Handbags and J-Girls
Handbags and J-Girls is a fun site that is dedicated entirely to photos that show Japanese women and their handbags.
Its “mission” is the following.
Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Coach. You name it, Japanese girls usually have it! This site is dedicated to the obsession J-Girls display towards their favourite luxury and designer brands. There’s only one rule I’m imposing on myself here, and that’s that ALL photos must include the two fundamentally basic elements, namely a Japanese girl and at least one handbag. A tricky mission indeed, but someone’s got to do it!
UPDATE - Innocent fun? Or twisted perversion?
As I wrote above, Handbags and J-Girls struck me as nothing more than a fun site, with tasteful pictures of women carrying handbags
Apparently however, some commenters have written in to the site demanding that it be taken down. Some excerpts from the comments.
- This site is terrible idea, and you could be arrested for this and thrown in jail by the J-POLICE.
- [T]aking pictures of women in Japan without their permission is a kind of stalking situation and I have alerted INTERPOL already to your website.
- This is an invastion of privacy gone wrong. Please stop for your good good.
- Standing behind women in department stores on on sidewalks and shooting them with your cellcam is wrong, and a huge invasion of privacy.
- This is stalking pure and simple.
- This idea is illegal, unethical and wrong wrong wrong.
- I am a girl, in Tokyo, from the UK, and let me tell you, this is not what the Internet was meant to become: a place for pervs and sexual stalkers.
Let us know what you think JAPUNDIT readers.
What is also interesting is how many J-girls ask their boyfriends to carry their handbags for them when they are walking together at night, and the boys look, well, a bit uncomfortable carrying a girl’s pocketbook or handbag but they do it because it is expected of them and later that night, there will be a payoff…
September 3rd, 2005 at 2:43 pmWell… No matter how you look at it, it is an invasion of privacy, and while IANAJL, I am quite sure Japanese law doesn’t look kindly on this sort of stuff (I know for a fact that right to image laws are much stronger here).
Bottom line is: it could be pictures of girls with their handbags or guys standing in the street, either way, if you haven’t their agreement, you are running afoul of the law, and taking worst case scenario where someone catches you and diligent j-cops conduct a search of your place (or even simply your phone/camera) and find hundred of such pics, I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one who has to do the explaining…
September 3rd, 2005 at 5:17 pmHave to say, the author knows he’s in an extremely dodgy ethical area. The tangle of (presumably) a gaijin (with a stash of fetish pix) with the Japanese police would be no fun at all.
September 3rd, 2005 at 5:35 pmHow can taking pictures of people in public be an invasion of privacy?
September 3rd, 2005 at 6:14 pmThe individual who who thinks they have suffered some injury can certainly make requests that their photo not be included. However, I don’t believe you will find grounds for a class-action suit.
If this were possible all newspapers, TV networks and magazines would be in trouble. I would question the sanity of anyone who gets excited over a photo of a girl carrying a handbag. It would be dumb enough if it were the individual but a third party? Better get a refill on your medication.
Regards
September 3rd, 2005 at 6:54 pm“a place for pervs and sexual stalkers.”
These days perv can be generally defined as any man who feels sexually attracted to women and expresses it to a woman who is not sexually attracted to him.
Sheep and inflatable dolls look better every day.
September 3rd, 2005 at 7:10 pmghoti:
good one!
September 3rd, 2005 at 8:21 pmThis is stalking?
You know, they say if you lay down and take three deep breaths, it relaxes the longest nerve in your body.
It works for me!
September 3rd, 2005 at 10:35 pmIt doesn’t strike me as sexual so much as discomforting that they’re having their photos taken without their knowledge. Personally, if someone snapped photos of me with my handbag without me knowing I would feel uncomfortable about it. But I think it’s contextually related too. If someone was shooting photos for the purpose of fine art of people without their permission, I don’t think there would be quite as much discord about it.
September 4th, 2005 at 1:08 amAny photo you see in any newspaper is almost always taken without the subject’s consent. In fact, back in journalism school one of the things they taught us in Photojournalism 101 was how to take pictures w/o other people catching on. It’s more authentic that way.
And in this society of phone cams, shoe cams, love-hotel cams, biometrics and so on, it’s a little hard to believe that anyone could ever hope to walk along the street without being documented in some way.
At the same time, assuming the guy who runs the site Handbags and J-Girls is a guy and is not gay, why not ask the women for their permission before taking these photos? It sounds like a fantastic way to meet women, if you ask me. Don’t speak Japanese? Learn a few basic phrases.
So that’s my question: why doesn’t this guy just go up and ask the women if he can take their picture? And you don’t start off by saying, like a creep: Can I take your picture? You say: hi, I like your bag. Can I take your picture. And it’s better to do it when girls are in groups…hell, these are social skills every horny twenty-something guy should be able to master…
September 4th, 2005 at 4:27 amArtist and photographers having been taking pix of people in the street for years.
You might not like it but it’s a fact of life you get filmed everytime everywhere you go these days, security cams, mobile phones. Don’t beat yourself up over it.
September 4th, 2005 at 10:12 am“…and I have alerted INTERPOL already to your website.”
Well, so what? What can Interpol, a European agency, do in Japan? This sounds a little silly to me.
In any event, taking pictures of people without permission is decidedly NOT illegal. If it were you’d never be able to take a photograph in a crowded public place.
Sounds like it’s either a) someone playing a joke or b) some self-righteous twit who doesn’t like the site and is trying to scare the person into taking it down.
Either way, what a world…
September 4th, 2005 at 4:13 pmIf I remember correctly, there has been an extensive discussion 1 year ago in ‘The Japan Photo’ Yahoo Group about the legal aspects of taking pictures of people in public places:
September 4th, 2005 at 5:10 pmhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/japanphoto/
“…why not ask the women for their permission before taking these photos? It sounds like a fantastic way to meet women, if you ask me.”
I like the way you think, Anon!
September 4th, 2005 at 8:34 pmThis evil stalking and must be stopped immediately.
And don’t forget that George Bush is just like Hitler. And he caused the tsunami and the hurricane!
September 5th, 2005 at 3:49 amAmerica and much of the West is living in the age of ”moral narcissism,” as the discussion here shows. A guy gets called a stalker and pervert for posting some photos of pedestrians, fer chrissakes. Why the vicarious aggrievement?
Maybe people are so insecure about their moral standing and thus feel compelled to demonstrate moral insensitivity in others. Or maybe they’re just mimicing the “talk show” media, which is on the lookout aggrievement that can be sensationalized 24/7.
September 6th, 2005 at 3:00 pmA-a-a-a-a-a-men!
September 6th, 2005 at 6:33 pm