Combatting Gender Privilege and Recognizing a Woman’s Right to Privacy in Public Spaces: Arguments to Criminalize Catcalling and Creep-Shots

Introduction

In the article titled ‘’Combatting Gender Privilege and Recognizing a Woman’s Right to Privacy in Public Spaces’’ authored by Marc Tran, the author explores on two variations entitled to the female gender being catcalling and creep-shots (Tran 185). To begin with, street harassment against women popularly known as catcalling has been in existence for the longest period and despite the psychological and physical harm that it leads to the issue is still on the rise in the contemporary society. According to Tran, street harassment usually takes place in instances when a female is in the public location and gets interrupted by gestures, wording or customized noises from men. In doing so, the male’s freedom of exercising expression by commenting regarding the female body is emphasized which in term describes the female as an object and the man as the substance that has authority over her (Tran 186). With the recent technology development that has helped in exposing such matters to the public as videos of street harassment have been circulating in the recent has helped in highlighting the seriousness of the issue. It is without a doubt that creep-shots which are a form of photography that values up-skirting and down blousing are an additional issue. These issues have generated controversies with respect to the need to acknowledge women’s privileges to privacy and recognizing catcalling and creep-shots are a crime. While the sources of such habits are debatable, the damages of creep-shots and catcalling are unarguable as they vary from nervousness to intensified cases of stalking and sexual attack.

In my opinion, Tran makes a rather strong argument that street harassment that is caused by catcalling and Creep-shots should be criminalized to ensure that the female’s gender entitlement to privacy is public setting is guaranteed but the argument would have been practical if more focus was made on the issues that the matter would raise based on the provision of the first amendment. In this case, it is not possible to create a distinction amid what is right based on the provision of law and what is not. This is because men involved in catcalling exercise their right of expression and communicating their thoughts on a subject which in this case is a female’s body. On the other hand, privacy is guaranteed for every individual both in private and public settings (Tran 187). However, in the contemporary societal trends have changed and every individual is striving to ensure that they have been heard which makes it even hard to criminalize the behavior. America is a nation that emphasizes on individuality meaning that everyone pursues the things that please them as long as the rights of others are fully preserved. The notion that female’s privacy is violated in the public setting by catcalling is not well supported and thus not justified because the behavior is a form of expression.

I do believe that sexual attack and stalking is an illegal conduct as it leads to harm and damages on the victims might either be psychological or physical. Such acts are not allowed as the constitution guards every individual from harm that may result from decisions from others. In this context, if catcalling leads to the aggressiveness of harm it should be categorized as a criminal act but expressionism should not be infringed in the quest of guarding the privilege of privacy. It can be agreed that catcalling is considered by most as flirting. It is not, therefore, a violation of the law to flirt with another because different individuals choose distinct strategies for doing it. In this context, criminalizing the act, therefore, implies that most individuals will mainly be sentenced just because of expressing themselves or for doing something that they believed would cause no harm. In addition, culturally America is very diverse which creates a lot of challenges in distinguishing amid what is accounted as morally good in some cultures and a crime in another. Due to the existence of different cultures, it is rather apparent that drawing a precise line amid the most acceptable nom and the unethical one is rather challenging. The creation of such laws that seek to work mainly against street harassment is a good measure of guarding individuals from any harm but this would be promoting the rise of discrimination based on gender, cultures as well as norms. In dealing with such an issue there are a number of matters that are to be accounted for fully to ensure that everything has been handled well. This means that the rights and beliefs of individuals are to be guarded fully to create a fair and pleasing society in general (Tran 185). In other words, the argument that female’s rights should be recognized and ensure that privacy is guaranteed in the public setting is viable but it should have been feasible if the constitutional provision and nature of the American culture was accounted for.

Creep-shots and catcalling should be illegal despite the fact that fighting the issue is challenging as controlling individuals conduct on the street are very demanding (Tran 186). In the article, Tran holds that despite the fact that the subject is still being debated by the public it is time that it is addressed. Tran, assets that street harassment is a problem that deserves equal attention as other minor and aggressive crimes based on the harm that is caused. Prior to focusing on the solutions, the major harms caused by the issue should be analyzed which will, in turn, offer individuals with an adequate understanding of the matter. According to Tran to of the major issues that arise from street harassment are privacy invasion and fear of sexual attack (Tran 187). This is because in most unsafe places those that seem not to respond well to the calling will ultimately be subjected to rape or physical attacks. Street harassment has proven to be notably destructive based on the ground that African American females experience more of the harassment which revokes a sensation of slavery. This is against the law given that every individual is entitled to peaceful living and privacy. In addition to sexual harassment, street attacks create psychological oppression that works in lowering the dignity of the women that are involved as well as subjecting them to unending trauma. Most of those that are attacked lose their confidence which in turn affects their ability to interact socially or be expressive. In turn, development is affected in general which causes the society to lose a lot in regard to finances as some are forced to enquire for clinical assistance (Tran 187).

The author depicts the issue of street harassment as gender specific. In that based on the dominance of the harassment against women, the issue can best be understood to be a source of harm to women men. These incidents mainly occur in the isolated locations and in the cases, the victims have no much power to overcome the attacks which force most of them to compromise in order to evade serious harms. In other words, the issue is also widely acknowledged as a result of social control in which the domination of the male gender is widely acknowledged, leading to isolation, interruption, and oppression (Tran 188). Tran asserts that the society has failed in handling the prevalence of the problem because most of the individuals involved in the behavior do so because of the lack of adequate knowledge. In this context, there is a necessity to educate the public about the importance of respecting others, their privacy, religion, culture and so on.

It is worth noting that the issue of street harassment affects every individual but has more psychological weight on colored people (Tran 189). In that, most of them perceive it as a continuity of slavery where black women are still expected to act as sexual object for the white race. On the other hand, the issue is more rampant among black men as the African culture emphases more on it and there is particularly nothing wrong with the act in general and if the behavior is criminalized this, therefore, implies that the gap between the incarcerated black and while men will widen further thus leading to furthered form of discrimination. this will cause a number of negative implication on the ground that the black race will feel offended as even though their beliefs assert that the behavior is not illegal they will be sentenced for such norms which will deny them the ability to practice all that they believe in.

Tran (189) emphasizes that the best solution lies in implementing a legal solution against catcalling. In that, the author holds that the harms caused by catcalling are extremely spread across the nation and thus the behavior is best qualified to be categorized as a crime. In most cases, laws against harassment and stalking are in operation and the main weaknesses regarding the policies lie on the ground that they need to take place in a given pattern to be accounted as street attacks (Tran 189). Based on the harms that are caused by street harassment, it is rather evident that the harassment necessitates a different classification that will seek to guard individual’s rights. This means that every individual will be accountable for their behaviors and the resulting damages.

In summing up, it is evident that street harassment is a major concern in the contemporary society even though it has been given little to zero attention in regard to law. It is evident that aggressive catcalling that leads to sexual harm should be dealt with as crime but there is a need to distinguish amid harmless and aggressive behaviors. In that, most of them are practiced as a form of flirting which is allowed by the American culture and constitution which encourages individuality and expressionism. Educating individuals in regard to the harm that is caused by the issue can be the best and most effective strategies while legally aggressive harassment can lead to conviction and so on.

 

 

Work Cited

Tran, Marc. Combatting Gender Privilege and Recognizing a Woman’s Right to Privacy in Public Spaces: Arguments to Criminalize Catcalling and Creep-shots. (2015): Pp. 185-206.