What causes the curious designs that inhibit the minds of human beings whose obsession is to watch others indulging in sexual relations? This question cannot be answered in theorems and anecdotes, but only by isolating, describing and categorizing each individual practitioner. With a fine analytical scalpel, Dr. Vickie Kirsten probes the complex facades of actual case histories to expose the bizarre world of the voyeur in society. Some of the cases:
MARILYN-a beautiful 26-year-old dental assistant who got her kicks by watching her sister and brother-in-law test the marital bed.
JOHN-his sister killed herself when he refused to advance their incestuous relationship beyond the point of mutual masturbation.
MARY-whose experiences in a boys' club house as a youngster brought about a craving for oral sex, and a deathly fear of normal coitus.
MATT-the handsome blonde homosexual who traced his problem to a domineering father and an over-protective mother.
LISA-raped by her alcoholic father, this raven-haired beauty turned to peeping and Lesbians for consolation.
PAULA AND HARRY-they kept their marriage happy by watching one another make love to others at wife-swap parties.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ONE - IN THE BEGINNING TWO - THE EYES OF YOUTH
THREE - THOMASINAS
FOUR - PERILS OF PEEPERS
FIVE - ALL IN THE FAMILY
SIX - THE VOYEUR'S VIEWPOINT
SEVEN - LESBIANS PEEPERS
EIGHT - SWINGING SCOPTOPHILIA
NINE - MARRIED MIXOCOPIA
TEN - WHY PEOPLE PEEP
INTRODUCTION
One of the most startling contrasts in modern morality involves the vastly different treatment accorded two very similar sexual aberratic-voyeurism and peeping.
A voyeur, according to the dictionary, is defined as a person who " ... attains sexual gratification by looking at sexual objects and situations." In this rather oversimplified sense, hardly a member of the civilized world goes through their daily routine without being, at least, exposed to the opportunities of voyeurism.
Magazines, advertisements, television, movies-all the visual arts offer limitless chances for sexual gratification through looking at sexual objects and situations.
There is obviously no way of calculating who or how many take advantage of these opportunities. The incredible circulation fibres of Playboy magazine, without any other evidence, prove that somebody is interested. Most of those somebodies would resent being classified as voyeurs, yet the classic definition certainly includes them.
There is nothing new about voyeurism, or about its being a fashionable pastime, as it seems to be today. In the 15th and 16th centuries, aristocratic French and English ladies quite openly attended sexual exhibitions. These entertainments even went so far, at times, as to feature men and women coupling with animals.
While the methods of titillation change, the basic drives seem to remain the same and to be accepted by the society in general. Even a lounger on a street corner or a person watching a strip-tease act could qualify as a voyeur, as well as the entire audience for many of the contemporary movies.
Peeping is a different story.
According to the definitive analysis, Sex Offenders, published by the institute that produced the Kinsey report, peepers have a more circumscribed definition. The book says, in part:
"Peepers are adult males who, for their own sexual gratification, looked into some private domicile or into some area or room reserved exclusively for females with the hope of seeing females nude or partially nude, the observation being without the consent of the females concerned."
Unfortunately the study is almost exclusively concerned with male offenders, and they are the ones most often brought to book for this and other sexual crimes.
In a study made by C. V. Hamilton in 1929, it was indicated that in the adults used in the sample, the desire to peep was evident in a majority of the males. The females in this sample indicated a desire to peep in only a small percentage. In the same study, however, more females reported a peeping experience than those who reported a desire to peep.
That many women experience the same desires can be testified to by dozens of case histories, some of which are included in the following report. There appears to be the same unwritten conspiracy to protect them as that which acts against reporting of Lesbianism.
The more permissive the climate of our society, and the more free and easy opportunities for actual intercourse with a variety of partners, the less understanding is given to those who feel themselves unable to obtain release in so-called "natural" ways. There's a shame-faced, snickering attitude toward those who tiptoe down alleys and stake out apartments and hotels in hopes of getting glimpses of naked human bodies.
So by an unfortunate turn of events, the easing of standards has only brought about a stronger social taboo for the peepers, a taboo that can be devastating in its effects on human lives.
The origin of the name "Peeping Tom" dates back to the year 1040 A.D. At that time, according to legend, Lady Godiva, the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia in England, objected to the oppressive taxes imposed by her husband.
Unable to influence him in any other way, she is supposed to have stated that unless he removed those taxes, she would ride stark naked, upon a horse, through the streets of Coventry.
The Earl refused to remove all the taxes and immediately sent word to his soldiers to clear the Coventry streets and roads of people who might view his naked wife.
Lady Godiva made her famous ride, completely in the nude except for the protection afforded by her long, flowing hair. According to the legend, the streets were emptied of witnesses and the people, out of respect for her concern for them, refused to look. However, one curious tailor peeped at Lady Godiva during her ride and was struck blind by the archers' arrows, her husband having sent an armed escort. The tailor's name was Tom and from this came the origin of the expression, "Peeping Tom."
The overwhelming compulsion for viewing the sexual organs of the customarily hidden parts is explained by Dr. William Graham Cole in his classis Sex and Love in the Bible:
"The fact of the matter is that all sexual pleasure has its final goal and climax in the orgasm which is centered in the genitals.
"All sexual aberrations are defiant methods of stimulation-but irrespective of variety in these methods, the physiological orgasm reflex is the same!"
Dr. Cole feels that peeping "is found partially in many normal persons without indications of neurosis. It supports all burlesque shows, strip-tease dancers and many modern magazines. Nor is Hollywood unaware of its power and presence. Whether the desire is pathological (abnormal) or normal depends upon two factors.
"If sexual satisfaction is in some sense dependent upon seeing, so that the orgasm cannot be achieved without it, and if the urge to see is so strong that it breaks the bounds of rational prudence, resulting in the peeping Tom, then a verdict of neurotic voyeurism must be returned.
"A pleasure in sexual sights of various sorts is perfectly normal from the psychological point of view, provided that it is not the sine qua non of satisfaction and that it is obtained under more or less acceptable circumstances."
It is with those unfortunates whose urge to see is so strong that it does indeed break the bounds of rational prudence that this book is concerned. The tide of sexual permissiveness has left them behind, stranded in a limbo of oddities and laughable curiosities.
Their problems are no less real and distressing, however, and the humiliation and suffering endured not only by them but their helpless families is no less heartrending.
It is in the hopes of aiding these emotionally disturbed people that this book is written. Only by understanding their basic drives and compulsions can society free them from the stigma of a criminal record and the ridicule of their friends and family.
The case histories presented here are from an extensive file of more than two hundred and fifty. The research was conducted originally by the author in a series of interviews with people who had been convicted of sex crimes. Additional information was obtained by contacting a number of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists in private practice. Naturally these case histories included many who had never come in contact with the police, but were afraid of their own strange compulsions. Referrals were often made by distressed parents, wives and husbands.
Those who seek help for their aberrations are, of course, always outnumbered by the fearful individuals who try on their own to fight against their compulsive desires. Since it is by definition a lonely crime, not involving violence, seldom known by its victims, there is no way of estimating its incidence among the population.
Each case history presented here was tape recorded, and many are printed in the words of the subject, and some in their original question and answer form.
Others have been condensed and edited for length and subject matter, to focus only on those aspects of life with which we are presently concerned.
In each case the words are those of the person being interviewed, including those which were edited for brevity. The language may offend some readers. However, the author feels it is important to retain the authenticity so as not to alter meaning. This also provides the student of human nature a clearer insight into the individual histories than if the words were changed and made more palatable.
Some of these people have been or are at the present time serving prison sentences for their offenses. Others have only confided their obsessive drives to a psychiatrist who, like a priest, must always respect their confidences.
For these reasons, and because of the illegality of the acts, the names and general identities have been changed. It is not the desire of the author to cause embarrassment or additional stress to those who have related their highly personal experiences, in an effort to aid others.
The people, however, are real people. Chances are that some of them are your friends and neighbors. It took courage for each one to contribute to this work, and they did so in the spirit of helpfulness to the unknown others who are so afflicted.
Today's sexual revolution can be won only if it is fought on all fronts, not only those which are more or less acceptable to a large but unknowing segment of our society.
The author wishes to give grateful acknowledgment not only to the contributors of individual histories but to the many others who made this work possible. Clinical and criminal psychologists, marriage counselors, social workers, sexual research groups, librarians and many others have donated time and thought to the book, and a heart-felt "thank you" goes to all of them.
Only by understanding the dark places as well as the light in human beliefs and motives can we live a balanced, normal life. By illuminating some of those dark places, it is my sincere hope that this study will contribute to a greater human understanding.
1
IN THE BEGINNING
The role of the peeper can come about almost by accident, although there is no question but that its continued expression must come from some deeply buried need in the individual. This can be as simple as the curiosity of a virgin, or a closely protected young girl or boy. Natural as that curiosity is, the fact remains that not every youngster uses voyeurism as an outlet for it.
Circumstances often create the first incidence of voyeurism, as in this first study. The fact that it is continued beyond its normal course indicates an emotional disturbance which the patient is not willing to admit until forcefully faced with it.
As an illustration of one of the most common forms of incipient voyeurism, let's examine the case of Marilyn M.
CASE HISTORY #1. Subject: 26-year-old college graduate. Family upper-middle income bracket. 5'6", 35-22-34, brown hair, hazel eyes. Employed as dental hygienist.
"I was breathing heavily, but I tried not to make a sound that would alert Cathy and Ralph. She was undressed to the waist, and Ralph had his head bent over her breasts, licking and sucking the nipples. I could see clearly from my attic hole, clearly enough to tell when the tits stood upright and trembled under his tongue.
"I stripped my own blouse and bra off and felt my tits. They were erect already, just from watching! I tried to run my hand over my boobies the same way he was doing it to her, and the touch was so thrilling I couldn't believe it. I'd never felt such excitement, even in the back seat of the car parked out by the quarry, with some teenage boy friend fumbling with my blouse.
"It seemed to me I was Cathy, and I was getting a double thrill."
This was part of the testimony volunteered by the young woman, who came seeking help for what she realized was a strange, frustrating preoccupation. There was little in her background to explain her aberration, at least on the surface.
Marilyn was born and raised in a medium-size town in Ohio, and graduated from Ohio State University. Her father, a well-established pharmacist, owned two drugstores. There were just the two children, and Cathy was the older by seven years. From Marilyn's own testimony, the family seemed average and her childhood memories were happy ones.
"My only complaint," she said, "was about Cathy. I seemed that everything I'd done, she'd done sooner and better. My folks didn't mean to hurt me, I know, and maybe I was just overly sensitive on that one subject. Anyhow, I was glad when she graduated and went to Cleveland to work-she's a dental hygienist, too."
Then Cathy became engaged and moved back home. Her boy friend was a pharmacist, which naturally delighted her family, and he came too. The plan was for Ralph to work for the father, with the idea of some day taking over the stores himself.
"Mother and Dad really liked Ralph and I have to admit I fell in love with him right away. I guess I was-well, would you call it identifying?-with my sister again, because as a little girl I always had big crushes on her boy friends.
"Anyhow, although I'd necked a bit with the boys I dated, I had no real concept of sex or adult love. This was when I was just sixteen, before I'd been away to college, and I guess I was just dumb. I had a terrible curiosity, though, and must have had some foggy notion of what it was all about.
"I know I blushed when I even looked at Cathy's engagement ring. It seemed to symbolize all the secret things I didn't know.
