Friday essay: when is a kiss a crime? Feminists have asked this question for more than 100 years

Since 1908, legal perspectives on kissing have fluctuated. In that year, a British court dismissed charges against a group of young men accused of aggressively kissing women they encountered. The magistrate noted that the women were "running away screaming," dismissing the incident as "part of the game." However, some magistrates were more likeable towards the women, typically only cautioning offenders.

During the mid-20th century, courts took different stances. In 1945, a man was arrested in Melbourne for forcing a kiss on a woman during Japan's surrender celebrations. He argued that the law did not apply during "Victory night" when "young people allowed their feelings to run wild." The court agreed. In 1954, Austria's Supreme Court upheld this view, ruling that a kiss was not punishable even if the recipient did not want it.

In 1965, Italy's highest court ruled that "stealing a kiss" was a crime, overturning a lower court's decision. By 2001, a British court found a young man guilty of grabbing and kissing a girl in the street, a situation he called a "carry on," but the court remained lenient and deferred sentencing. The courts' reluctance to prosecute for unwanted kisses often reflected doubt about whether such actions qualified as serious assault.

The history of kissing is intertwined with debates surrounding consent. Early legal stances often reflected society's ambivalence about the kiss, balancing hygiene concerns with the notion that no harm could come from a kiss. Even in the 1930s, a Canadian prosecution for an unwanted kiss was dismissed, with a jury concluding that it was not a crime. This reflected a broader cultural acceptance of the kiss, despite feminist concerns about aggression and consent.