 |
| This gentleman is probably just getting some sun. |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 1971).
The article: "Indecent Exposure." Originally published in Garter Girls (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 5, no. 2, June/July 1971.
Excerpt: "As has been stated, this type of person does not get his sexual thrills through physical contact. It might be supposed the only way one might be hurt would be through an accident, such as the woman starting to scream too soon, and the exhibitionist attempting to halt that scream in order to give himself time to get away."
Reflections: In "Indecent Exposure," Ed Wood turns his attention to the flasher—that sexually-frustrated gentleman who gets his "kicks" by opening his overcoat and revealing his nudity to some unsuspecting woman. "No matter what the punishment which might be dealt out," Ed tells us, "little will deter these men from making their rounds and accomplishing their sexual purpose."
Admittedly, though flashers must really exist in this sick world of ours, my knowledge of them comes almost exclusively from pop culture, namely movies, sitcoms, and comedy sketches. On the 1970s soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, for instance, the title character's grandfather (Victor Kilian) was revealed to be the town flasher. In John Waters' Pink Flamingos (1972), the villainous Raymond Marble (David Lochary) flashes some young women in the park, then steals their purses when they run away. And the comedy troupe Monty Python did a few bits about flashers, like this scene from their 1971 movie And Now for Something Completely Different.
Come to think of it, all those examples are from the 1970s, as is this Ed Wood article. Maybe the flasher had his day in the sun, so to speak, during that particular decade. Anyway, "Indecent Exposure" is Ed's attempt at understanding the exhibitionist—how and why he does what he does. Basically, it's all about sexual inadequacy. These men are too riddled with self-doubt to pursue consensual sexual relationships, so they choose instead to expose their genitals to women, just to prove that those genitals still exist and are (theoretically) functional.
 |
| An issue of Sexology featuring Vernon W. Grant. |
Ed Wood being Ed Wood, he cannot stay on one topic for an entire article. His mind inevitably wanders. About two-thirds of the way through "Indecent Exposure," Eddie starts talking about voyeurs (or peeping toms) instead. His logic is that the voyeur is the opposite of the exhibitionist. One needs to see, while the other needs to be seen. While the sadist and the masochist need each other, however, no such symbiotic relationship exists between the voyeur and the exhibitionist. As Eddie puts it: "The voyeur can very well go about this peeping without having any of the exhibitionist qualities."
Then, Eddie really goes far afield and starts talking about swingers and wife-swappers. What this has to do with anything, let alone flashers, is beyond me. Ed certainly doesn't make the connection clear, though the following passage sounds like it could have been taken directly from the script of The Young Marrieds (1972):
Sex being the motivating force of the Universe, man will have his affairs no matter what deviation might be involved. Thus many psychiatrists and sexologists and other medical and mental minds agree that these weekend groupings have a certain amount of therapy. However, since the swingers have only come out in the open during the recent few years these therapy pros and cons are still very much in the study stages. The men of letters, of course, have known about wife and husband swapping (former classic titles for the group sex and swinger affairs) for a great number of years.
It means almost nothing, but it has the cadence of a scholarly dissertation.
"Indecent Exposure" is another article in which Ed Wood quotes from a real-life sexologist rather than relying strictly on his own imagination and memory. In this case, the quoted expert is one Vernon W. Grant, Ph.D., and the material being cited comes from Sexology magazine. As it happens, Sexology was a real magazine that ran for fifty years (1933-1983), and Grant really did write for them in the 1960s. He also penned such books as The Psychology of Sexual Emotion (1957), This is Mental Illness: How it Feels and What it Means (1970), The Roots of Religious Doubt and the Search for Security (1974). and The Menacing Stranger: A Primer on Psychopathy (1977).
Next: "Use that Four Letter Word" (1971)