"Ralph stayed at our house until the wedding. He had a room and bath over the garage. It had an outside entrance, but because the garage was attached to the house, it butted up against the store room on the second floor.
"When Mother and Dad went out, I knew Cathy slipped into Ralph's room and stayed a long time. I was burning up with curiosity, and set about finding a way to satisfy it. The store room walls were just beaver-board, and I had no trouble making a tiny hole with some of Dad's tools.
"So the first time I had a chance to watch them, there was my own sister with her bare boobies hanging out, and Ralph slavering over them. I had brought a stool into the room, which was really more of an attic, and I sat on it with my legs crossed as tightly as I could get them. I didn't know exactly why, then, but it seemed to help the burning itch that had started in my crotch.
"Then I saw Ralph stand up and tug at her skirt. They were laughing and arguing, but so low I could hardly hear them. He must have won the argument because Cathy got up too, and took off her skirt. She was wearing a pair of tights under it, and Ralph rolled them down off her buttocks and legs.
"At that moment it was exciting to me even to see my sister naked, though that was no novelty! But her body seemed even prettier and the skin gleamed. She was a different person!
"Of course Ralph took his clothes off too, and believe me, that was an experience for anybody as ignorant as I was. I almost drooled when I saw his bare shoulders and chest. And when he pulled his pants and shorts down, well! I nearly fell off the stool!
"I'd never seen a man's genitals completely exposed before. He had a trace of hair on his belly, going down to the pubic area. I watched his white undershorts slip slowly down, fascinated even before his big prick stood out. And the sight of it almost made me faint!
"He had a hard on, all right! That cock of his must have been eight or nine inches long and it stood straight out. It was white and thick, almost as big around as my wrist, and I could see the veins standing out on it. The head looked red and swollen, and it glistened with what I later knew was the first seminal emission. He took his cock in his hands and pulled the foreskin back; I guess he was proud of his erection and wanted Cathy to appreciate it.
"He shoved her back on the bed and pulled her legs up. I have to admit I was a little scared, then. I knew enough to know he was going to shove that thing inside her, and I didn't think it was possible. But before that happened, a lot of other things got me in such a frame of mind that I could believe anything.
"First he put his hands on her pussy and separated the curly hairs. I could see shiny pink skin there, and without thinking about it, I got off the stool and pulled my own panties down. With my fingers I imitated every move he made, as far as I could. When I got my fingers on my own cunt, I stroked it just as he was stroking Cathy's. Then he did something that I couldn't quite figure out.
"I know now, of course, that he was rubbing his fingers over her clitoris to get her excited. But I tried to copy his motions in the general area, and while the stroking was very pleasant, I wanted some further idea of what was happening. At last by chance I hit on my own bud, just at the same time Cathy's swelled and grew prominent enough even for me to see it. So that was it! It didn't take me long to get my own clit aroused. And I could feel moisture oozing from my pussy at the same time her labia glistened with it too.
"All this time I was leaning forward on the stool, my knees spread wide apart and my face pressed against the jagged hole in the wall. It hurt my face a little but I didn't care!
"Then I saw him put the head of his prick between those shiny pink lips. My own body hurt in sympathy and I almost felt sorry for my sister, much as I disliked her.
"I kept one hand on my clitoris, and tried to shove the fingers of my other hand up my pussy. Even that hurt, and God knows what it'd feel like to have an instrument the size of his up there!
"He moved so I could hardly see my sister at all, just his bent back as he leaned over her and shoved. I hardly could believe it, but eventually he must have gotten in all the way. She screamed a couple of times. I was pretty scared when I heard her holler like that, and was tempted to pound on the wall or yell at him. I didn't dare, though. And by that time, I had this molten feeling in my belly and it seemed as if I were just glued to that chair. I kept rubbing my clitoris, I liked that better than the finger-fucking, and I was getting hotter and hotter.
"I thought, well, it serves Cathy right if he hurts he She knows as well as I do all the reasons she shouldn't have gone this far. My mother had told us both often enough!
"I remember when I was just a little girl, some neighbor got in trouble and there was a lot of whispering and gossiping about it. I tried to overhear, but never did find out that way. But Mother knew I was curious and tried to tell me. She said that some man had gotten Betty, the neighbor girl, downtown in an apartment. She didn't say how he'd persuaded her to go, but she said he did terrible things to her and that he made her take all her clothes off.
"I remember thinking about that, remembering it, just when I had my first climax. It caught me by surprise and I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning aloud. Not that it would have mattered, my sister and Ralph wouldn't have heard a thunderbolt at that moment.
"I stayed on until they finished, having one more orgasm before he came. It really seemed funny to see the size of his cock when he pulled it out.
"That was the first time I watched them," Marilyn continued, "and after that I seized every opportunity.
"Even after they were married," she said, "they seldom locked their doors and I sometimes was able to sneak in their house and peek through a crack in the door."
"I knew it was wrong and I was ashamed, and I'd have died if anybody had found out. When I went off to college I knew that'd be the end of it, and I tried to put it out of my mind."
Marilyn enjoyed college, and found she didn't mind so much that she was following in her sister's footsteps, though it still irritated her when a member of the faculty praised Cathy. In time she joined and enjoyed a sorority, and she had many dates with different boys. Being around the other girls in the sorority, she began to feel she was some kind of freak, or backward at the least, to still retain her virginity. Marilyn resolved to take care of this at the earliest opportunity, and since she was half-way in love with a dental student named Mark, he was her choice for the important moment.
"It was after a fraternity party and we'd all been drinking a lot," she continued. "When Mark took me home we parked for a while and then he asked me if I'd go to a motel. I hadn't the slightest hesitation in saying yes.
"We did some heavy petting, sprawled on the bed in the motel room, and I got very excited. I could feel my panties getting damp and the lips of my cunt were throbbing.
"Of course Mark was excited too, and it wasn't long before we got undressed. When his trousers dropped and his big cock sprang up, all I could think of was how exciting it was to see, just like Ralph's.
"And when he put it in me, I was more than ready. I was fascinated with my own body and the way it adjusted to his size, and thought what a little ninny I'd been the first time I saw Cathy and Ralph have intercourse together.
"But somehow, it all changed. He fucked me good, but I just lay there without feeling a thing. I suppose he was young enough that he really didn't know the difference, and someone more experienced would have realized that something had gone wrong.
"While he worked over me, I was looking around the motel room and wondering how much it cost him. It was a very nice room, with thick carpets and elegant furniture. His touch wasn't really repulsive to me, but neither was it exciting. To tell the truth, I felt bored and cold.
"Of course it was painful too, because when my mind went cold my body did too, and I wasn't lubricated enough. Mark didn't seem to care, he knew I'd been a virgin and maybe he thought all virgins were like that. I tried to blame it on my inexperieice, but deep down I knew better. I knew how hot I could get while I watched my sister and her husband fucking!
"That was a long night. I lay in bed for hours, couldn't sleep, couldn't understand what was wrong. I tossed and turned and couldn't get comfortable, but I was afraid of waking somebody and tried to relax and sleep.
"I finally thought, well, maybe I'm frustrated. I put my hands under the covers and used all the old familiar movements, but nothing worked. In fact I had to force my fingers to keep working, I really had no desire. If I could have reached a climax, it would have eased the tension. But I just couldn't.
Marilyn admitted that she'd sought other opportunities to watch her sister and brother-in-law make love, and when she succeeded, all the familiar, thrilling sensations returned again.
After graduation, Marilyn too left home, as her sister had done, and took a job in Cleveland. She had been invited to stay for a few weeks in the apartment of a newly married couple she knew from college.
"I only planned to stay a few days," she said, "until I looked around and found an apartment. But actually, I stayed with them nearly three months. God, how I hated to move out of there!"
"Since Carol was my best friend, there practically wasn't anything we didn't know about each other. Though I'd never told her about peeping, watching my sister and brother-in-law, and she thought I was just hot to trot like everybody else.
"She's the one who showed me how to use the vibrator. She had one and loaned it to me, and told me how to use it. That was like a whole new world! I'd never gotten so excited till then, or enjoyed masturbating as much as with that vibrator. Carol told me where she bought it, and I sent away for one.
"I used it at least once a night, and sometimes twice.
" ... So when I stayed with them in Cleveland, I slept on the sofa in the living room and I could hear them making love in the bedroom. This really got me hot, and I used the vibrator all the time.
"Carol knew what I was doing. After all, she'd introduced me to it and I didn't mind telling about that. She told me I could watch as long as Joe didn't find out about it, and she left the bedroom door open a crack for me.
"I'd listen at the door until they were really at it, and then slide the door far enough open to see. Joe always liked the bed lamp on.
"This was the most sexually stimulating experience I've ever had. They did everything! He'd eat her, and she'd eat him. When I saw his big penis hanging over her face, dripping in her open mouth, I wouldn't even need to use the vibrator, I'd just come by myself. And then he'd shove it into her mouth and I could tell she was sucking on it, her cheeks were going in and out.
"When he first started on her, I could see his face plain between her thighs, licking at her pussy and her ass-hole. The sight of that long, wet tongue did things to me you couldn't imagine. Of course when he really got down on her all I could see was the top of his head between the cheeks of her ass, but I could imagine the rest. Then I'd run back to the couch and make myself climax.
"Of course Joe wasn't dumb; he got a pretty good idea of what was going on. He didn't really mind, but he thought I ought to have a man of my own. He brought some guys home, and one of them, Bill, I really liked. So I thought, what the hell! I'd try again. It didn't seem possible that I wouldn't like the things everybody else liked. It surely wasn't that I was frigid, or afraid of sex.
"Bill was nice. The four of us had dinner and quite a few drinks, and then Carol and Joe went in the bedroom and closed the door. I was all hot again, just like I was with Mark. We sat on the couch and made out for a long time. I guess he was shy, and I was still a little afraid to try again.
"He finally had her half undressed and then he unzipped his pants and took out his penis. It wasn't as big as Mark's, but still big enough to give me the shivers. Though when he penetrated me, it didn't hurt. In fact, I didn't feel anything.
"I wanted him to come down on me, but he wouldn't.
In fact, he acted shocked. He made love to me twice, but I never got excited.
"After he went home I couldn't sleep. I was depressed and frustrated, and I wanted to cry but I didn't want Carol and Joe to hear me and think I was some kind of nut. I could hear them still going at it! I sneaked over and opened the door a crack, and he was right on top of her, fucking her for all he was worth.
"I could see his balls slapping down on her crotch every time he jammed it into her, regular as a metronome. And he had his hands on her breasts and was squeezing the nipples all the time he fucked her. I got excited right away, and I closed the door and used my vibrator.
" ... Carol said it must have been because Bill wasn't a good lover. I let it go at that. I knew I should move out right then, but I just couldn't bear to do it.
"So when Carol was having her next period, she suggested that I let Joe make love to me, so I could see what a really good lover could do to a girl.
"No, neither one of them minded or was jealous. Carol watched, in fact. Finally she took off her clothes and got in the bed too. I have to admit I was excited for a while, when he was kissing me and squeezing my breasts, and she was playing with my pussy. She put her tongue in it and got me really hot, and if she'd kept it up I'd have come right away.
"But as soon as she knew I was ready, she told Joe and he entered me. It was the same old thing. It was like my body just died. I tried to fake it but they knew me too well. Carol finally got the vibrator and when Joe used it on me, I had a climax. He'd already come, of course."
Marilyn decided it was time to move, whether she liked it or not, before she wore out her welcome. She was beginning to be deeply ashamed of herself, and thought morbidly that there was something seriously wrong, something terribly un-feminine about herself.
