Upskirting videos at the Oktoberfest: A right to the Oktoberfest

The Devil's Wheel has been an attraction at the Oktoberfest since 1908. A horizontal wooden wheel that spins around itself faster and faster, so that the people sitting on it eventually slide down. A presenter makes fun of their attempts to hold on live, while a thick rope hanging from the roof wipes over the people in order to throw them off. Whoever manages to stay on it wins.

It's great fun. Children especially love the devil's wheel, adults also have fun. Women too. Also women in dirndls, that traditional or traditional-looking Bavarian costume with a deep neckline and sometimes a short skirt hem. When I go to the Oktoberfest, I often wear my own dirndl, with a low cut and a skirt hem down to the calf. Or in jeans. But I always go there to ride the carousel.

Of course I was sexually harassed, no matter what I was wearing. Even more so as a teenager, because I didn't think anything of it during the initially pleasant conversation with the Italian tourist on the S-Bahn. But even as a woman in my 40s, I get groped in crowds.

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Whether during the day or at night in the dark, whether in a short skirt or a down coat, whether at the Oktoberfest or in your own relationship - it makes no difference where and how: men harass, insult, abuse and rape women.

That's why the current research by ARD and BR into the mass sale of pornographically manipulated videos of women on the devil's wheel is no surprise. Regardless of what they were wearing, by the way. Firstly anyway and secondly because the women were simply made naked using artificial intelligence and presented in pornographic contexts.

Not surprising, but a new quality when sexualized abuse 2.0 becomes more and more a worthwhile business model. And yet many people still wave it off: they know that this happens at events like this. This is – unfortunately, unfortunately – nothing new. And ultimately the women who voluntarily go on such a bike in skirts should also be held responsible, not all of them are victims.

In which world, I wonder, will FLINTA* themselves be held responsible for the fact that manipulated images of them are being distributed without their knowledge or involvement? In which world do you think that the combination of dirndl and carousel, of tight sweatpants and park, of miniskirt and subway speaks for itself? In what outfit are we allowed to move, where and when, in order not to become complicit in the exploitation and mass abuse of our bodies? And where does this “personal responsibility” end?

A few years ago I took the train with my little daughter. Three men traveling with us at the next table joked with the conductor. He didn't want his job, one passenger told the conductor. He asked in an affable, friendly manner what he was doing himself. He pointed over to us: “I’m a pimp and those two over there are mine.”

My protest was quick and loud, but not too loud because I didn't want to worry my daughter. Nevertheless, the conductor just looked over wearily - and past us. He probably wasn't surprised. The other men laughed.

I don't want to live in a world where I have to explain to my daughter from an early age that men want to abuse their bodies. There is no safe place or safe clothing from the sick brains and boundless hubris of rapists. For no child, no old woman, no disabled or limited person, no FLINTA*.

I want my daughter to grow up in a world where she can ride the train, jog in the park, dance in a miniskirt and ride the carousel in a dirndl without having to worry about whether some libidinous and disrespectful dude could theoretically take a photo of her.

Not only does shame have to change sides, as Gisèle Pelicot and, before her, the writer Virginie Despentes demanded - but also responsibility.