Erin Andrews, Creeps, and Pessimism

On one of the message-board sites where I go to vent my not-so-bottomless pit of hostility now and then, I recently encountered a rather disturbing thread about Erin Andrews.

I'm not much of a sports fan, so I'll tell you all frankly that until I saw the reference on this message board site I had no idea who Erin Andrews was. In the expectation that my readers will include similarly benighted non-fans, here's the background to my disquiet: Ms Andrews is a reporter for ESPN. For the last few years she has been on the sidelines of ESPN-broadcast college football games on Saturday night. It isn't the most blazing sort of celebrity status one can have, but it is a piece of the public eye.

Anyway: some pervert who appears to have just come out of a showing of one of those dumb-teen flicks, Porkies or some knock-off thereof, took video of Andrews through a peephole into her hotel room, and posted it on the internet.

That's not what bothers me, espeically. Yes, it was an invasion of her rights, and yes I hope the perv in question is caught and punished. But that should go without saying, and would not by itself draw comment from me here.

What bothers me more is that in some quarters some sympathy has developed for the as yet unapprehended pervert. Someone in the message board site above-mentioned has posted a link to, and praised, a "column" on the subject by some non-entity named Jesse Attreau.

Attreau starts off by asserting that he does not "condone" voyeurism -- and then goes on to condone it, and indeed goes further than that, declaring, "my hat's off to whoever it was who took that video. Bravo!"

If Attreau isn't himself the voyeur (and for all I know he may be) he is certainly a disgusting creep in his own right. I was going to summarize and respond to the "arguments" leading to that cry of Bravo but on second thought have decided that would not be worth it, that would be giving his babblings too much credit, treating them as coherent communication. So I'll only say that every time that I think there is some hope for the human species, some Attreauvian slimebag slinks by.

It is one thing to say that Ms Andrews as a public figure has to be willing to accept some unpleasant criticism, even some that would be actionable as against a private person. It is quite another to say that she is not entitled to the privacy of her hotel room, which is what the cretins seem inclined to say.

So here is my cyberspatial middle finger to the voyeur, to Attreau, and to anyone who speaks well on behalf of either.