She lived a very restricted life for the next few years, unwilling to date much or let any boy get close to her. When she finally went for help, the years of mental conflict showed on her pretty face. She looked much older than her twenty-six years. It was a Lesbian incident that finally persuaded her to look for professional help.
Marilyn told her therapist this story:
" ... I was always grateful for Amy's friendship, and I certainly had no idea she was gay. Since I rather avoided men, she assumed that I was, however, or that I was fighting an instinct for it. So that night we'd had several drinks, and it was snowing hard, so I invited her to stay all night. She lived clear out at the end of the bus line.
"It was a terrible shock. We both undressed and I took two baby doll nighties out of the drawer and handed her one. She said, 'Who needs it?' And then before I knew what was happening, she had her arms around me and was kissing me.
"The worst part of it was, my body responded in spite of myself. I guess I was so starved for physical expression that I had to literally fight with myself to withdraw. I could smell the perfume on her hair and feel her hands running up and down my back and it was all I could do to push her away."
When the psychiatrist asked how Amy had taken the rebuff, Marilyn replied:
"She was mad at first. She cussed me out, told me I was a tease. She said some terrible things! But the worst part was when she got over being mad. Then she laughed at me and said I'd be back some day, crawling to her for love. She said I was queerer than a three dollar bill just like she was and that I'd find it out some day."
It was the fear that Amy was right that finally impelled Marilyn to seek out psychiatric help.
It is not possible, and not the purpose of this study, to analyze Marilyn in depth in the way that her psychiatrist hoped to do. Nevertheless, there are certain features about her history and experiences which illustrate the special problems of the compulsive peeper.
Marilyn is a classic example of a true voyeur. She enjoys watching other people in the sex act, but receives no pleasure from the act herself. The only way she can reach a sexual climax is by watching others and engaging in autoeroticism.
Taking a brief look at her psychological background is necessary to understand the peeping syndrome, and in doing so we will attempt to use language easily understood by a layman, and avoid complex psychological terms.
On the surface Marilyn had a very "average" life, with no great psychic shocks to account for her unusual development. Her obsession with her sister's superiority, unconsciously fostered by her parents, obviously created part of her difficulties. A deep-seated feeling of inferiority in relation to the older sibling led her to try to identify with Cathy, and in so doing lose her own personality.
The natural curiosity of a young girl growing into womanhood led her into the first incident of voyeurism. Unfortunately the pleasure she found while peeping struck her deep-seated complexes and led her to identify even more with the sister. This outlet for sexual gratification-observing without being actually involved-was so easily obtained and so enjoyable, that it became like any drug. She needed more and more of it.
The deep analysis undertaken by the therapist revealed more conflict in the home than Marilyn herself knew existed. The complexities of her problems includ-
ANALYSIS: ed a fear of actual sexual penetration, combined with a latent tendency toward Lesbianism.
Her attraction to Amy, the last in a series of incomplete love affairs, was not as innocent on Marilyn's part as it seemed to be. Her subconscious mind had a full awareness of Amy's tendencies; in fact, later on in her sessions, she admitted she had been warned by a mutual friend, but had managed to bury the warning.
Marilyn's fear of actual coital contact led her directly to a desire of homosexual relations. She mentioned that she was thrilled when her friend Carol kissed her and played with her, but that when Carol's husband attempted actual penetration, Marilyn turned cold. This was a very direct statement of her homosexual desires, yet she did not recognize it as such.
The conventional morality under which Marilyn had been raised condemned Lesbianism, and she was never able to break through this ban. Despite it, however, she continually placed herself in positions where she would be tempted by, and have access to, Lesbian contact..
The result was a duality of her sexual nature which prevented her from living either a heterosexual life or a homosexual one.
Latent homosexuality is not at all rare among voyeurs, who find a compromise with their duality. Fear plays a large part in such aberrations. It is a kind of dance in which the individual takes one step forward and two steps back. The basic sexual drive which is in all of us must find an outlet, come what may.
In such unfortunate cases as Marilyn's, the only safe outlet appears to be viewing the sex acts of others while simultaneously achieving orgasm by means of masturbation. The operative word there is appears. The safety is illusory on two counts. First of all, it obviously does not lead to happiness or fulfillment. And, of course, there is always the actual danger of being caught up in society's restrictions and entanglement with the law.
GENERAL COMMMENT:
There are, of course, many more reasons than fear or latent homosexuality involved in the tendency toward voyeurism.
Most psychologists and psychiatrists prefer to use the technical terms scoptophilia or mixoscopia to describe this particular form of sexual behavior.
A critical examination of these two terms is rewarding for the layman interested in human sexual behavior. Scopto derives from the Greek word scopeo, which means "I look at." Philla derives from the Greek word phileo, meaning "I like." A twist of the word structure gives us "I like to look at." The word origin has no connotation of a sexual nature, but in technical use the sexual nature is implied.
Mixoscopia comes to us in much the same manner. The Greek mixis means mingling, or intercourse. Sco-pia comes from the same Greek word scopeo, which means "I look at." So here we have "I like to look at intercourse."
Now we're getting somewhere. If we apply the definitions of mixoscopia and scoptophilia to voyeurism, we have the act of looking at something of a sexual nature for enjoyment, or the gaining of pleasure from watching sexual intercourse.
It immediately strikes us that these are two entirely separate definitions for one term, but this is a part of the paradox that surrounds voyeurism in our society today. While the majority consider it perfectly normal to look at something of a sexual nature, it is almost always considered abnormal to receive any pleasure from watching an act of coitus.
We all have a certain amount of voyeurism in our personalities, but the way in which we give vent to this natural emotion dictates whether our behavior is normal or abnormal.
Dr. Norman Haire, in his Encyclopedia of Sexual Knowledge, quotes the famous sexologist Havelock Ellis on the subject of voyeurism:
"To a certain extent, this tendency is absolutely normal; that manifestation of it should be considered shameful is due simply to the rigid secrecy which convention attaches to the naked body. Many respectable men have, during their youth, sought secret opportunities to surprise women in their bedrooms, and more than one honorable woman has looked through the keyhole of a man's bedroom, though she would not, today, be prepared to admit it ... landladies and servants put their eyes to the keyholes of rooms where there were couples they suspected of being in love ... These manifestations have sometimes attracted the attention of the police, notably in Paris. Women whom I know have discovered that men were looking at them through the openings of the roofs of the toilets in the Tuileries gardens."
It is interesting to note that Havelock Ellis did not draw any lines here between the voyeur and what society would refer to as the "Peeping Tom."
Dr. Benjamin Karpman, in his book The Sexual Offender, tries to define the fine line between voyeurism and scotophilia.
"Scotophilia," he says, "consists of excessive interest in looking at genitals, sex acts, etc. as a sexual stimulant. Voyeurism is a socially illegal act motivated by the desire to see the unclothed or partially clothed sex object."
The crux of the matter is, where does voyeurism stop being normal and socially acceptable?
As with many another sexual aberration, the line seems to be drawn at that place where the voyeur is discovered and arrested. A hypothetical average man may yield to temptation once or twice and have the bad luck to be caught at it, and end up being a statistic along with the habitual, compulsive offender who goes out of his way to peep.
II
THE EYES OF YOUTH
In all studies of voyeurism it is stated that the voyeur tendencies are first evidenced when the individual is young. Youth has an unending curiosity which must be satisfied if the mind is to grow. Infants learn by watching adults and imitating. This is a natural process and sight plays an important role in the development of every child.
Because of the many ridiculous taboos and restrictions placed on sex, many parents worry about their children seeing them in the sex act. Psychologists are split on the value of a child seeing his or her parents engaged in sexual activity.
Regardless of the precautions taken, the curiosity of children is such that at one time or another almost every child witnesses his parents in the love act.
Many psychologists feel that children should be allowed to watch their parents engage in intercourse, if for no other reason than to satisfy their curiosity.
Dr. D. O. Caldwell, an eminent sexologist, when asked by a young mother what she should do about her seven-year-old daughter, who had been caught several times trying to watch her father and mother have intercourse, replied: "You can explain to her the significance of your acts. Do so in a calm manner and make certain you are not angry or indignant at the time.
"Either make certain that she cannot possibly peep or make it possible for her to see you with no restrictions on her conduct except that she must not interfere. It may sound rash to advise you to allow her to watch you openly, but has she not already observed it? Is there, in fact, anything for her to see that she has not seen? If she is not restricted, your act will become uninteresting to her and she will soon forget about it.
"She is growing in mind as well as in body. Her curiosity may have been morbid-it may have been healthy..."
Many psychiatrists agree with Dr. Caldwell's belief that anything hidden from children only increases their interest.
In almost every case interviewed evidence was found of voyeur experiences during the childhood of the individual. In many instances, these incidents of youthful peeping had a notable effect on the adult sex ual conduct of the individual.
When John H. was eleven, he saw his mother and father engage in love play and intercourse. He distinctly remembers seeing his mother perform fellatio on his father, and his father perform cunnilingus on his mother. Although he did not at the time understand the significance of these acts, he remembers that watching his parents excited him and that he had an erection while he watched. Although he seldom had the chance, John would watch his parents whenever he could. He says that he performed a type of masturbation while he peeped, but that he does not think he reached a climax or ejaculated at that time.
These forbidden experiences undoubtedly contributed to John's later problems.
CASE HISTORY #2 Subject: John H., successful actor on the New York stage. Two years college. Middle income family. 25 years old, 6 foot, 189 pounds, dark hair.
John had two sisters, Laura and Shirley. Laura was a year older than John and Shirley was a year younger. John had his own room while the girls shared a room, but all three shared one bathroom.
Here are excerpts from the interview with John: DOCTOR: How did you first manage to peep at your sisters?
JOHN: I fixed the Venetian blinds in both their bedroom and the bathroom, so I could look in from outside. They didn't suspect anything, and I would be able to watch them without their knowing I was even there.
DOCTOR: Weren't you worried about being seen by someone else?
JOHN: Not really. The rooms were all on the first floor, at the back of the house, and there was a kind of fenced in areaway. And there were lots of shrubs . ... DOCTOR: And then what happened? JOHN: The best times were usually when they were in the bathroom together. They were usually naked in there. . .
DOCTOR: And what interested you particularly, JOHN: Just seeing them naked used to get me all excited. This was especially true of Laura because she had quite a figure. She had lots of hair between her legs and her breasts were almost fully developed. DOCTOR: Did you watch them often? JOHN: Every chance I got. DOCTOR: Did you enjoy this?
JOHN: Yes. I started masturbating while I watched them.
DOCTOR: Did you also masturbate at other times?
JOHN: No, I don't remember doing it.
DOCTOR: And you had a preference for your older sister?
JOHN: Just at the beginning. When she got a little older, and began to date, things changed. Laura just wasn't around the house any more, at least not that much. Shirley wasn't quite at that age yet, and she was lonesome and she and I got to be better friends. DOCTOR: And how did this friendship develop? JOHN: Oh, in the beginning it was just that we played Monopoly together and went to the movies, that kind of thing.. But about that time all the guys my age were interested and curious about sex, and they were always telling dirty stories they'd heard somewhere. I told a lot of them to Shirley. DOCTOR: And what was her reaction? JOHN: She was curious, too. She wanted to know what boys looked like, down there, and asked me to show her.
