Note that Amazon owns Ring, and people who buy and install these devices are facilitating Amazon's business, which is hurt by the theft of packages left outside customers' houses. Amazon ought to give us the devices free and given an Amazon Prime discount to people who keep them up and running.
It's interesting to see how we balance security and privacy as we accept these devices. Imagine if the government simply required us to accept the installation of the devices and imposed its app on all cell phones. What if the city added $1,000 a year to the property tax on any home that did not maintain a Ring-type surveillance doorbell? Of course, we would scream.
But here we are accepting the thing, because it seems cool, and it's low-priced. (If you want one, please buy it here, so that I get a percentage, since I am an "Amazon Associate" and have — voluntarily!! — linked my fortunes to Amazon.) Since the device is voluntary, those who accept it onto their property feel they are gaining security.
If you, the person inside the house, are peeping out, then, as the film professor says, you have the sense that whoever approaches your house is "the vulnerable one." The conventions of cinematography say, you are in control, you have the power. That's important... at least some of the time.
Or maybe all of the time if the world has already changed to the point where children don't come up to doors to ask if a child who lives there can come out to play and neighbors stop by to chat.
ADDED: The second part of the quote in the post title is confusing: "The peephole makes the person looking through the peephole into the vulnerable one." I assume Zimmer didn't mean to say 2 different things, and that "the person looking through the peephole" means the person outside of the house who is being watched from inside the house. But taken literally, it seems more like the one who is looking out through the peephole — the homeowner who wanted to do surveillance — has become vulnerable. We'd need some more clever verbiage to sketch out that theory.
The hunter becomes the prey... but how? Did Zimmer intend to call up the old hunter/hunted switcheroo?
That trope has roots as far back as Greek Mythology, where a quite literal hunter, Actaeon, is transformed into a deer by Artemis and eventually torn apart by his own dogs.Zimmer is a film scholar, and this trope appears in many movies — "M... Dr. Mabuse... North by Northwest... To Catch a Thief..." — and we all know the cartoons with the hunter-becomes-the-hunted plot. Here's the classic:
The Hunter of Monsters in general lives by this trope in a supernatural context, since monsters, in general, are often portrayed as predators of human beings, and human beings tend not to like being prey....
IN THE COMMENTS: Roger Sweeny said:
I think she means that if you are looking through the peephole worrying that someone may be trying to do you wrong, you are feeling vulnerable. You are worrying that something bad could happen to you, caused by the person on the other side of the peephole.I found that hard to coordinate with the first sentence: "The traditional voyeuristic peephole in film suggests the person being watched is under threat." But Zimmer did say "traditional," so it may be that in the cinematic tradition — such as "Psycho" — the peephole is in a secretive pace, used for spying on someone who thinks no one's watching and gets naked, but with the Ring, the thing is out and proud and the person approaching is outside and expecting to be seen. The person who is in private, inside the house is not seen via the peephole, but that person's sense of vulnerability is manifested by the device. The obvious Ring device isn't a way to sneak a look at someone but to let them know in advance that you're suspicious of them.
For a complete reversal of the peephole, see the "Reverse Peephole" episode of "Seinfeld":
"Newman and I are reversing the peepholes on our door. So you can see in..."/"To prevent an ambush"/"But then anyone can just look in and see you"/"Our policy is, we're comfortable with our bodies. You know, if someone wants to help themselves to an eyeful, well, we say, 'Enjoy the show.'"
AND: Don't forget the great 60s slogan, "Power to the Peephole!"
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So a large number of people voluntarily do something that society would not accept the government forcing everybody to do.
I don't see how that's noteworthy.
In my city the police will not respond to any alarm unless there is video proof that someone's breaking into your house. If your alarm goes off , you must have a camera, go and check if anyone is in your house, then tell the alarm company that there is in fact someone burglarizing you and only then will the police show up.
I do feel a need to warn the cleaning people and any subs working outside that we have cameras at our house. Other than that Amazon gets to keep an eye on the Amazon driver and the UPS driver and the FedEx driver. Also the deer in the yard and the occasional squirrel. Big whup...
The creepy devices are Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. They're always listening inside your home. Not just the devices but the geeks what made the devices. And they talk about you...
Relax. The police aren't coming to take away your weed anymore..
Peephole cameras in movies are usually shower scenes with tits. Usually the scene has nothing to do with the plot. It's for ratings.
Add that to Amazon Ring and it will be a hit.
Car four, investigate a topless woman on the porch. All other cars stay where you are.
Thanks for the typo alert. Fixed.
My Doberman notices porch approachers. Some Amazon deliveries won't even come on the porch if she's visible on the other side of the storm door. The package is then left in the yard near the porch.
Think of Doberman eyes as little ring cameras.
A guy years ago in an upscale NJ neighborhood stopped me when walking my Doberman to say he had one also. Every other house around him had been robbed but not his.
I always stop Doberman walkers too. "Can I meet your Doberman?" It's a secret society.
I don't see how that's noteworthy.
