The National Center on Sexual Exploitation in the US has criticised the ad saying "Not only is [upskirting] a crime in many states but it is also a disturbing breach of privacy and public trust. By normalising and glamourising this sexual harassment, Calvin Klein is sending a message that the experiences of real-life victims don’t matter, and that it is okay for men to treat the woman standing next to them on the metro as available pornography whenever they so choose."

According to Jean Kilbourne, senior scholar at the Wellesley Center for Women and creator of the documentary "Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women", it's thanks to Calvin Klein's consistent use of young girls like Brooke Shields in compromising positions that what would have been seen as soft core porn 20 years ago is now considered mainstream. When Calvin Klein’s target audience  of young consumers interprets the ads as being rebellious and cool, it leads other retailers to hop on board, and thus, moves "the center of what’s acceptable in advertising in a more extreme direction”.

In some ways, what is more horrifying has been the backlash from netizens who are calling the ad's critics prudes or worse. Here is one example of an online retort to the ad's critics: "Sexy women don't have a problem with it - the model sure as hell didn't. It's only sad ugly/fat/unattractive women who care, because they know they can't be like that. They're not defending women, they're trying to make themselves feel better by keeping other women from being sexy - all under the guise of being 'offended'."

At TWF, while we find abusive comments like this disturbing, we respect alternative perspectives and the right of people to have their own views. We think more informed discussion involving a range of diverse voices across cultures and backgrounds would help to identify constructive approaches to negative social issues and behaviours like increasing incidents of upskirting and other forms of harassment for which we are still seeking to fully understand the root causes.  Our hope is that "She Objects" will be a platform to facilitate this, along with other discussion forums - both live and online.