It is a term well known to women and yet little documented. Recognized as a criminal offense in France only since 2018, punishable by one year in prison and a fine of €15,000, voyeurism is a practice as old as time. Deviant and now illegal sexual disorder, it consists of watching, spying, observing a person without their consent. Over the years, the fantasy of “seeing without being seen” has woven its web across the world, changing considerably with the emergence of new technologies.
From peeking through the keyhole to capturing stolen images using hidden cameras, the phenomenon has multiplied, worsening with the appearance of online distribution groups and other private forums. Not surprisingly, women are the primary targets. But who are these “voyeurs”, how do they operate and what do they risk? In her work,
Voyeur!, investigation into a social phenomenon (Ed. Robert Laffont)
, published on April 11, journalist Clémentine Thiébault looked into the question, examining the press, the archives and the law to better understand the the magnitude of the subject and all its gray areas. Interview.
Madame Figaro.-
Your investigation takes as its starting point the story of Joddy, victim of voyeurism in a hotel in the city of Pau in 2001. What struck you in this story?
Clémentine Thiébault.-
The story was told to me in 2015, fourteen years after the events, during a dinner. Joddy, singer in a troupe that was staying at a city hotel at the time for a month of performances, had been spied on in the bathroom of her room. A small hole had been drilled in a wall by the manager of the establishment. For the first time, the figure of the voyeur hiding behind his partition became real and brutal, at least in my eyes. It extricated me from the idea of a certain mythology on the subject, of something linked more to the collective imagination than to reality.
Have you never encountered this kind of story before?
Strangely no, although it is a much more widespread phenomenon than we think, obviously. In reality, I had initially kept this anecdote in the back of my mind until the publication of the book
Le voyeur du motel
by Gay Talese, in 2016 (the journalist's work returns to the Gérard Foos affair, owner of a motel in the United States having spied on all its customers for several decades - the story was the subject of a Netflix documentary in 2017
, Editor's note
). At that time, we were in the middle of the Me Too era, we were wondering a lot about the notion of consent. The publication of this book was an explosion for me.
A male fantasy
You begin your work with a definition given by Chat GPT. Why this choice ?
By reading the definition of this artificial intelligence, fed - therefore - by our own data, we read that it is a question of "deviant, illegal behavior, (...) involving the spying on people without their consent, this which can cause emotional and psychological distress to victims. Voyeurism is in fact a compulsion, an act carried out almost in spite of the subject. This response is very representative of the way in which the phenomenon is understood in society. We hide behind a legal, almost medical definition, without ever really addressing the root of the problem. Voyeurism is an extremely sexist sexual disorder considered to be one of the most widespread types of violence against women.
You mean it's a purely male sexual fantasy?
When we do our research, the figures are alarming: 99% of voyeurs are men, while 90 to 95% of victims are women. For what ? Because men and women have never been equal when it comes to exploring their sexuality and realizing their desires. Men forbid themselves less, there is a form of induced possibility, where women do not even think about it, because it is not in their education to look at men's bodies without their consent. The objectification of women's bodies, in fact reducing them to objects of desire, stems from a very patriarchal society. Voyeurism is all the more perverse as we dehumanize the bodies since there is no confrontation or contradiction between the subject and the object. The voyeur can project all his fantasies of domination into this image that he has stolen.
What are the different types of voyeurs?
Voyeurism comes in different ways. Everyone has dreamed of being a little mouse to hear and see what's going on next door. But there is fantasy and acting out. There, there is the voyeur who will happily look behind the door to the one who will photograph under girls' skirts, in fitting rooms, restaurant toilets, apartments...
Although it is considered a crime, voyeurism has always permeated the erotic imagination, particularly in the art world. Does this indicate a certain hypocrisy?
When I wanted to investigate my voyeur from Pau, I looked through all the departmental archives of the city, nothing was mentioned there. No complaints, no press articles, absolutely nothing. Conversely, art is full of works on the subject, such as
Rear Window
, by Alfred Hitchcock, or by self-confessed “voyeur” artists. But I am thinking in particular of the photographer Miroslav Tichy, who made a cane equipped with a hidden camera, to capture the bodies of women in the street, see under the skirts, under the guise of making art. Here again, in cinema, in photography, in painting, it is only men who are fascinated by the subject.
In the chapter “A Dirty Story”, you mention the film by Jean Eustache, released in 1977. The director gives voice to a voyeur, who recounts, in front of the camera, his experience in a very uninhibited manner...
Watching this film was one of the most difficult episodes of this investigation, a real moment of saturation. There is something blatant about men's justification of voyeurism. This person describes having frequented a café in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, where a hole had been drilled in the women's toilets. Although the practice of voyeurism is very solitary, the voyeurs recognize each other, lie in wait for each other, pass on good tips. There, the regulars knew of the existence of this hole and took turns all day long to go watch, always with the same justification: "It's okay, I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't touch it." The notion of consent is completely eluded, as there is no physical contact, so there is no aggression. This is one of the components of the subject, because in this sense, voyeurism has long been a legal blind spot.
A crime never named
How is it framed exactly?
It has only been recognized as a criminal offense since 2018. And the law does not name it directly. We talk about invasion of privacy or even intimacy, but never “voyeurism”.
Why that ?
Until now, it was a sort of unthought within society, too impalpable, immaterial, to be thought about collectively. So, there are very few complaints in this type of case. A victim, without “physical aggression”, will not go to the police station. On the other hand, voyeurism will be taken into consideration added to other offenses. If there is rape and the attacker commits acts of voyeurism, this will increase the conviction. This is a problem when we know that 20% of voyeurs move on to more serious acts over time.
To what extent has the Internet revolutionized practice?
Where once the voyeur had to peer painfully through the keyhole, the Internet has given access to a range of new tools, sold on sites like Amazon at unbeatable prices. Today, the voyeur is no longer behind the wall but enters into privacy, thanks to alarm clocks or fake electric cables, spy pens... If voyeurism remains an individual exercise, the appearance of social networks nevertheless made it possible to expand their community. There have always been places, like the café in the 15th arrondissement, where those who practiced it could identify with each other and almost come together. With the Internet, the scale has evolved. There are no longer around fifteen but hundreds, even thousands “watching”. Furthermore, it is these new technologies that have finally made it possible to legally regulate the practice. The use of videos makes it possible to better legislate on this, since there is now evidence. It has become more tangible for justice and for the victims.
In 2017, there was a spike in the United States, particularly with the emergence of the rental platform Airbnb...
Airbnb created a travel space that didn't exist before. Combined with the miniaturization of cameras, this has created new opportunities for voyeurs. And the cases have indeed multiplied. In France, nearly 857 break-ins of this type were reported in 2017, or 857 cases of people having been filmed without their knowledge during their stay. It's pretty scary when you think about it.
Finally, you devote a chapter to
molka
, a form of voyeurism practiced in South Korea.
What makes it different from the others?
The
molka
is the high point of voyeurism, which brings together all the factors: sexism, sexual violence, dissemination of images, in an exponential manner. South Korea is an extremely patriarchal and at the same time ultra-connected society. There, women are filmed without their knowledge in their privacy and thrown out to pasture on the web. The phenomenon spread so exponentially that we eventually gave it a name.
*Voyeur, investigation into a social phenomenon, Clémentine Thiébault, published by Robert Laffont on April 11, 2024