DOCTOR: This was Shirley's idea? JOHN: Yes. I remember that very well. She was really hot and bothered to know what boys had between their legs, and she pestered me to show her. She said it was better if she'd find out from me than getting all mixed up with somebody else, like some of her girl friends were doing. It was the age we were, you know. There was nothing unnatural about it, it was just the curiosity kids get at that age. DOCTOR: And did you show her? JOHN: Yes, why not? We made sure our parents weren't home, and then we locked ourselves into the bathroom. And we took off all our clothes and looked at each other.
DOCTOR: And this was Shirley's idea? JOHN: Well, I was willing, if that's what you mean! I'd never been that close to a naked girl before and it was a lot better than sneaking out in the shrubbery and peeking in the window. I have to admit, that very first time I got a hard on. Well, why wouldn't I? I was just that age, you know, and like I said, it was the first time I'd been really close to a naked girl. DOCTOR: And it didn't matter that it was your sister? JOHN: like Shirley said, it was better, wasn't it? Then nobody else would know.
DOCTOR: And you say you got an erection. What was your sister's reaction to that?
JOHN: Well, she was curious. She wanted to know why my penis got all big and hard. I explained it to her, and told her a little bit more, as much as I knew. And she wanted to touch it. It was her idea, she just wanted to sec what it felt like. DOCTOR: And did you let her?
JOHN: I said she could if I could feel her. And she took it in her hand ... I got pretty damned hot. Even now, all these years later, I could still get hot just thinking about it. I showed her how to masturbate me. I had a pretty big cock, for that age, you know. I showed her how to rub it up and down and the places that made me pet the most excited and, well, you know. All the things I did to myself when I was jerking off. It was like ... it was the best thing that ever happened to me, a million times better than doing it to myself. DOCTOR: How did Shirley like it? JOHN: Oh, she liked it all right! She showed me how to masturbate her, too. When I felt her little clitoris I got scared at first, but it didn't seem fair for me to be getting all the kicks, so I made her come too. Her little pussy was the sweetest thing I ever saw in my life. DOCTOR: Did Shirley have a climax too? JOHN: You bet she did! When I rubbed her little love button and then put my fingers up inside her cunt, she got so excited! I kept hushing her up, I was afraid somebody would come home and catch us. DOCTOR: And did anybody?
JOHN: No not ever. We were lucky, I guess. And somehow, it didn't seem as if our parents ever thought about anything like that. They always said how nice it was we were friends. They were kind of worrying about
Laura, since she'd started dating, and they just weren't too worried about us, they thought of us as little kids. DOCTOR: Did you and Shirley do this more than the one time?
JOHN: Sure, we did. Every chance we got. Sometimes she'd masturbate me and sometimes I'd do it to her. And what almost was the best, was when I could just look at her, at her pretty little naked body, and jack off.
DOCTOR: Did you ever tell her about your earlier experiences, when you saw your parents having intercourse together?
JOHN: We didn't have any secrets from each other. And boy, was she hot to hear about it! I had to tell her all the details, everything I could remember. I didn't really want to tell her about Mom sucking Dad's cock, and Dad coming down on her, because I was afraid she'd want to try those things too. But she wanted to hear it all. How big Dad's was compared to mine, and just what Mom did, and how he put it in her and what happened then.
DOCTOR: And did this excite Shirley? JOHN: Of course. I told you, we were just at that age. I didn't blame her for being curious, I had been myself. And the girls, you know, they don't talk as much as the fellows and she didn't know all the things I know. DOCTOR: And did Shirley want to try having intercourse with you?
JOHN: Yes. Yes, she asked me to. DOCTOR: And did you?
JOHN: God, no, Doctor! What kind of a man do you think I am? That would be incest! You just can't do those things with your own sister. DOCTOR: Why not?
JOHN: You know why not! Something bad, something really bad would have happened!
DOCTOR: And how about other girls? Was your sister the only one you masturbated with?
JOHN: Yes, of course! But when I got older and started to date, and Shirley did too, things changed. That was just kid stuff, what we were doing. It didn't hurt in high school. For a long time I didn't have time to fool around with Shirley. DOCTOR: Tell me about Sue.
JOHN: She was really a cute girl and I felt lucky that she liked me. The folks let me take the car a lot, and Sue and I were going steady. We went to all the football games and the dances, and I hung around her house after school. I bought her a friendship ring for Christmas that year, Hike all the rest of the guys were doing. And we ... I suppose you want to know if we necked?
DOCTOR: If you want to tell me.
JOHN: Well, we did! We made out in the movies and sometimes when I took her home we'd french-kiss--you know, I'd put my tongue in her mouth and she'd do the same to me. God, she had a hot tongue! It was just like a snake. I got pretty excited. I always wished I could sneak around her house and watch her like I used to do Laura and Shirley, but her bedroom was on the second floor and I couldn't even get a tiny little peek!
DOCTOR: Did you ever peek at anyone else? JOHN: Oh, once in a while, when I'd been out with Sue and was too excited to just go home. There was one woman ... DOCTOR: Yes?
JOHN: I never knew her name, I never wanted to find out. But she lived just a couple of blocks from Sue. The way it happened the first time, I was just walking around, you know? And I happened to go down this alley and saw a lighted window, and the shade wasn't pulled down all the way. Sue had gotten me so worked up, I just had to get my rocks off some way. There wasn't a soul in sight and I got right under the bedroom window where I could peek in. And, wow! This dame, she wasn't young but she had a good body. And she was stripping just like she knew I was out there watching. She stood in front of the mirror and unhooked her bra and took it off, and she lifted her breasts up in her hands. Her tits bounced around like big balloons! Most of the room was in shadow except for just where she stood, and the light over her dresser shone right down on her body. She had long blonde hair, and I guess a pretty face-to tell you the truth, I never noticed her face too much, except to see that she was kinda smiling. She pulled off her girdle and I could see the rolls of flesh spring back into place and all the red marks and ridges where her girdle had held her in. like I say, she wasn't young. DOCTOR: Did that matter to you? JOHN: Hell, no! All I was interested in was seeing what was under that girdle. She had a big mop of bushy brown, curly hair and I thought of what the fellows said, that you could tell a true blonde by the color of her pussy. By that time I had my prick in my hands and was jacking off good. I kept listening, or trying to listen, for footsteps or cars but I couldn't get away from that at that minute for anything in the world. DOCTOR: What did the woman do? JOHN: Oh. nothing much. She pulled back the bedspread and lighted a cigarette and got under the covers. But all the time she was naked, padding around there barefoot, with her big tits jiggling and her big behind wiggling up and down. I made it, I came, before I heard some noises and thought I'd better got out of there.
DOCTOR: Did you ever go back?
JOHN: Cure, lots of times, but I wasn't always that lucky. Sometimes her shade would be all the way down, or there'd be noises and I'd get scared. I saw her, though, it must have been eight or ten times. And I masturbated every chance I had to watch her. DOCTOR: How did this affect your relationship with Sue?
JOHN: It didn't have anything to do with Sue!
DOCTOR: And did you never attempt to have intercourse with her, or your girl friend? JOHN: Well, yes ... one time.
It was with great reluctance that John revealed the details. He was much more hesitant at talking about this experience, and he obviously felt a sense of shame. He said:
"We were parked where all the kids go to neck. We'd had a good time at the dance and I was pretty excited just from holding her close on the dance floor. So after I turned the motor off and made sure the doors were locked, I kissed her a while and got her blouse open and her bra undone.
" ... her breasts were a lot prettier than the woman's, I mean the one I watched when I could. I kissed them and got the titties all excited. Yes, Sue was excited, too. Too much for me, I guess.
"She just reached down and unzipped my pants! I had a hard on all right, but I guess she startled me or something, because I lost it. And I couldn't get an erection again no matter what she did.
"She kept saying, 'Come on, Johnnie, give it to me!' And I felt terrible, can you imagine how terrible? I wanted to cry. She was just all hot and ready and I couldn't do a thing.
"Of course I didn't want her to know so I wiggled around until her hand was off my cock. I threw her down on the seat and played with her like I used to do with Shirley. That was scary somehow too, but exciting at the same time.
"She didn't know the difference, I'm sure. I whispered something about not having any rubbers and not wanting to get either of us in trouble and that satisfied her, I guess. She had a climax and it all ended up she was crazier about me than ever. Thought I was a nice guy not to take chances.
"She was satisfied but I was miserable."
This experience frightened John and he didn't take Sue out much after that. He didn't dare date other girls, either, and to his great regret, the blonde woman he peeked at evidently moved away about that time.
A few months later his sister, Shirley, confided in him that she too had an unsatisfactory sexual episode. She told her brother that she'd had intercourse with a boy at school, and that it was a frightening, miserable experience. She much preferred, she said, what they did together in the bathroom.
As a result of these two experiences, John and Shirley continued their sessions of mutual gratification in the bathroom. They refused dates and confined their social lives to family or large groups.
Some months later, Shirley met an older boy and fell in love. John looked on this boy as a threat to his relationship with his sister and began a series of serious arguments with her. As a result, Shirley drew closer to her new boy friend and brought an end to the sex meetings in the bathroom. Shirley eloped with her boy friend and moved to another state.
Left on his own, John became desperate. He tried dating some girls and on two separate occasions found that he could not consummate the sex act.
Feeling that his sex life was doomed to failure, John sublimated his drive into intense work in the field of creative arts. He studied and became an actor on the stage, quickly winning a contract for a Broadway production.
Shirley left her husband and went to New York to see her brother. She told him that her marriage had been a complete failure and tried to establish her old relationship with her brother. John, who carried a sense of guilt about his early sex life with Shirley, refused to reopen their affair.
A few months later Shirley committed suicide. Although she was living with another man at the time, John feels that he is responsible for his sister's death.
John has never married. He lives alone. He says that about once a month he finds a way to peep into the backstage dressing rooms, and that his entire sex life consists of these occasional peeks and the accompanying self gratification.
John first sought therapy because of recurring headaches and periods of depression, which he had not directly related to his sexual history, thinking they were the result of the pressures and the uncertainty of a theatrical life.
ANALYSIS:
John is in the truest sense of the word a voyeur. He could have perhaps controlled this part of his sexual personality, but the incidents involving his sister left him with a mental block which led to a form of impotency.
The deep-seated guilt which resulted from his youthful experiments was masked by a generalized fear of sexual intercourse. John showed a strong defensiveness when he told the Doctor that " ... we were just at that age. I didn't blame her for being curious, I had been myself." He repeated those words a number of times, excusing his behavior on the ground of natural youthful curiosity.
By these means John had managed to convince himself that what he and his sister had done together was not really incest, so he could absolve himself of blame for her further emotional problems.
John had a deep-seated fear of any incestuous relationship with Shirley and he reasoned with himself that if they stopped short of intercourse, the relationship would be harmless.
Already attracted to voyeurism, John's experiences with his sister reinforced that outlet as the only safe one. The fact that the two were never caught by the parents or other adults did not prevent the full realization of their guilt. Both John and Shirley tried hard to escape from the patterns they had set for themselves, but were unable to accomplish this without professional help.
Any attempt John made at having sexual intercourse with a woman met with disaster. In his mind every female was the image of Shirley, and she was forbidden to him. It was all too easy for him to fall back on the safety of voyeurism, and avoid the traumatic experiences involved in actual sexual encounters.
Although we know little about Shirley, we can assume that she must have suffered much the same problem. She was unable to find the way out that her brother did, so that she could achieve the same sort of precarious emotional balance. We do not know the reason for her suicide but certainly her inability to enter into a meaningful sexual relationship with anyone but her brother could well have been a contributing factor.
