Reuters’ Ethics and Standards editor Brian Moss insisted that this wasn’t an upskirt photo, contending that the “intent is not to show women’s genitals or underwear that is normally hidden from view.” Moss then argued that this particular photo was “editorially sound” because “the billowing, bright yellow skirt and rounded shapes against the dark background caught our photographer’s eye,” and “the composition and the contrast are nearly perfect.” Edgar Su’s shot of Belarus’s Aryna Sabalenka was captioned a “general shot,” but it looks like an homage to Sam Shaw’s iconic photo spread of Marilyn Monroe, taken during the filming of The Seven Year Itch.Īlert writer, photographer, and Reading the Pictures reader Alan Weedon contacted Reuters about this image and a few others, stating his concern about their connotations as upskirt images. The photographs featured at the top of this piece are more recognizable as upskirt photos when paired with the infamous upskirt shots from popular culture that they mirror. Not every photo that reveals an athletic brief or bike short qualifies as an “upskirt.” Action shots such as the one of the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova, below, where the athletic activity is the focus and the motion of the skirt incidental, don’t evoke the unique and troubling perspective of the upskirt.Īn upskirt is a particular kind of shot-a titillating glimpse under a skirt that feels voyeuristic, invasive, and often sexualized. An athletic upskirt shot in tennis has some clearly recurring features that photo editors and news outlets should exclude from their coverage. Just because they’re common, however, doesn’t mean they’re harmless. So it’s not a surprise that the thousands of shots posted by Reuters of the Australian Open contained a few upskirts. Very recently, women players have pushed for more uniform options, but skirts remain the norm on the professional circuit. Whereas men get to play in shorts of various lengths that allow for full freedom of movement without exposing their nether regions to the camera, women have been pressured (and often required) to play in skirts-a convention that grew from nineteenth-century dress codes and only permitted the shortening of the skirt as the sport modernized. The upskirting of athletes in a sport like tennis, however, means that sexual voyeurism is part of covering sports events.Īthletic upskirting is possible in tennis only because of the sport’s longstanding and ridiculous uniform conventions. The most common athletic upskirt is the televised version featured on collegiate and professional football and basketball broadcasts: the slow pan up a cheerleader’s legs shot from beneath as she shakes her pom poms or does a high kick for the viewer:ĭespite the undeniable athleticism cheerleading requires, it has always been an oddly sexualized accessory to the “main event” it accompanies. It’s no surprise, then, that it pops up occasionally in the realm of sports photography in athletic events where the standard women’s uniform features short skirts and the typical activity includes flashes of whatever underpants or shorts lie beneath. In addition to being a (sometimes) illegal pastime of amateur photographers on subway trains and public staircases the world over, upskirting has long been a mainstay of fashion, advertising, and stock photography. Tennis – Australian Open – First Round – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia – JanuGeneral view of Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka during the match against Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro REUTERS/Edgar Su
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