Peek-A-Boo

This week I saw a 20/20 piece on upskirting and video-voyeurism. Please don't think me naïve, I have known about this for a long time, but a store's surveillance video of a lanky blond man pointing his cameraphone up a teenager's miniskirt just stuck with me.

I can't stop thinking about how much I wish I were that teenager so I could stomp on his hand—grind his metacarpals and phalanges to powder with the heel of my shoe. Past experience has taught me that very few people suspect that my first and strongest instinct is violent. Even the surveillance video of me doing it would not convince anyone to punish such a bland young woman.

On the other hand, I'm afraid that despite my hyperalertness, somewhere on the Internet is a photo of the shadow under my skirt.

This is why I'm more wary of suburban white men that of Latino gangsters. Gangsters attack when provoked, but perverts get off on the innocence of their victims. That means that I can control whether I am attacked by a gangster; I cannot control whether I'm the target of a pervert. And yes, I do know that perverts come in all colors, but most of those reported on TV are white, so white men frighten me more at the get-go.