Although the early sexual experiences of these two were not as innocent as John tried to believe, a certain amount of voyeurism is obviously normal. Dr. George Henry, in his book All the Sexes, gives us a clue to the normalcy of voyeurism in human behavior.
"The impulse to look at other persons for the purpose of appraising sexual qualities and propensities is a universal experience," says Dr. Henry. "Response to this impulse is found in the desire to be admired by others, in the display of the body and in the use of adornment. Peeping, or scoptophilia, or voyeurism is just as common as exhibitionism and is indulged in equally by both sexes.
"Inspection is a part of all amorous engagements but it is often regarded as immoral when it is obviously sexual, and it is illegal when it invades the privacy of others in the form of peeping.
"Scoptophilia is really a counterpart of exhibitionism. Both tendencies are often closely associated, and both are manifestations of insecurity and narcissism. A man who places himself in a position to view the partially clad or nude body of the genitals of a woman is often one who has been unable to satisfy himself sexually by closer contact and would be embarrassed if he had the opportunity. like exhibitionism, scoptophilia is a juvenile form of sexuality, the purpose of which is self gratification."
Dr. Henry concludes: "Exhibitionism and scoptophilia obtain freest expression in nudist camps under the guise of pursuit of health through exposure to the sun. An apologetic explanation is given that public nudity lessens sexual attraction. The approximation to nudism at public bathing beaches and swimming pools constitutes a major attraction to those who come to display themselves and to look at others."
The point is plain. A normal curiosity and interest essentially a part of growing up, was perverted by John and his. sister into a frightening sense of guilt. Voyeurism was the only outlet left, or so he thought, that was safe for him to express. His association of guilt with sex made all sex evil, and his body evidenced a strong reaction to any contact of a sexual nature.
Naturally John's decision to seek psychiatric help, even though he mistook the nature of his problem, is a sign of health. This difficult problem is possible to solve, even though his recovery is far from complete.
III
THOMASINAS
It has been said, and sometimes by experts, that the art of peeping is a male occupation that is seldom, if ever, practiced by the female. Most surveys in the field of sexual study seem to point up, however, that there are an increasing number of female voyeurs in today's society. We have chosen to call her the voyeuress, but perhaps the correct French term would be voyeuse.
Perhaps the reason we hear so little about female voyeurs is that very few of them are ever apprehended or arrested. The preference of the law for prosecution of the male sex offender is sometimes difficult to understand, yet the preference clearly exists.
Lesbians, for example, are seldom arrested or prosecuted, while the male homosexual receives constant attention from the law enforcement agencies. There are a number of reasons for this. The most outstanding rea-so, of course, is that the male homosexual is quite often aggressive, particularly in public places. The Lesbian, on the other hand, is more circumspect about her activities and seldom makes an obvious display of herself.
On the other hand, society itself favors the male voyeur. Everywhere one looks, the sexuality of woman is emphasized. Attention is called to the sexual organs of the female in our clothing, our advertising and even our modern design. The majority of female fashion either emphasizes or reveals the sexual aspects of the female body. Seldom, if ever, is the male body treated with the same emphasis.
The male voyeur, therefore, has ample opportunity to satisfy his drive, whereas the female voyeur must search for a means to gratify her compulsion. For this reason alone there are undoubtedly fewer female voyeurs.
The female voyeur does exist, however, and suffers from the same mental illness as her male counterpart, the peeping Tom.
Often enough the voyeuress is married and hides her true sexual personality from her mate. The physical sexual organs of the female make this possible in the same way that a prostitute may easily simulate a sexual passion she does not feel. Women being additionally more aware of public opinion, and less daring by nature, there is no way of telling which of them might conceal the desires of a "Peeping Thomasina."
Many sexual fixations in later life are the result of incidents in youth. One such case is that of Mary R., a Kansas City housewife. Mary is a voyeur whose greatest sexual satisfaction comes from masturbation after peeping at nude males, but one who has learned to compromise these desires.
CASE HISTORY #3 Subject: Mary R., 28-year-old housewife. Upper-middle income family. High school graduate. Attractive brunette, 5'8", 38-25-37,135 lbs.
Mary's father was a successful manufacturer and she was raised in a fashionable neighborhood. She was an intelligent child and began her education at the age of four in a private nursery school. She entered the seventh grade when she was eleven and although she was the youngest in her class, was always in the top ten percent.
Here is part of Mary's story:
" ... I always played with kids older than myself, because I was always the youngest in my classes. And I developed early. My parents are both big people, and I was as tall as I am now when I was eleven. They were all surprised that I didn't get to be six feet tall, but it was just that I had my growth early.
"I matured physically, too, if you know what I mean. I had my first period when I was ten. Mother and Dad being, the kind of people they were, I knew all about it long before that. Mother read all the latest books on child psychology and sometimes she was answering questions before I'd even thought of asking them.
"Oh, I'm not saying they were the reason things happened as they did. It was just a sort of sophisticated society I grew up in. My girl friends were more or less the same way, and so were their folks. It was the kind of suburbia you read about, where all the fathers come home and have three martinis before dinner. If any of us kids did get in trouble, and the grown-ups found out about it, they figured it was their fault some way. They'd just talk to us, you know?
"And of course I had every kind of lesson there was. Ballet, piano, art classes-the works. We had white gloves and patent leather pumps and went to dancing school when we were eight.
"The thing was, none of that helped me too much. I was too far ahead of the kids my own age, in school anyhow, and I had to make my own social life as best I could. I mean, it was kind of funny, having all this social pushing and still having problems making it. Mother didn't see that, of course. She and Dad thought it was just great that I was smart. I tried to live up to it, too.
" ... my first sexual experience? Well, it was no big deal, but I was around ten, eleven years old. Some boys that lived in the neighborhood had a clubhouse in somebody's back yard. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about, you know? One of the fathers built it, and it was really pretty deluxe, and all the parents thought it was so cute of the boys. They didn't know what was really happening of course.
"The boys always said I was too young, besides boing a girl. It made me mad, their having all those secrets. I just plain wasn't interested in playing dolls, I was sure the boys were having more fun than the girls.
"So after I'd teased long enough they invited me in one day, if I'd buy Cokes for everybody. They even let me sit in on their club meeting. I guess that was part of the softening up process, because they sure didn't invite me in just to get a free Coke.
"After the meeting they all sat around and talked. They kept looking at me so I figured something was up. Then, one of the kids said they'd always wanted to know what a girl looked like without any clothes. They started kidding mc, saying I was probably too young and that I'd be chicken too. That burned me. I was tired of hearing about how young I was, for one thing. And for another, I didn't want anyone to think I was chicken.
" ... after a while they all agreed that if I'd take off my clothes and stay there naked for fifteen minutes, I could join the club.
"So I took my clothes off ... No, they didn't ask me to do anything much, just like sit on a chair and spread my legs so they could all see. Nobody touched me. A couple of the kids remarked that I had a good figure for my age, and of course that set me up...
"I worried about it that night, I remember. I was tempted to ask Mama but ... I knew what kind of a hassle it would be if I did. So I didn't tell anybody and the very next afternoon, there I was again. And this time, they asked me if I'd seen a boy without clothes on and of course I hadn't.
"Well, it didn't take long for all of them to strip down. I guess they'd been doing that, and masturbating together, for a long time before they got up the nerve to ask a girl to join them. And I can see now they probably picked me just because I was so young, and they figured maybe I wasn't smart enough to know what it was all about.
"A couple of the kids were around fourteen, and well developed. Every one of them had an erection, believe it or not! I sat on the same chair without any clothes on, and they all stood around and let me see their pricks.
"It was terribly exciting to me. Some of the hoys started to masturbate in front of me, and then they had to explain all about that. I wasn't as smart as I thought, in spite of all Mama's little lectures. Naturally this whole scene didn't end there. I can't really remember now what came first, them feeling me up or my playing with them. But it wasn't long before I started masturbating them, and of course one or another would be pinching my little titties and stroking my pussy.
" ... sure, we got caught sooner or later. That's life, isn't it? We did it two or three times a week for a couple of months. I began out of curiosity but it got more and more-well, exciting. A couple of the guys had their fingers up my cunt while I was playing with them. But it really hit the fan when our folks found out about it."
The resulting punishment and gossip compounded the difficulties of Mary's social life. What had started out as a means of getting attention began to turn into a compulsion, and when she was fifteen, she was caught peeping in the boys' locker room at school. The football team was showering after practice at the time.
"I don't know what it is, but a man's cock has always fascinated me. I guess you could trace it back to my experiences in the boys' clubhouse, but whatever it was I had this obsession to see naked men.
"According to the girls' gossip, two of the boys on the football team had extra long pricks. The thought of it just excited me, and I had to see.
"I sneaked into the locker room while they were still on the field and hid behind one of the rows of lockers. I know it was a crazy thing to do, but I had to! I was in a perfect spot, where I could see the shower area clearly and I could watch the boys undress by their lockers.
"When they all came in I was well hidden and as quiet as a mouse. They didn't see me. They all got undressed and wandered around without a thing on, took showers and horsed around with each other.
"What the girls had said was true. Two of the boys were built like crazy. The sight of those cocks, even limp, and their balls, got me all excited and I know that I started playing with myself.
"One of the boys must have spotted me, I probably got careless while I was excited. He slipped up behind me and grabbed me and forced me out into the room. And of course he told the other boys what I'd been doing. Everybody laughed, and I could have died on the spot!
"They threatened to call the coach and tell him, if I didn't take all my clothes off and let them see me naked.
"I didn't have any choice, so I stripped down and they all came up and felt me. A couple of them were talking about forcing me to fuck them, but they heard the coach out in the hall. They made me get my clothes on in a hurry and they hid me in one of the lockers. The coach never knew I was there...
"After the coach left, they helped me sneak out of the building. A couple of them tried to date me, but I wouldn't have anything to do with them."
Inevitably this story too made the rounds, and Mary suffered more humiliation from the other students, even though her parents never found out. Naturally this tended to make her withdraw into herself even more. Mary was not a pretty girl at that time, and she was seldom asked for dates. She was also a very shy girl, who was hard to get to know.
A lot of her shyness, of course, was due to the fact that she was always the youngest in her class and felt socially inadequate. She found it hard to form friendships and took to spending her free hours alone.
She shared the dreams of other girls her age.
" ... the usual prince charming who would sweep me off my feet. In my dreams I was quite aggressive with men, and had my choice of any I wanted. It was something like the secret life of Walter Mitty, I guess. In real life I was terribly bashful around men. If I dated a boy I was too awkward, too quiet or just plain stupid. I was scared, you know? They didn't very often ask me out a second time."
Most of Mary's friends were going steady. She would see them necking with their boy friends and it was doubly frustrating. She missed the companionship, but she also had a sex drive which was not being satisfied.
Mary says she found some relief in masturbation, gut she found that she had a fixation on the male penis. In order for her to successfully masturbate, Mary needed to imagine a male penis and use this as the mental object for her masturbation.
When she saw an advertisement of a magazine devoted to photographs of nude males, she sent away for it. At first, this satisfied her.
" ... with my bedroom door locked, I took off all my clothes. Then I'd lie on the bed naked with the magazine in one hand and masturbate with the other hand. Sometimes I'd even kiss the cocks in the photos," she said.
Mary longed for sexual relations with a man, but was too shy to get involved in any situation where this might take place.
She was unable to get other issues of the nudist magazine, and she resorted to peeping again. When asked if she wasn't afraid after the last experience, she replied: "Yes, but I had to do it!"
