Monday, August 31, 1998
Like it or not, Americans are voyeuristic
CURIOSITY: From car crashes to the Internet to mass media,
people just cannot stop looking
The people of America have become voyeurs of everyday life, as
they find themselves compelled to observe things around them.
The term "voyeur" tends to give people an image of a dirty old
man with binoculars peering into the bedroom window of an
unsuspecting girl who is finishing with a shower or changing her
clothes. Furthermore, people begin to develop a profile for this
man. He’s a pervert, a stalker probably, because he’s figured out
this girl’s schedule and has a lot of free time to sit around in
bushes waiting to spy.
A voyeur, however, is just someone who likes to watch. It
doesn’t have to be a strange guy peeking into a window, but can be
anybody who just watches something. Thus, all people are voyeurs.
Moreover, many people tend to be more voyeuristic as they do less
and observe more. There are numerous instances of this.
Video camera footage has become a hallmark of voyeurism during
the last few years. As reported on local television station KTTV,
an explosion of footage looking up women’s dresses in public places
(such as outdoor malls and sidewalks) has grown into a popular item
on the Internet. It is a legal act as long as it’s done on public
property such as sidewalks, and the perverted enjoyment from the
purveyors is paying the providers of this cottage industry. As long
as people enjoy looking at this, there will be other people using
their small, concealed cameras to spy up dresses.
Voyeurism can also be offered to the public for a price. Another
Internet oddity would be the JenniCam, which is a camera mounted in
a young woman’s apartment. Jenni, a girl doing everyday things in
her apartment (including nudity of sorts), charges people to get a
video feed from her mounted camera. Once again, people get pleasure
from watching her every time she gets in front of the camera and
does whatever she feels like at the given moment.
The entire American mentality to watch was exposed recently by
two actors who pretended to be virgins about to have sex for the
first time on a web site called "Our First Time." The two alleged
virgins, Mike and Diane, drew in enormous amounts of people to
their web page in anticipation of their supposed date of Aug. 4
when they would have sex live on the Internet via a digital
camera.
Before the deadline, however, the two actors and their producer
held a press conference where they revealed that it was a hoax.
They said that they had meant to send out a message that people
truly like to watch, and that maybe people should examine their
moral values and character for wanting to view such material on the
Internet. In fact, a parody web site on two virgin ducks about to
have sex for the first time has shown itself as "Our First
Crime."
On top of that, it struck a blow to IEG, a leading adult
entertainment provider on the Internet, since the company signed a
contract with them and then failed to deliver two people losing
their virginity online. It hurt IEG’s reputation for providing such
adult entertainment.
Los Angeles drivers can also be accused of voyeurism.
Immediately following a car accident, drivers can be found
"rubbernecking" at slow speeds as they pass the scene. Whether it
is the 405 Freeway or Interstate 5, drivers filled with curiosity
and intrigue slow down to see the injuries or deaths inflicted by
the collision. People also rubberneck at other motorists who have
been pulled over by the highway patrol for speeding or some other
infraction. The drama and trauma of something that isn’t a routine
occurrence (although some would debate that accidents are routine)
provides excitement with something that is real and has an unknown
outcome, forcing people to watch.
Voyeurism can be experienced at home all by yourself as well.
The television is the main contributor to single voyeurism. After
all, you are watching television. People enjoy it because when a
new episode comes out, they have no idea what is going to happen
and how it is going to affect the actors. Although the folks on
television are merely actors, the people watching are still peering
into the lives of other people, whether or not they are real.
Aside from the usual planned programming on television, there is
the (now everyday) high speed pursuit shown by the local news as a
special report – they even force this into children’s programming
sometimes. Once more, the allure of the car chase is the reality of
it and the fact that the outcome is uncertain. Lives could be lost,
vehicles could be smashed and the unusual nature of the chase draws
viewers to the tube as a person runs from the law.
Television has also brought about a change in the American
psyche. It used to be that everyone wanted to see things for
themselves and make their own judgments. Now, parents and concerned
citizens don’t want everyone to see everything. For example, on
Apr. 30, a man upset with his HMO for bad treatment stepped onto a
Los Angeles freeway and shot himself in the head with a shotgun. It
was on live television thanks to aggressive local news stations.
Since it aired during children’s programming, parents found
themselves upset at the irresponsibility of the television stations
for showing viewers that scene, but also found that they were
unable to pry themselves away from such images. The ratings were
high that day.
Indeed, voyeurism of such atrocities is popular despite some
conflicting moral feelings about protecting children from such
images – some adults find these images fascinating.
Similar to watching television shows, movies can be a source of
voyeuristic indulgence. A person sits in a theater, in the dark,
staring into other peoples’ lives for two hours. Identical to
previous examples of voyeurism, the lure of watching is the
enjoyment from not knowing what will happen next in the portrayed
lives of the people on the big screen. Also, let’s not forget the
men and women who watch some movies to see the naked body of a
favorite actor or actress.
Everybody really is a voyeur. We all have rubbernecked at an
accident on the freeway or looked at a penalized motorist watched a
television show or a good movie or checked out another human being
sometime in our lives. In fact, we may be doing it more than ever
since watching or looking is much safer than doing.
There’s nothing wrong with letting human nature take its course.
You can’t help liking to look whenever and wherever you are because
you enjoy it. That’s the whole point. You’re intrigued, it’s
dramatic, it oftentimes is a real-life event, it’s thrilling, it’s
usually not routine and most of the time you aren’t sure what the
outcome will be for the subject being watched.
So be a voyeur, watch because you like it. Just make sure you
know what you’re looking at is what you really want to see.
Referenced websites:
Jennicam
Denizine
Michael Yan