Syracuse University Reconsidering ‘Kiss Cam’ After Complaint of Forcible Kissing

Syracuse University might kiss its kiss cam goodbye after a letter to local newspaper complained that the camera encouraged forcible kissing.

Steve Port of Manlius, New York, was troubled when the September 12 football game between Syracuse and Wake Forest showed men forcing kisses onto women who didn’t seem to want to be kissed. In a letter to the editor of Syracuse.com, the website of The Post Standard newspaper, Port recounted one instance where a woman shown on the kiss cam shook her head no to a kiss from the man next to her, but “no less than six sets of hands from the seats around her shove her unwilling face into his.”

“It makes me sick that in a day and age where sexual assault (particularly on college campuses) is so rampant that school officials would allow such a display to happen,” Port wrote.

In response to the letter, Sue Edson, a spokeswoman for Syracuse’s athletics department, said the kiss cam would be pulled from the university’s upcoming game against Central Michigan University on Saturday, the Associated Press reports.

“We are taking the time to assess the concerns expressed in the letter to the editor,” she told the AP.

Syracuse isn’t the first institution to reconsider its kiss cam, which has classically involved a roving camera that hones in on a couples during slow periods at sports events and broadcasts their affection for the whole stadium to see. Last week, the New York Mets apologized for showing two opposing players within a heart after fans complained of its homophobic nature.

“Honestly, I wasn’t out to kill the kiss cam,” Port told the AP. “I was just out to raise an important issue that I saw happening and that’s important to me. I’ve always kind of been a little put off by it anyway, but never witnessed an actual act of—oh, my God, this woman is saying no and it didn’t matter.”