I thought the noteworthy idea was that an MSM scribbler had some melodramatic fantasies about threats and vulnerability and peeping and hunting, and managed to get those fantasies published.
The Warner Brother's cartoon helmed by Chuck Jones are, minute for minute, the greatest achievements in theatrical comedy since Aristophanes invented the joke. The humor often works on many simultaneous levels with broad slapstick mingling with wry minimalism.
In "Rabbit Fire" Elmer Fudd is an obvious idiot, nevertheless, he manages to see through Bugs' transexual disguise, something a significant portion of this country's population apparently cannot do.
Or is Elmer then more the idiot for being fooled initially while the rest are just pretending to be fooled?
"The hunter becomes the prey”
Are we back to pegging?
I'd rather just live in a neighborhood like mine where if it starts to rain and I'm away from home, someone comes over and puts my package in a plastic bag for me. I thought the delivery person was doing it, but, no, it's the lady next door.
The real problem with poverty in America is not want. Even the poorest American, if he works the system even minimally, does not suffer want, it’s that the poor can’t escape crime. I grew up poor, but crime was limited to the rifling of unlocked cars or sneaking through screen doors on a summer night to steal cigarettes.
I think she means that if you are looking through the peephole worrying that someone may be trying to do you wrong, you are feeling vulnerable. You are worrying that something bad could happen to you, caused by the person on the other side of the peephole.
It used to be everyone believed the privacy issue was surveillance by the state. So many people have moved so far left they're now worried private citizens are doing what they want the state to do.
Lots a gun violence in those old cartoons. I love it! Snowflakes gettin' nervous.
The problem with the widespread loss of privacy is that we are going to have to repeal a lot of invasive laws, like the ones against pot has been repealed, or live in a Hell of our own devising.
I've always liked that "peephole" and "people" sound so much the same. Anyway, I patronize local businesses rather than ordering online. Thefts from my front porch (which is up many stairs and very exposed for any thief) don't happen.
Here's the classic:
I love the way that clip begins with the Pelosi-Schiff March!
There is a class issue here, regarding the loss of privacy.
A rich person, or one within the zone of protection of the powers that be, can insulate himself from these problems, through limiting opportunities for surveillance, or through blocking publication of the results, or exercising official impunity.
The person looking through the peephole is vulnerable because the other person is the one approaching—the visitor has chosen the time, place, and purpose for the meeting and the person at home has to make the determination whether it is safe to open the door. That’s why the peephole is a home-security device—it’s a defensive tool.
Imagine a lady running a much needed prostitution business out of her home, keeping countless marriages together in the neighborhood, getting a Ring camera to ensure delivery of her nurse costumes, fishnet stockings, leather goods, etc, from Amazon.
I’m so old I remember the Dinkins era in NYC. The definition of a liberal was “Somebody who hasn’t been mugged yet”
"world has already changed to the point where children don't come up to doors to ask if a child who lives there can come out to play and neighbors stop by to chat."
Exactly. There is no-one coming to the door who you don't expect. People knocking you your door (proverbially) will never have your interests at heart.
Related and scary.
There's a British TV show 'Peepshow'. Hilarious, if you like that sort of thing.
We don't have Ring Cameras because I refuse to have a "connected" house with appliances spying on me (partly sarcastic here) or Alexa or Siri poking into my business. I might if I lived in a city though.
As someone already said the cops want to have video proof of criminal activity if it happens.
So....For security purposes...we do have Game Cameras. Solar powered, night vision, motion activated. This way we can watch/record the driveway gated entrance which is the only way into our property other than a steep 60 foot embankment with a river below.
Also the drive as it enters into the parking area and facing our shop where there are supplies, tools and expensive items that the local tweekers would be interested in. They know, or think, we are home and haven't been bothered. The cameras are for insurance purposes for our business mostly :-)
Motion lights that will come on at the shop location. When someone approaches. Our activity is mostly raccoons, foxes, deer, dogs, the occasional mountain lion. Pretty interesting really to see what they are up to at night :-) And of course the UPS and Fed Ex delivery guys. Unless it is really big or heavy (like the V8 Crate motor we ordered) Amazon delivers to the Post Office since we don't have rural delivery to our homes in our area and don't have a bank of lock boxes on our road. PO Box is best.
We don't need cameras at the house since we are "protected" in other ways and everyone knows it.
You just have to check the camera occasionally for activity and reset.
People who need peephole are the luckiest people in the world.
"world has already changed to the point where children don't come up to doors to ask if a child who lives there can come out to play and neighbors stop by to chat."
Yes. And this is a sad situation. Especially in urban and even suburban areas which used to be very neighborly. People are not close to their neighbors. Parents are helicopter raising their children.
In a rural area...we always call ahead before visiting because it is just too far to take a chance that someone might be home and just "drop in".
Dropping in, by adult neighbors, just to visit was considered a rude thing to do when I was a kid. My parents hated that. Kids dropping by to go play was another thing. I think they were glad to see us go out to play and give them some quiet time :-)
"I think she means that if you are looking through the peephole worrying that someone may be trying to do you wrong, you are feeling vulnerable."
