet Web site that focuses on fetishes.” - article This is ridiculous. This guy is taking intimate pictures of women and selling them? I haven’t even let my guy go all the way up there, I don’t want complete strangers looking up my skirt. This judge deserves to have his privacy violated. Someone better stick a camera up his judge’s robes in a public place, see how he feels then. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/16 "2002-09-21T15:53:53Z")
**monica** , IANAL, but I take this to mean that the law must be clearly stated, not that everyone has to have read the law. > [@](#): > > The state’s voyeurism law protects people who are in a place where they “would have a reasonable expectation of privacy” – meaning the person could expect to be a surveillance." > > But the court found the law doesn’t apply to filming people in a public place, even if it’s underneath their clothes. So, if I read this correctly, it’s also ok to stick a fiber optic system down someone’s pants and film away, just as long as they’re in public, right? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/17 "2002-09-21T16:05:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Michael Ellis \* > \*\*She wants to punch the OP? \*\* No way! I can’t get to first base with her.😛 ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/18 "2002-09-21T20:18:33Z")
i vaguely remember a man in phila who went to jail for this. he rigged up a camera in the door plate of a department store. when women would walk over the door plate they would be filmed. if my vague memory is correct they used the same arguement that they have used with peepers and filmers of women in bathrooms, hotel rooms, etc. i’m not sure why that didn’t work in this case. unless a wind or fan catches a skirt and tosses it, i would think, that you don’t expect people looking under your skirt while walking down the street. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/19 "2002-09-21T21:06:51Z")
**rocking chair** , that case was in Pennsylvania, and the OP’s case was in Washington. Probably the statutes are different. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924/20 "2002-09-21T21:11:33Z")
monica, your post denotes total lack of understanding of how the judicial criminal process works. Just because something is _wrong_ it does not mean it is _illegal_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filming-up-womens-skirts-is-ruled-legal/128924.md?page=2)