She cut a small hole in the wall of the men's toilet in an office building where she worked for a short time. She stated that she watched the men as they urinated and she usually masturbated while watching.
Mary did have some dates, of course, and on several occasions she had passes made at her by men she dated.
"I could never understand it'" she said. "I was a very romantic person and I wanted to have a man make love to me. I used to dream of the things I would do to him, and about what he would do to me.
"But when I was faced with the opportunity, I just couldn't go through with it. I wanted it, but I was just scared to death."
One man was persistent in his attempts to get Mary in bed. He dated her a number of times, and made a pass at her each time. When she continued to refuse, he asked her to perform fellatio to ease his tension.
" ... I didn't blame him, how could I? We would be necking," she said, "and I'd let him play with my breasts but I wouldn't let him go any farther, I don't know why I was just scared. It was making a nervous wreck out of Walt ...
"He used to put my hand on his cock and I would play with it while I kissed him. I loved doing that, I loved the feel of it and I liked to look at it. But I know how hot and bothered I must have gotten him.
"When he asked me to come down on him and suck his cock, I didn't mind at all. In a way it seemed like the least I could do for him...
"I got all excited myself the minute I started licking it. It was even better than holding it in my hand, and I did all the things he asked me to-ran my tongue around the tip and up the underside of it, and squeezed his balls at the same time.
"The funny part of it is, I really enjoyed it. Would you believe, I even reached a climax while I was doing it to him? It was one of the best ones I ever had, lots better than masturbating."
This experience opened Mary's eyes, and she made a decision. She found that fellatio represented an ideal compromise in her troubled sex life. It gave her the opportunity to view the male penis, offer sexual satisfaction to both the man and herself, and avoid the act of intercourse. She began seeking opportunities to perform fellatio, and as a consequence, she began dating more actively.
This expanded social life had its own effect on Mary as she got into her late teens and early twenties. She became quite concerned about herself. She did have an above average intelligence, she had read a number of books on sexual deviates and knew that she suffered from a mental condition. In an effort to establish a normal life for herself, she read everything she could. She found out that her fear of intercourse could be conquered, and set out to do it. She slept with a number of boys, but she seldom found release from her sexual tension unless she first performed fellatio on her partner.
Then Mary started dating a young man named Gary, whom she liked very much. She became more determined than ever to conquer her illness. Mary and Gary were married after dating for a year.
Gary was a rather shy young man who had worked hard to put himself through law school and establish a law practice. He was ideally suited for Mary, since he was comparatively inexperienced in sexual matters and willing to accept her own evaluation of what was right, wrong, possible and distasteful.
Mary never told her husband about her sexual problems. She was able to have intercourse with him and completely satisfy him, even though she had to resort to self-gratification to satisfy herself.
Mary admits that she masturbated frequently during the early years of her marriage.
She also admits that she was unable to control her urge to peep at others engaged in intercourse. She says that she peeped into bedroom windows in their neighborhood, and that this would happen about once a week.
Mary's present adjustment is a very precarious one, particularly as long as she runs the risks of being caught peeping. She herself admits to dissatisfaction with her life but claims it is the only way she can find.
ANALYSIS:
Although Mary does receive some gratification in a physical contact with a male, her sexual behavior is based on a voyeur personality.
We must assume that this personality was formed basically as a result of the incidents that took place when she was eleven years old. This unfortunate experience in her life was to have a definite effect on her future sexual conduct.
Of course this is an over simplification. Mary herself realizes that the sex play in the boys' clubhouse had a strong effect on her, but there are undoubtedly many more factors which caused her to prefer voyeurism to actual sexual experience.
For one thing, she grew up with a great feeling of inadequacy in relation to her peer group. As a matter-of-fact, she had no real peer group in the strictest sense, since she was always forced to associate with girls and boys who were older than she. Her parents meant well by pushing her scholastically and socially, but they were in reality gratifying their own needs in their own social group. Mary's inner biological "clock" had not yet struck its hour for advancing another step in social relationships at the time they were forced on her.
This leads into another area which is not germane to our discussion here, that of allowing children to proceed at their own rate of growth. There is no question, however, that in Mary's case this forced growth was a strong factor in her later psychic development. She sought approval wherever she could find it. She also unconsciously followed her parents' dictum that the children her own age were not mature enough for her advanced intelligence.
Although it is not brought out directly in Mary's case history her entire life was in a sense a rejection of her parents' use of her as social object rather than a human being. Their power over her when she was young led to her seeking power on her own, in terms of education and following her own desires. That they were disappointed in their daughter goes without saying. She rejected college, she got into trouble in a very unacceptable way, and she rejected their values as strongly as she was able.
Mary did all these things more or less within the present social structure. She was no sandal-shod, marijuana-smoking rebel, yet in her own way she was as rebellious as any so-called "hippie."
It is a well known fact that children who have emotional problems also have sexual problems. Unfortunately the sexual problems are usually so noticeable that there is a tendency in parents to concentrate on those alone, without looking for the deeper inner trouble and disturbance.
Mary's involvement with the boys in the clubhouse was an out-and-out cry for help, but it wasn't recognized as such by the adults around her. Instead of help she received censure, embarrassment and punishment.
Her parents presented a sophisticated front to the world yet when confronted with its results they reacted in a very old-fashioned manner.
Going back to the experience in the boys' locker room, it is obvious that it too was a bid for attention. It is unlikely that she would have attempted it if she had not already had the earlier experience of nudity with the neighborhood boys. An experience that would have caused overwhelming fright for most young girls held no particular terrors for Mary. The point here is that even if she had the compulsion to peek, she needn't have been caught at it. She went out of her way not only to view but to join in. Her terror at being discovered was not real-although the point must be made that she thought it was real.
While she would not admit this, in fact her conscious mind did not know it, she in fact deliberately placed herself in the position of being herself naked in a roomful of naked boys.
Natural curiosity and awakening sexual urges had become warped in Mary. Her struggle to deny these urges led her to concentrate on viewing rather than doing.
Her teenage idea of performing fellatio on her dates gave her a false sense of safety. She wasn't really doing anything "bad," she thought, and yet was satisfying not only herself but her partner.
Mary's desire for marriage and a normal life illustrate the seeking for social approval which is obviously a large part of her emotional makeup. Her idea is to repress those desires which are judged antisocial, yet also find the satisfaction and sexual gratification she needs. like every compromise, this one has its flaws. Her continuing need to peep will lead her into trouble, and the carefully built yet false edifice of her life will fall down around her. The disaster is going to involve not only Mary herself but her husband, any children they might have, her parents, his family, and so on in a widening circle. The outward stability of her life in reality conceals a built-in time bomb, all the more dangerous for being so well hidden.
The sad and ironic part of Mary's problem is that the stronger she reinforces her false life, the greater will be the difficulties that confront her when it collapses. Her need is for long and difficult therapy, for there is much to be undone before her personality may be rebuilt. It is not impossible, of course, if she finds the help she needs in time.
GENERAL COMMENT:
Not all childhood voyeur experiences bring on perverted sexual conduct patterns in later life. Many children have one or more voyeur experiences and enter into completely normal patterns of sexual behavior. Indeed, as we have previously shown, many voyeur tendencies are no more than natural curiosity.
The problems of Mary R. might have taken a completely different path if the voyeur experiences had not happened. But that she would have had some kind of problem is inherent in her family situation.
Mary's is the true voyeur experience in that it is not a cover-up for homosexual desires, as is so often the case. A latent Lesbian, or one who fights this self-knowledge, is very apt to try to substitute voyeurism for the actual sexual experience. By confining sexual activity to viewing, the individual suffers no loss of self-esteem. Several cases will be cited later which exemplify this not uncommon reaction. Mary's compulsion, however, has much in common with the Lesbian voyeuress. Both complexes are rooted in fear, lack of self confidence, and family tensions.
The fear of sexual penetration is one which normal persons might find hard to understand, yet it is a compelling force in many sexual aberrations.
Another way in which Mary R.'s case may be classified as a typical voyeur complex is the trouble she went to in order to peep. According to Sex Offenders, " ... only seven percent of the offenses (studied) were wholly opportunistic and eighty-nine percent were clearly premeditated. Basically the ... peeper is out looking for opportunities, not waiting for them."
IV
PERILS OF PEEPERS
Many men once they step down the path of voyeurism, find the urge to peep a compulsion. These individuals can only find sexual expression and satisfaction through seeing the sex organs of others, or by watching others engaged in the sex act.
Some find the act of watching others sufficient for their own sexual satisfaction. Others find that they need to employ a means of self gratification in conjunction with their peeping for full sexual satisfaction. In most cases these men are not capable of enjoying a physical sexual contact. For them voyeurism is not a means, but the end. In our society these individuals are called "Peeping Toms."
The Peeping Tom is a sex offender in our society, but society does not consider a sex offender a criminal until he or she is apprehended. Until that time his major source of worry is his own conscience and the ever present possibility that he will be discovered and arrested.
The fact of the matter is that the majority of us are sex offenders according to the strict legal codes regarding sexual conduct. Our laws, when analyzed closely, prohibit all sexual outlets except those provided by solitary masturbation and by the "normal" relations of married couples. It is interesting to note that in almost every state any form of oral sex is outlawed-even between a married couple. Laws are so written that if a married couple uses a pillow for support in sexual intercourse, they could be accused of an "unnatural sex act."
It is true that these laws are antique and disregarded by the majority, but they are used to apprehend and punish a sexual deviate who has stepped outside of the norm and offended others.
Peeping Toms are generally offensive to society because this type of voyeurism as it is most widely practiced is an invasion of the privacy of others. Yet it should be treated for what it is, a mental disease. A prison term of from one to five years, as prescribed by the law in many states, does nothing to cure the individual of the disease.
A Peeping Tom, when released from prison, will resume his old habits almost immediately-not because he wants to, but because he lives under a mental compulsion.
The study Sex Offenders, from the research institute founded by Dr. Kinsey, has this to say:
"In terms of recidivism (repeat arrests) there appear to be two varieties of peepers. At one extreme are those who seem to be incidental peepers: the men who peep rarely and only when opportunity strongly beckons; presumably they constitute the one quarter of the peepers with only one conviction. At the other extreme are the repetitive and often compulsive peepers, and it is they who account for the fact that thirty percent of the peepers had four to six convictions, and another twenty percent had seven or more. These are relatively large figures, especially the latter, which is the second largest recorded (of the offenders in this study.) Note that only 9 percent of the prison group had seven or more convictions."
Glenn F., a twenty-nine year-old unmarried salesman in a large department store, is an excellent example of this.
CASE HISTORY #4
Subject: 29-year-old male. Two years of high school. Family lower-middle income. 5'10", 178 lbs. Dark hair, brown eyes.
Glenn comes from an excessively Puritan, poorly educated family and is an only child. His father is a truck driver who has been with the same company for seventeen years. The family lives in a section of Cleveland, Ohio, that is lower class but far from poverty stricken; a relatively stable community.
According to Glenn, his parents told him when he was young that sex was dirty and shameful. They continually told him that women were untouchable.
He was strongly advised that he could not touch a woman until after he was married, and he took those early teachings to heart.
The following are excerpts from an interview with Glenn by a prison psychiatrist, following his last conviction.
DOCTOR: And what is your opinion of sexual intercourse, Glenn?
GLENN: It's dirty. That is, I used to think so. DOCTOR: And now?
GLENN: I just don't know any more. I'm so mixed up.
