Sexual Assault Via the Internet: The Case of Allison Stokke

Can clicking on a link to a picture or video of an attractive woman constitute assault? For the majority of women's images on the internet, there is an unwritten code of consent that governs voyeurism; women in various states of (un)dress willingly post pictures of themselves to be viewed by others. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as the case of Allison Stokke.

Ms. Stokke, if you haven't heard by now, is a 4.0+ student at Newport Harbor High School, where she broke five national records in pole vaulting and earned a scholarship to the University of California, according to a recent article in the Washington Post. However, the article that appeared in the Post, and other press appearances by Ms. Stokke, had little to do with her athletic and scholarly achievements. The real story here was about sexual norms, the internet, and law in the United States.

Photographs of Ms. Stokke were originally taken by a track and field journalist for a California track website, according to the Post article. These photos circulated on athletic websites with relatively small viewerships until making their way to withleather.com, a sports blog with a readership of over one million per month. According to the Post article, "more than 20 message boards and 30 blogs" linked to the picture of Stokke, and before long the photo was all over the internet, being leered at by hundreds of thousands.

The photos themselves are nowhere near sordid; indeed, the content is tame. At the same time, the elements of the photo seem to question where the border of "acceptable" voyeuristic behavior lies. Stokke is dressed in standard athletic gear, being at a track meet. While such uniforms are not particularly revealing, they are very form fitting-presumably to reduce wind resistance. Even the most evenhanded descriptions of the photos, however--like the one in the Washington Post article--take time to note Stokke's "olive skin" and "bared midriff." In addition, Stokke herself is 18--a fantasy age of perverts, old enough to "legally" be considered an adult, but just barely. However, some of the photos were taken when she was younger.

In addition to questioning cultural norms of sexuality, the unwanted circulation of the photographs brings up complicated legal questions. In an article for the L.A. Times, Eugene Volokh, a UCLA professor of 1st Amendment law, notes that ""If somebody puts up a picture taken by someone else, the photographer can sue - though it's not clear he'd always win - but Allison Stokke can't sue." Stokke herself noted that "Even if none of it is illegal, it just all feels really demeaning."

Even if the law cannot help Stokke control the use of her own image, it seems that there is a glimmer of hope that the right thing will be done. A phone call and a letter from the Stokke family succeeded in shutting down the unofficial Allison Stokke fan page, which now reads, "Farewell. Sorry for having contributed to the unwanted attention, Allison. We think you're a phenomenal athlete and wish you the best of luck in your academic and athletic endeavors."

Additionally, on the message boards of Letsrun.com, one of the earlier sources of the Stokke photos, posters mulled the negative consequences of their actions in relation to the Washington Post article. One poster remarked that "The point here is that seemingly benign behavior (clicking on a link to a picture of a high school girl) is traumatizing to some degree an innocent party (the high school girl). The point is that there really seems to be a substantial difference between locker room talk on one hand and locker room talk amplified 10,000 times via the internet and photography on the other. Locker room talk is most often probably less than ideal for all parties, but what's happened to this girl is much more substantial and potentially damaging." We can only hope that more voices like this are heard in the wake of Allison Stokke's unfortunate experience.

Sources:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/la-sp-stokke2jun02,0,6647011.story?page=1&coll=la-home-center

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801370_2.html

http://www.letsrun.com