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| She likes to watch. |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (Bear Manor Media, 2021).
The article: "Madam Had a Peep." Originally published in Illustrated Case Histories: A Study of Voyeurism (Calga Publishing), vol. 2, no. 1, April/May 1971.
Excerpt: "I've never been caught and I don't expect to be. I'm actually not doing anything which could cause anybody any harm. And if they leave their window shades up, I suspect they want to be watched anyway . . . and there isn't any psychiatrist in the whole world who can tell me I'm some kind of a nut. I know a lot worse who do things that are monstrous. What's the harm in catching a little peep?"
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| Michael Myers was another young voyeur. |
Reflections: "Madam Had a Peep" combines two of Ed Wood's longtime obsessions: (1) voyeurism and (2) women taking on traditionally male roles. We've all heard of Peeping Toms, but what about Peeping Thelmas? Yes, Ed Wood tells us, it may very well be a woman looking through the keyhole at the local motel. Doesn't that blow your mind? A new frontier for sexual equality!
In this article, Ed pretends to interview one such peeper, a fictional young woman identified only as Tammney M. I don't mind Eddie's pseudo-interviews, but I wish that—just once—he had staggered out of his apartment long enough to talk to a real person, one whose speech cadences aren't exactly the same as his own and whose anecdotes are based on real-world experiences.
Anyway, Tammney fills us in on how and why she does what she does. You see, her first sexual experience was with the school bully. "I wanted my first one to be big and tough," she explains. The whole ordeal was so unpleasant that she vowed forever after to be a watcher rather than a doer. She started by watching her sister and her boyfriend make love in the living room. Come to think of it, that's exactly how Michael Myers started in John Carpenter's original Halloween (1978).
Now, as a "nearly thirty" adult, Tammney likes to pick out a secluded spot and watch couples having sex—gay, straight, lesbian, it's all good. She gratifies herself through masturbation, either "out in the field" or in a "completely dark room." Her low-budget sex toys include hairbrushes and douche nozzles. She points out that she does not use a mirror during this process, however. That makes her stand out from many of Ed Wood's other characters. I have not written enough about how important mirrors are in many of Ed's short stories, novels, and articles. Suffice it to say, a full-length mirror was nearly as important to him as an angora sweater.
"Madam Had a Peep" is a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a female voyeur. Tammney points out that she's avoiding sexually-transmitted diseases as well as unwanted pregnancies. Ed does have a warning for Tammney: "Diseases come just as easily from a finger, a hair brush and a douche handle if one hasn't prepared a sanitary flush." So keep peeping, America. Just play it safe.
Next: "Witchcraft in America Today" (1971)