So details have emerged of a new website entitled ‘tube crush’ whereby females take photos of unsuspecting males and post them on the internet at http://www.tubecrush.net/
I am unsure of where I stand on this sort of behaviour.
On the one hand, if this were predominantly males taking photos of woman and posting them (without permission) on a website, I’m sure there would be uproar. It certainly brings the sexist debate to a head.
In The Little Book of Tube Etiquette I acknowledge that drunken flirting and speaking to strangers is not the done thing. However, this is neither, it is more underhand but no doubt flattering to those snapped and posted and on the face of it, harmless fun.
When I was doing research for my book and taking sly pictures of people on the London Underground to demonstrate poor etiquette and as inspiration for our illustrator, I’m sure I didn’t manage to go unnoticed. I felt that people were suspicious of me pointing my phone in their direction no matter how subtle I tried to be. And those pictures weren’t even published anywhere. So now if you are a male and someone is behaving suspiciously with a mobile, there is every chance they are not a terrorist or tourist and in fact, just eyeing you up for the website.
Perhaps we should just enjoy it and hope that sexist groups don’t ruin the fun.
It sets a horrible precedent for further erosions of our privacy. I can't imagine why you'd even begin to think its okay. And the fact that it only bothers you when you imagine what it would be like if there was an equivalent site of photos of women shows a clear double-standard.
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