Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism is a sexual paraphilia in which a person obtains sexual pleasure from exposing his or her genitals to strangers, usually in a public place. Most exhibitionists are men and the victims are usually women, though there are female exhibitionists. Male or female exhibitionists may choose to expose their breasts, buttocks, or genitals to an unsuspecting person. A male exhibitionist derives pleasure from the expressions of shock or disgust on his victim's face. Male exhibitionists often masturbate before exposing themselves—or later by recalling the event while masturbating. Female exhibitionists derive pleasure from men who clap, whistle, or show their excitement.
Generally, male exhibitionism only consists of showing one's sexual organs to a stranger, and the exhibitionist does not usually try to engage in sexual activity with the person. Nevertheless, this paraphilia is considered coercive because of the fact that most of the victims can feel deeply offended, disturbed, and violated after experiencing this act. Some people may view exhibitionism as harmless, but some victims of male exhibitionism experience considerable amounts of emotional and psychological distress. Exhibitionism is labeled as a coercive paraphilia when it involves forcibly showing one's genitals to a person who has not consented to seeing them.
Exhibitionism can come in many forms and is often called by many different names. In the legal sense, people who deliberately expose parts of their body deemed as offensive in public can be charged with "indecent exposure," and this can include flashing, mooning, and streaking. While these acts may or may not have any sexual intent behind them, people can still be arrested for performing these acts in public, even if they do not consider themselves to be exhibitionists.
Flashing occurs when people person expose their naked bodies by quickly opening their jackets, removing articles of clothing, pulling down their pants, etc. Both men and women can engage in flashing, by either exposing their genitals or – for women – their breasts. Mooning, on the other hand, is the act of exposing the buttocks to others, typically by pulling down the pants. Finally, the act of streaking involves a person's running through a pubic place in the nude. Streaking is usually a non-sexual act and is most often performed at large public events where many people are watching, such as at sporting events. Flashing, mooning and streaking may or may not be done out of sexual arousal, but are still considered coercive in nature. It is important to note that flashing, mooning and streaking are often meant to be practical jokes intended to suggest humor, not necessarily reflecting sexual paraphilia.
Another form of exhibitionism involves deriving sexual arousal from having strangers watch a person engaging in a sexual act. The person could be performing any type of sexual activity, such as masturbation, oral sex or penetrative intercourse. This type of exhibitionism can sometimes be associated with public sex, because of the fact that there is a chance of being seen by other people while having sex in a public place. Therefore, an exhibitionist may try to strategically situate sexual activity in such a way that passersby may accidentally view it or so that a willing third party could watch.
It should be clear that there are degrees of exhibitionist behavior that can range from innocent and playful to threatening and harmful. There are also displays of nudity that are not associated with sexual paraphilia, as when subjects sit for artists to draw or paint pictures of them. However, exhibitionism as a paraphilia involves the deliberate exposure of the genitals to an unwilling, unsuspecting person in order to derive sexual pleasure and excitement. People with paraphilias become sexually aroused by the victim's shock and surprise, and the event is eroticized when coupled with masturbation.
It is important to remember that coercive exhibitionism can be quite detrimental to the victims, leaving them feeling frightened for their safety and emotionally violated. In addition, this type of paraphilia is not a healthy form of sexual expression, and commonly reveals to underlying psychological problems. Exhibitionists, and others with coercive paraphilias, are encouraged to seek professional psychological advice for treatments against this type of sexual behavior.