But then what explains the first sentence: "The traditional voyeuristic peephole in film suggests the person being watched is under threat."
I guess it's that the peephole in her movies (eg, Psycho) is the hidden peephole, and the obvious Ring device isn't a way to sneak a look at someone but to let them know in advance that you're suspicious of them.
By the way, there's a "reverse peephole" episode of "Seinfeld."
Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither. Seems like I've heard that somewhere before.
does being a surveilled "Peep-hole country"
... Help prevent turning into a "Shit-hole country"?
It's a metaphor for a sexual relationship, between a vagina and penis, that is a first-order forcing of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change. The original sin of secular progressive religion that requires... nay, demands, planned population to exonerate Mother Gaia and National Greens. Scary wicked.
As for Ring, privacy or convenience (PC). Stop sharing responsibility. Cut the chord or cover it with a robust "tin foil hat" -- they are watching you. Remove your head from the Cloud.
As someone somewhere said: "I've read way too much Tolkein to be comfortable with the surveillance device named Ring."
Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.
Deplorable. Deny thy father and refuse his wisdom.
It's the old double reverse peephole trick you have to watch out for.
When I first glanced at the headline my eye fixed on "looking through the peephole into the vulnerable one." I pictured a (vulnerable) person with a peephole set into their navel, and someone peering in to check out their intestines. I had to read it again carefully to get the correct parsing.
I've always liked that "peephole" and "people" sound so much the same.
And peehole!
As we said in the 60s: Power to the Peephole.
We really need reverse peepholes.
" "I've read way too much Tolkein to be comfortable with the surveillance device named Ring.”
Not to mention Wagner.
Please don't pee in the peephole people!
"The person who is in private, inside the house is not seen via the peephole, but that person's sense of vulnerability is manifested by the device. The obvious Ring device isn't a way to sneak a look at someone but to let them know in advance that you're suspicious of them."
Well, yes, but there was a recent story about Ring systems and their vulnerability to hacks, where the device you have "invited" into your home to surveil the outside world becomes a device for any stranger with the right skillset to surveil you. Moral: don't trust a Ring, whether Amazon, Tolkien or Wagner.
I was talking to a woman at the car dealership when I was getting my oil changed a little while ago. She lived in the city of Detroit, and parked in the street in front of her house. Someone had tried to steal her car and ended up damaging it, so she was getting it fixed. She said she had since installed a Ring doorbell, and all of her neighbors were getting them too.
Now, Michigan auto insurance is very expensive, and ridiculously so in the City of Detroit. So for around$200 you can have a security camera , a notification if someone is by your car in the street at a time they shouldn't be, a recording of whoever is there, and a deterrent.
It's really a power to the people. Equality for all, and not just those who can afford private security or for those who live in the safest areas.
I recall a cartoon I saw years ago, I think in a Playboy mag.
There's a guy with a creepy smile on his face in an apartment building hallway. He's knocking on a door with a peephole in it. In one hand he's holding an ice pick ready. Behind him all the other doors in the hallway have some gore running down from their peepholes.
Tee-up: I've been working in IT for 45 years.
I had been considering getting a Ring doorbell, until I started reading the articles about its security issues and sharing of information (a general problem with the Internet of Things [IoT]). Instead, I ended up getting an actual security system that does _not_ share its information with my neighbors, with Amazon, or with anyone other than (a) the security company itself and (b) local law enforcement but only in case of an emergency (alarms are triggered and neither I nor my wife nor our designated 3rd contact respond). So far, I'm very happy with the system, including its video doorbell that triggers and records on any detected motion, not just when someone rings the doorbell. ..bruce..
For those wondering about the security system: SimpliSafe. It was remarkably easy to set up, and both the app and the browser interface work great.
Comey, Clapper, Brennan, et al--who do you see?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIAJwakUcAAtzXF.jpg
"Amazon ought to give us the devices free"
Althouse ought to give me my next set of glasses free.
The Ring allows the remote opening of one's locks, handy for any semi-invalid home alone. Also hackable, I suppose. But a sophisticated security system can account for that.
Bruce don't you need WiFi for that?
I'd like a system that lets me see what my cats are up to. Cameras all around the outside of the house.
Prolly need kittycams too.
My wife got me one of these for Christmas. Didn't want it but figured I'd put it up anyway. The best feature is that it allows you to connect and share your videos with other Ring owners in your neighborhood. I'm now aware and have seen video of charity scammers, package stealers, car thieves and shady people scoping out houses, among others, that I was not aware of before.
I don't feel vulnerable but I do feel more aware of what goes on around me.
There is no such thing as "clever verbiage". All verbiage is superfluous.
THEOLDMAN
And data is plural, dammit.
who is hunter and who is prey presumes they’re not both bait. maybe the package is the macguffin.
Children still come to our door almost every day to ask if our kids can play.
I think the film professor was contrasting two distinct peephole scenarios. One is a voyeur using a secret peephole to look at a victim. The other is a resident looking out a door peephole, feeling too vulnerable to open the door.
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