Taylor Swiftâs security team was filmed yelling at photographers to âstand upâ to seemingly protect the singer from pictures being taken up her skirt.
On Sunday, Swift arrived at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City to support her boyfriend Travis Kelce at the NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos.
In footage, that has been widely circulated online, Swift is seen arriving with her parents at Arrowhead Stadium when her security team immediately begins shouting at the photographers â who are kneeling to take pictures â to stand up.
âStand up. Stand up. Stand up,â a member of Swiftâs security team yells at photographers in the video.
Swift appears to slow her walk when she notices what her security guard is trying to shield her from. The singer seems to only begin strolling towards the photographers again when she sees them standing up to take pictures.
âThank you guys very much,â the security team member tells the photographers after they listen to his request.
However, in the footage, one photographer seemingly continues kneeling to take a picture of Swiftâs entrance into Arrowhead Stadium.
Her security guard then shields Swift from the kneeling photographer by standing directly in front of him while demanding that he âstand up.â
But by the time, the photographer has obliged the security teamâs request, Swift has already passed the paparazzi and made her way into the stadium.
Social media users speculated that Swiftâs security team ordered photographers to prevent them from taking any upskirt photos of the singer.
Typically, photographers at the front of the press pack kneel to make sure that they are not blocking the view of the reporters and photographers behind them, but in doing so, it appears that they can sometimes capture problematic images.
Upskirting means the act of taking photographs beneath a womanâs skirt without their consent. But the term has also come to generally define the act of taking a sexually intrusive photograph of someone without their permission.
In the U.S., laws against upskirting vary by state. At the federal level, the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act of 2004 prohibits âknowingly videotaping, photographing, filming, recording by any means, or broadcasting an image of a private area of an individual, without that individualâs consent, under circumstances in which that individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy.â
In September, singer Shakira was forced to leave the stage during a performance after she reportedly spotted an audience member trying to film up her skirt.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, a Japanese sportswear brand introduced infrared-blocking fabric to protect athletes from upskirting and other illicit photography. The problem of upskirting is so acute in Japan that lawmakers there passed a bill last year criminalizing âphoto voyeurism.â