Exhibitionism
From Encyclopedia of Sex and Sexuality
While many people believe that an exhibitionist is merely one who displays his or her genitalia in public, the legal and psychiatric definitions include the element of an unwilling audience or person at whom this is directed. Furthermore, psychiatric considerations assume that some form of sexual gratification motivates or follows the act of exhibiting one’s sex organs. The term is complicated by the fact that for many decades the stereotype of the exhibitionist has been solely described as male—often the image of a man wearing a raincoat with nothing on underneath—who confronts young women on the street and exposes his penis to them. Research on apprehended exhibitionists indicates that, indeed, most are males, usually under the age of thirty. Writers on sexual deviance have suggested that there may be a cultural bias at work that ignores a female exhibitionism that is both tolerated and even admired, e.g. women who wear very revealing clothing at parties or in public. If a woman wears a very short and revealing skirt in public, is she a tease, an exhibitionist, or just a sexy and fashionable person? Is a stripper at a bachelor party legally an exhibitionist if one of the men present does not approve of public female nudity? Probably not, because she is considered to be a performer and there is the assumption that she is neither motivated by her own sexual gratification nor intends to shock rather than entertain. Motivation, however, is not relevant to persons at a nudist camp since, regardless of motivation, the social norms of the setting do anticipate public nudity there. “Streaking,” e.g., running nude through a public auditorium or the streets, may or may not be considered exhibitionism, depending on whether the motivation is sexual in nature or not.
The existence of male exhibitionists alarms many people, particularly women and parents of young children. Although there is little evidence to indicate that exhibitionists follow up on their activity by touching or physically harming their victims, the psychological damage may be great when the victim is a child.