DOCTOR: And when did you have your first experience at viewing a naked woman?
GLENN: Oh, that burlesque show, I guess.
DOCTOR: And you were how old?
GLENN: Seventeen. I had to lie about my age to get in, but I guess they weren't really too fussy. I saw the posters and-well, no matter what Mom and Dad said, I had to do it! DOCTOR: Tell me about it.
GLENN: It was really the most! I'll never forget it. I sat down as close as I could get. I had to sit through two movies first, but it was worth it. Those girls weren't wearing anything but little bits of beads and flowers, and you could see just about all of their titties and pussies. I'd never seen that before! I stayed through two complete shows, until I got afraid somebody would notice me. The stage was so close I could even see the bristles where they'd shaved their cunts ... I still don't know why they do that, except so you can see them better. Their, you know, female parts.
DOCTOR: And what happened then?
GLENN: Well, like I say, I stayed through two complete shows. I can still see them, one blonde broad in particular. There were people all around me but all I could see was that stage, and those big breasts bouncing and the sweat running, down their bodies and making their twats all shiny.
DOCTOR: You said you were afraid somebody would notice you. Why was that, Glenn?
GLENN: Well, I was ... to tell the truth, Doctor, I had a big hard-on and I couldn't keep my hands out of my pants. I was afraid somebody'd see me and I felt dirty about it. But when I went home that night I had to jerk-off, whether it was dirty or not. I kept at it so long I was sore all the next day.
DOCTOR: How did you feel about this later?
GLENN: Well, pretty good, I didn't worry that much about it. I figured that I wasn't doing anything really wrong, looking wasn't the same as touching. Mom hadn't said anything about just looking. So I tried to get into the same theater again, but they had a new guy in charge and he said I was too young. I couldn't just stop, Doc! I had to look some more! That's how come I got that first job in a department store.
DOCTOR: How did a department store help you, GLENN: This guy I know, Al's his name, was already a stock clerk there. I went to see him, just goofing off, and he made some cracks about the stockroom being right back of the women's dressing rooms. It was the only way I could think of to see more naked women. And it worked! I got assigned to the right floor right away, and it didn't take me two days to get some peepholes drilled through. Of course I couldn't watch all the time, but I had the chance at least six or seven times a week to watch women and girls dressing and undressing.
DOCTOR: And this pleased you?
GLENN: You bet it did! When they had good bodies and not too much underwear, I just couldn't resist ... I'd jerk-off while I watched them. And of course in the spring and summer, when they were trying on bathing suits, I could really get an eyeful. Those were the best times...
DOCTOR: And did you have actual contact with any girls at this time-socially?
GLENN: Yeah, I guess that was when I knew Cindy. She worked in Gift Wrap, and I had to take merchandise there and pick it up. You know, it sounds silly but I've always been scared to death of women. It didn't matter how attractive they were to me, I could hardly talk to them, much less make a date. But Cindy was different ... I saw her every day, see, and we kidded around a lot. Even then, she was the one to ask me to take her out. I just wouldn't have thought about it on my own...
DOCTOR: Did you enjoy dating Cindy?
GLENN: Yeah, we had a good time. Took in some movies, or went out to the amusement parks, and like that. She was one of the few women I ever could talk to. She always seemed interested in me, not just in herself like so many girls are. But of course she had to go and spoil it.
DOCTOR: How?
GLENN: Oh, she started wanting me to kiss her and mess around with all that. I told her it wasn't nice! But I really liked her and didn't want to lose her so I said I'd try. I told her all that was something you shouldn't do until you got married, but she just laughed at me. It wasn't that I didn't want her! I did! So the first time I went to her apartment, I had a hard-on just thinking about it, all the things I was going to do to her. When we started kissing, all I could think of was seeing her naked, like those broads at the show.
DOCTOR: How did it go?
GLENN: It started off okay. We sat on the sofa and kissed each other and my cock was just bulging out of my pants. She put her tongue in my mouth and ... kinda sucked on my tongue, you know? That was okay too, it just made me hotter. Oh, the things I was going to do to her! I had it all figured out ... how I'd take all her clothes off and get me a big handful of those titties. And I'd suck them and kiss them. And then I'd spread her legs apart and take one good, long look at her twat ... see everything I'd ever wanted to see. I even remember wondering if she'd shaved her pussy, though really I knew better after seeing all those dames in the dressing rooms. But I thought maybe I'd get her to shave the hair off, or even do it for her. I stopped kissing her a minute and asked her to take her clothes off and she did. God, Doc, she really had a body! Before I even put a finger on her I got her to lay back and put her knees up so I could see ... that was when it started to go wrong.
DOCTOR: How did it go wrong, Glenn?
GLENN: She had the prettiest little pussy you ever saw. The hair curled around it, but with her knees back like that I could see the pink lips under the hair. I asked her to take her hands and pull them apart so I could see better ... but instead, she took hold of me.
DOCTOR: Took hold of you?
GLENN: Yeah. She took one of my hands and put it on her tit. And she reached up-I was leaning right over her-and took hold of my cock, right through my trousers. She was trying to unzip my pants! All of a sudden it was like-oh, like I couldn't get enough air to breathe. I just choked up. And I got this dizzy feeling, and I had to get away from her.
DOCTOR: Were you still sexually excited?
GLENN: Hell, no. I lost my hard-on the minute she touched me. I didn't even want to look at her any more. I just wanted to get someplace where I could get some fresh air...
DOCTOR: How did Cindy react to this?
GLENN: like dames always do; she cried. She said I didn't love her, and when I said I did, she wanted to know if I was queer or something. That made me mad. There's nothing queer about me! I don't like guys, I like girls! So she was crying and trying to get into her clothes again and ... I just don't understand it yet, but when I saw her half-dressed, I got hard again. But I was still dizzy and scared, and I didn't do anything about it. Enough was enough! And then she said it, said that thing I couldn't forget.
DOCTOR: What did she say?
GLENN: Oh, she asked if I really meant it, that I was saving it till I got married. I tried to explain that we just had different standards, that was all. And that I knew it was wrong to actually touch anybody or fuck a woman until we were married. And then she said she asked me how I knew it'd be any different after I got married? That's really stuck with me. She was right. How did I know it would be any different when I got married? I didn't, and that's what really frightened me...
Glenn further told the doctor that he left Cindy's apartment and walked and walked, thinking about what had happened. He knew he was in love with Cindy, he couldn't imagine getting along without her. And he wanted her sexually. He still had visions of her naked body, and when he finally went home he masturbated with thoughts of her on his mind.
He felt confident that Cindy loved him and wanted him, too. And yet, when he was actually with her in a sexual confrontation, he froze. He tried to analyze the reasons for his feeling, and somehow he knew she was right. If he couldn't consummate the act with the girl he loved, how did he know marriage would make the difference? He thought that it wouldn't be fair to Cindy or any other girl, to find out after marriage, and he wondered if there was something physically wrong with himself.
As Glenn said:
"I was sure that I was as normal as any other man, but why had I acted that way? I wanted to forget about it, but that wouldn't work. Cindy and I had to find out now."
Before he went to sleep he made the decision to have a love affair with Cindy. He later apologized for his actions and made another date with her. They both had a few drinks to boost their courage.
Again in her apartment, Cindy made it easy for Glenn. She came over and sat in his lap and pressed her lips against his.
This is what happened, once again in Glenn's own words.
"We took it slow and easy, and she sorta let me set the pace. God, I wanted to have it be right! And so did Cindy!
"We kissed for quite a while, and then I put my hand on her breast and started rubbing it over her nipples. She began stroking my leg and I was pretty excited. I unbuttoned her blouse and slipped it off her shoulders, and then unhooked her bra and took it off.
"I know Cindy thought maybe she'd been too aggressive before, and she practically held her breath so as not to do the wrong thing. I could see her tits standing up before I even touched them, so I guess she was excited too, but was afraid to show it ...
"She let me finish undressing her and she stayed just as passive as she could. I was just lost in passion, I wanted her so badly. Her body was so young and pretty. Her breasts had a spring to them, they were high and just rounded enough. I saw her pussy again then and I still wanted to have her open it for me, but I told myself that was wrong. So I took my own clothes off and we went in the bedroom...
"I knew Cindy got even more excited when she saw my prick. Man, it looked like it was a foot long! I was proud of it, and I remember thinking, there's nothing wrong with me as a man!
"I lay down beside her on the bed. I was trying not to hurry it or anything but I guess Cindy was too nervous and too hot. She put her arms around me and pulled me close, so my body was right up next to hers. My cock was rubbing right on her cunt.
"And that did it.
"I got that same dizzy feeling I'd had last time, and it seemed like I was going to choke, I just couldn't breathe. And I didn't even need to look down to know; I was limp as wet spaghetti ...
"Cindy panicked. She begged me to let her try to make it hard again, and of course I let her. She rubbed my balls and my cock and finally went down and tried to arouse me with her mouth and tongue. All this time I kept getting dizzier and dizzier, I thought I was going to faint. Finally I told her that it just wasn't any use. I said I must be too tired. She didn't say anything, just got a robe on and went in the living room and turned On the television. I don't blame her. She felt like I'd rejected her, but I never meant it that way. We didn't even say goodnight when I left."
This traumatic experience made Glenn withdraw almost totally within himself. He and Cindy stopped dating and Glenn put all his energy into his work. Cindy began dating another boy who worked in the same store, and Glenn could tell-or thought he could tell-by their expressions that they were lovers.
He says he often masturbated thinking about what Cindy and her new boy friend were doing with each other. He would often imagine that he was the man making love to her.
He also continued his peeping at the female customers in the dressing rooms, after a short lapse of time. Spring and summer came again, marking his second year in the job, and he couldn't resist the temptations the warmer seasons brought. He knew already that the women stripped completely to try on the swim suits, and often too were wearing a minimum of underwear when trying on other play clothes.
He found this very exciting, even more so than the previous year, and began having trouble getting his work done.
"The place I set up was perfect," he said. "I could see into any one of three dressing rooms, and move from one to the other. The swim suits usually fit real tight, and the girls have to wiggle to get into them. The movement of their bodies was almost too much for me. Sometimes when I'd watch and jerk off, I'd come two or three times within a couple of minutes."
As often happens, Glenn got caught. The supervisor on the floor noticed that Glenn was slacking off in his work and disappearing for long moments. She decided to find out why and followed him one day. She saw him in the act of peeping and touched him on the shoulder.
Glenn was so surprised that he cried out. The customer in the dressing room heard him and looked up, suddenly noticing the peephole and the eye behind it. She demanded that the police be called, and Glenn was arrested.
In court Glenn pleaded guilty and the judge ordered him to have psychiatric treatment. He received a suspended one year sentence and was placed on probation, on condition that he not be in trouble again. He was also fined two-hundred dollars.
Glemi went to a public health clinic and received a certain amount of psychiatric treatment. He found his compulsion to peep relaxed. He had lost his job, of course, but found another as a shipping, clerk for a mail order company. For six months he did not once try peeping.
"I still had the urge once in a while," he said, "but my doctor had taught me how to relax and control myself. He said that masturbation would not harm me, but that I had to learn how to respect the privacy of others."
The doctor released Glenn and his probation ended. Shortly afterward, Glenn began to feel restless. He decided to move and change jobs. His decision was to try and start over in a new city, as far away as possible, where his past would not be known.
He moved to Los Angeles and once again got a job as a stock man in a large department store. Within a month, he was back at his old habit of peeping at women in the dressing rooms.
