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55 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 203 (2018)
To See and Be Seen: Reconstructing the Law of Voyeurism and Exhibitionism

handle is hein.journals/amcrimlr55 and id is 213 raw text is: TO SEE AND BE SEEN: RECONSTRUCTING THE LAW OF VOYEURISM AND EXHIBITIONISM Stuart P. Green* INTRODUCTION Lady Godiva was an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who lived with her husband, Lord Leofric, in the English village of Coventry.' According to a legend dating back to as early as the 13th century, the compassionate Godiva, concerned about the harsh tax burden her husband had placed on his subjects, appealed to him, over and over, for their relief. At last, weary of her entreaties, Leofric set forth this challenge: if his wife would ride naked through the center of town, the tax would be lifted. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and the next day rode her horse down the main street of Coventry, covered only by her long hair. According to one version of the legend, a proclamation was issued that all persons should stay indoors and shutter their windows during Godiva's ride.2 According to an alternate version, the people stayed indoors voluntarily, shuttered behind closed windows as a gesture of respect and appreciation for her actions on their behalf. 3 In the end, Lord Leofric made good on his promise and announced that the tax burden on his subjects would indeed be lifted.4 A subplot in a later version of the Lady Godiva legend involves the role of a young tailor known forever after as Peeping Tom. According to the story, the lustful Tom drilled a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass. As divine punishment, Tom was subsequently struck blind (or dead, according to yet * Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School; Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Law, London School of Economics (2016-17). Earlier versions of this article were presented at faculty workshops at the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Connecticut, and Warwick, and as a public lecture at the LSE. I am most grateful for the many helpful comments and questions I received. Special thanks to Curtis Alva, Carlos Ball, Jennifer Collins, Michelle Madden Dempsey, Matt Dyson, Jeremy Horder, Elizabeth Jeglic, Nicky Padfield, Jonathan Rogers, Julia Simon-Kerr, Victor Tadros, and Alec Walen. D 2018, Stuart P. Green. 1. DANIEL DONOGHUE, LADY GODIVA: A LITERARY HISTORY OF THE LEGEND 7 (2003); Charles Coe, Lady Godiva: The Naked Truth, HARV. MAG. (Jul.-Aug. 2003), http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/lady-godiva-the- naked-tr.html; Lady Godiva: The Naked Truth, BBCNEWS (Aug. 24, 2001), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in-depth/ uk/2000/newsmakers/1507606.stm; Lady Godiva, WIKIPEDIA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wikilLadyGodiva. The story of Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom is also discussed in John Draeger's analysis of voyeurism's wrongs. See John Draeger, What Peeping Tom Did Wrong, 14 ETHICAL THEORY & MORAL PRAc. 41, 42 (2011). 2. See, e.g., Alfred Lord Tennyson, Godiva (orig. publ. 1842), reprinted in THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALFRED TENNYSON, POET LAUREATE 63-64 (1870) (Godiva sent a herald forth, And bade him cry, with sound of trumpet ... From then till noon no foot should pace the street, No eye look down, she passing; but that all Should keep within, door shut, and window barr'd). 3. DONOGHUE, supra note 1, at 69. 4. Id. 203

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