"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift." - Albert Einstein
The pleasure of voyeurism takes many forms. As a taxi driver: A grope in the back seat viewed through the rearview mirror. Window cleaner: A beautiful woman lone in her office getting changed for a night out. The changing rooms at the gym have windows facing a road running high above it. Noone ever walks past there (no footpath and no reason) except me.... You can see straight into the showers as women soap up and rub their breasts as they cleanse off the sweat from their bodies... but only if you stand in exactly the correct position, and you can only see the top half of the last shower in the row.
I'm a bit tired of the run-of-the-mill voyeurism sites that just want your money. I think it's about time someone made a decent effort to set up a "community voyeurism site" to cater for those of us left jaded by commercialism, looking for something useful to inspire our minds in the coming months, years and decades.
The term Peeping Tom originated in England in the year 1040 in connection with the story of Lady Godiva. As the legend is told, in the year 1040, Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of Coventry in protest of a tax imposed by her husband, the Earle of Mercia. The people of Coventry were instructed to stay indoors with windows covered; one man, however, defied the order. As punishment, he was blinded and branded with the nickname “Peeping Tom.”
Although originally unknown at common law, the act of window peeping - the unsophisticated precursor of video voyeurism - historically was prosecuted under the crimes of disorderly conduct or breach of the peace. Breach of the peace was a crime at common law, but disorderly conduct is a statutory offense that lacks a precise definition, although it had its origin in the common law. More recently, this conduct has been prosecuted under specific Peeping Tom statutes, thus evidencing a more specific attempt to prohibit voyeuristic conduct and by corollary, to protect individual privacy. Today, the criminalization of privacy intrusion is firmly established in many state penal codes, falling under a wide variety of crimes: trespass, window peeking, secret peeping, eavesdropping, indecent viewing or photography, violation of privacy, voyeurism, unlawful photographing, as well as unauthorized videotaping.
Overwhelmingly, criminal law protection does not extend to the public space and at most serves only as a minimal deterrent to video voyeurism. But it's always important that you check the laws as they apply in your locality.
The Future of Voyeurism
Hard to say, really, but the future of voyeurism looks reasonably promising. The ever-increasing number of cameras about to capture our every movement means there will be more and more private and intimate moments caught on film. That can only be good. But - more importantly perhaps - it also means that people get more and more used to lack of privacy. In other words: More used to the idea of being watched. Less likely to kick up a fuss if I am being watched. More resigned to the fact that it does happen. All good stuff for voyeurs!
In spite of the general trend by lawmakers to tighten the noose around the neck of the voyeur, it will inevitably become easier to get away with. Take an example: Some voyeurs have been apprehended while repeatedly following women wearing skirts on escalators. The man will travel a few steps behind the woman and place a shopping bag on the step below the female. The bag will contain a shoe box with a camera mounted in it to video tape upskirts movies. While it's easy enough to catch a voyeur in this manner, imagine when cameras become small enough, and image storage devices will be small enough to enable much better hiding of the equipment. Furthermore, it wouldn't be unimaginable to think that the storage device (today's video tape) will be such that it can be instantly erased if need be.
