Man shoots picture up girl's skirt. Court is absolutely fine with it

Ladies, everything under your skirt is open for public viewing, says a state appeals court in Oklahoma. The court recently dismissed felony charges against now 34-year-old Riccardo Gino Ferrante, who in 2006 followed a 16 year old girl in a Target store, knelt behind her and positioned a camera to take photos up her skirt. The court ruled that "the person photographed was not in a place where she had a reasonable expectation of privacy." So, according to Oklahoma statutes, it was her own damn fault for being in a public place while wearing a skirt.

It may be that the courts interpreted the law correctly and Oklahoma just needs to do some serious work on its statutes (read the actual law here, via A Blog For All). My question is how women can simultaneously be deemed as obscene for wearing skirts (see: Southwest Airlines), yet find themselves without any protection when strangers go to great lengths to photograph their covered-up ladybits. If a skirt is a public menace, isn't a taking unauthorized photos up a skirt at least a little bit wrong?

Nothing about wearing a skirt while shopping is an invitation to have strangers photograph your knickers. The man obviously knew he was doing something wrong, because he took pains to remain unobserved. The police on the scene must have felt his actions were wrong because he was taken in and charged with a felony.

Let me lay out why I think this case is so worrisome. First, there seems to be a subtle blaming of the girl for wearing a skirt in public, or indeed for being in public at all. How dare she expect the right to shop without being harassed?

Second, because most men don't wear skirts the rights of girls and women are most at stake here.

Third, I have to think that if the perpetrator had been targeting much younger girls with the same invasion of privacy, people would be ready to label him a pervert. Because this teenager - still a child, legally - was at an age that society might deem her sexually mature, perhaps it seemed understandable to the court that the man would want to photograph her. In the eyes of the court and lawmakers, does her sexuality strip her of the protections of childhood?

And finally, I'd like to think that in a society that claim one person's rights end where another's begin, I and all women of my acquaintance should have a reasonable expectation that strangers not be allowed to sneak cameras into my clothing to take photos of my nether regions.

I wonder if their behavior is legal, if it would be deemed assault for me to kick anyone I catch trying this? Perhaps I'll consult my legal counsel on that one.

[via A Blog for All]

[image via Getty]

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