"I knew," he said, "that they had a right to privacy. But I just couldn't see how it hurt them any if I peeped. They didn't even know it!"
A few weeks later Glenn was caught by one of the floor managers who had received several complaints from customers. He was turned over to the police and brought into court again. His past record was forwarded and Glenn was sentenced to one year in prison.
He served eight months and was released. Three weeks after his release from prison, Glenn was arrested again. This time he was caught peeping in the women's rest room at the bus" depot.
This time he was given a two year prison sentence, which he is currently serving. He desperately wants and needs help, and is willing to try anything to free himself from his compulsion.
"When I get out of here," he said, "I've got to stay out. I just couldn't stand to be thrown back in the slammer again. That is the most terrible thing that can happen to a man.
"I've had to face reality," he said. "I'm a man who has to peep. It's something I can't help or even control. The judges should know that, but they think locking a man up will solve everything...
"What happens when I get out of here?" he wants to know. "Can I stop peeping? I'd like to think so, but I know better. There must be something that can help me!"
ANALYSIS:
There were a number of factors which influenced the behavior pattern into which Glenn moved as an adult. In his youth he was repeatedly told that sex was dirty and shameful. He believed this as only a small child can believe the "facts" which his parents tell him.
He was also told that women were untouchable. In his mind, he reasoned that if sex was dirty and women were untouchable, he could seek his satisfaction from peeping.
Because of these repeated mental prohibitions which he received from his parents (who obviously had their own neuroses,) he built a mental block to the sex act. His personality became one of introversion and he withdrew to a solitary sex life.
Glenn was not truly aware of his condition until his experiences with Cindy. He found that a girl whom he knew to be "nice" was willing to consummate the sex act with him, yet when he tried, he was incapable of performing the physical act.
His reaching out for Cindy's love and companionship was a healthful sign, and he was fortunate enough to find a young woman who neither laughed at him nor summarily rejected him. Still, one cannot help but feel that had he been completely honest with her, through understanding and patience she might have helped him adjust to a relatively normal sex life.
It will be remembered that Glenn indicated that he showed definite response when they were kissing. On their second experiment, he found that he responded to fondling her breasts and undressing her. This was definite progress from their previous sexual encounter. Glenn only froze at the last moment, when he felt the requirements of her responsive body.
Had he been willing to tell her about his problem, it is-likely that she would have been willing to work slowly with him and aid him in his quest for normalcy. The truly unfortunate part is that Glenn lacked enough understanding of himself to ask for understanding from Cindy.
His inability to consummate the act of intercourse with Cindy caused Glenn to draw even further away from any contact with a woman. His reasoning here was that if he couldn't perform with Cindy, whom he loved, there was no hope for him. His self-gratification through masturbation and peeping were without any of the inner conflicts he experienced with Cindy, and it is only natural that he followed the lines of least resistance.
Glenn admits that, after his first arrest and subsequent psychiatric treatment, he found his compulsion to peep relaxed considerably. It seems obvious that Glenn was released by the doctor too soon. On his own again, he began to get restless.
His move to another city was all a part of his subconscious desire to resume his habit of peeping.
Glenn is vague about his life in prison after his second arrest, but there is considerable doubt that his punishment had any effect on his mental condition because he was re-arrested quickly after his release from prison.
His second prison term did not make any great changes in his personality, either, and it is hard to see how it could unless, while serving his sentence, he has access to adequate psychiatric help.
GENERAL COMMENT:
Imprisonment did not serve to cure the mental condition of this Peeping Tom. In cases such as this, the courts should make prolonged treatment mandatory because the so-called "criminal" is an individual who is capable of being rehabilitated.
Peepers, of course, are not alone in their needs as many prisons are crammed with individuals whose antisocial acts are a result of an overwhelming compulsion rather than an intent to commit a crime. However, they least of all are cured by incarceration. The confinement simply serves to confirm them in their aberrations.
When compared to others who have been convicted of sex crimes such as rape, incest and homosexuality, SEX OFFENDERS has this to say:
"The peepers are a mixed group including the socio-sexually under-developed, mental deficients, situational cases, drunks and still other varieties. One may summarize this confusion by saying that a large number (possibly a majority) of habitual peepers generally have inadequate heterosexual lives, and the remaining peepers are a miscellany of persons whose peeping is not so habitual and who generally have adequate sex lives. At this point it should be reiterated that peepers rarely spy on relatives and friends, but seek strangers.
" ... The poor heterosexual life that typifies many peepers was foreshadowed in childhood when two fifths of them lacked female friends.
"In adult life relatively few peepers petted and those who did so began late. This is in keeping with the fact that in their mid-teens they also had few female friends.
" ... all in all, the picture is one of a somewhat stunted heterosexuality, which may explain in part their rather strong homosexual component.
"The criminal record of the peepers is fairly extensive and they were especially delinquent when juvenile. However, much of their criminal record stems from habitual peeping and some exhibition."
The lack of understanding of the psychopathology of the peeper creates extra hazards for the victim when he is apprehended. Prison and court psychologists and psychiatrists are aware of the common urge to peep and possibly do not take the offense as seriously as they do other sexual aberrations. Consequently the peeper is not often labeled as a neurotic personality, and the available therapeutic resources, such as they may be, are not available to him. It is ironic that the compulsive voyeur hits a chord of recognition in almost every man's mind, yet is sentenced to prison all the same.
The fact is, the crime is more a matter of degree than anything else. Yet the obsessive desire to peep is uncontrollable, and obviously an antisocial act resulting from deep inner trauma. More understanding, and more psychiatric help could restore many of these men-and women, too-to being useful members of society.
V
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Incest. The very word conjures up horror and disgust, and violates some of the strongest taboos in the civilized mind. Yet it is neither new nor particularly rare.
The dynasties of ancient Egypt were founded on the concept of incest, and Greek and Roman mythology note numerous incestuous incidents. The Old Testament of the Bible carries more descriptions of incestuous relationships than any other work.
Nor is all the evidence historical. The unprecedented work of Dr. Alfred Kinsey, published in 1953, revealed that of the four thousand women sampled, close to six percent reported incest contact in their youth between the ages of seven and thirteen years. Five percent reported contact which took place after the age of fourteen. Projecting these figures in terms of the 1960 census, it can be estimated that a minimum of three and one half million American women have experienced some form of incestuous contact.
Yet the taboo is, if anything, stronger today. Whatever the reasons for the ban against sexual contact between members of a family, it is certainly an established fact. Those who participate in it almost invariably acquire a deep sense of guilt and shame.
The compulsion toward or involvement in incest can create physic shock even when the act is not consummated. In some cases it can lead to homosexuality, and in turn to voyeurism.
It is often thought that all Peeping Toms are males who enjoy watching females. This is, of course, not true. Many homosexuals and potential homosexuals suffer from the compulsion to view the male sex organ from secret vantage points. In many cases, the Peeping Tom has never committed a homosexual act, or has had only a brief homosexual experience in youth.
The peeping is a result of the inner conflict between two distinct sexual personalities.
A case in point is that of Matt W., who was raised in a very strict religious family in New England. His father was a very domineering person, and Matt leaned heavily on his mother during his childhood.
In Matt's case, it is easy to trace the crooked path from the incest hate-love fixation, to the dislike of normal heterosexual relationships. It was in denying this homosexual compulsion that he turned eventually to voyeurism, as it seemed to him much more harmless than his true, secret desires.
CASE HISTORY #5 Subject: 24-year-old male. High school education. Family middle income group. 5'9", 155 lbs. Blond hair, blue eyes.
Matt admits that he was literally tied to his mother's apron strings as a child. His father was a butcher in a store in a small town in New England, and Matt remembers vividly the fear he had of the stronger, older man.
Here is part of the story, in Matt's own words.
" ... I hated even going near that butcher shop! I can remember sometimes Mama would send me there with a message, or Dad's lunch. She baked a lot. The kitchen would be warm and steamy and full of good smells, but I dreaded the baking anyhow, because I knew she'd want me to carry some cookies or a warm pie to Papa.
"He was a big man, much bigger than I am. I guess I take after Mama, she was small and blonde like me. Papa had big, hairy hands and he'd laugh at me when I was squeamish about the blood and mess in the shop. He'd pick up that big cleaver and hack away at a carcass, I think he overdid it when I was in the shop.
" ... and since I always had so many colds, and was out of school a lot, I suppose Mama fussed too much over me. She was lonesome, anyhow, she didn't have a lot of women friends there. She was from Boston, but it was Papa's home town.
"I never really minded being sick. Mama would bring me something good to nibble on and hot cambric tea, she'd fix the tray up pretty. The other kids teased me sometimes because she made me wear galoshes and socks and scarfs, but it wasn't her fault that I'd been sick a lot. It wasn't my fault, either."
Matt was asked to tell more about his relationship with his father, and how much time they spent together.
"No more than I could help!" he answered viciously. "He was always trying to toughen me up, or so he said. I think he was just mean! His idea of teaching me to swim was to take me to the creek and throw me in ... Mama got awful mad about that.
" ... so I never went out for sports much. Mama needed help and she wasn't about to get it from Papa. I spent all the time I could with her, when I was little. She used to take me to her church socials, and all the ladies thought it was nice that I could sit by her and be so quiet.
"Of course when I got older it all changed ... after Papa died. I was only nine at the time."
Matt was extremely reluctant to talk about his father's death. The facts were simple enough in themselves. A car skidded on an icy road and went over an embankment, and the man was dead. It was obvious that Matt felt a sense of guilt, as if he had wished him dead.
After she was widowed, Matt's mother turned to her son even more. In her loneliness she wanted him to share her bed at night, and at first he was more than willing. Here again is Matt's story.
"I didn't know what to do. I had a hard on, about the third night of snuggling up to her. I tried to pull away but she didn't like that, and then she felt my cock pushing up against her.
"Gee, I was just a little kid. I didn't know what it was all about! Mama never meant any harm, she was just lonesome. She kept me pressed right up to her and put her arms around me. That made it worse! But she told me it was perfectly natural for a young boy to have that happen.
" ... she said she was gonna show me what to do to myself when it happened, and she pulled my little prick right out of the slit in my pajamas. She kept telling me everything was all right. I started panting and wiggling my ass around, and she knew I was all hot. She told me to relax, and then she held it and rubbed it until I came.
"I felt terrible about it. It seemed, you know, dirty. She was my mother! I didn't really know anything about sex, I just felt it was wrong.
"I wanted to go back and sleep in my own bed but she wouldn't let me. She cried, I could never stand to see her cry. I wanted her to be happy, and I couldn't see why we weren't happy after my old man kicked off.
"One night she kept kidding me about being her little baby, pretending I was. She said it made her feel happier. She pulled her nightgown up and told me I could suck on her tits like I used to do when I was a baby. She said there couldn't be anything wrong with it, she'd nursed me plenty of times...
"I guess she came. Well, really, I know she did. She was just pretending and I guess she had a right to do anything she wanted that would make her feel better. I was lying on top of her and part of me hated it and part of me would do anything in the world to stay there. Her big breasts tasted so good! My cock was lying alongside her legs, almost on top of her pussy and I wiggled until it was rubbing right up against her and I could feel the hair tickling me. Oh sure, I popped off too...
" ... I wanted to do anything that would make her happy. But way down deep, I was dying to get back to my own bed. It just didn't seem right to me to be sleeping with Mama as old as I was getting...
"Then she met George and started dating again. She was young and pretty, my Mama, and I guess there would have been a lot of guys after her if she'd let them. But she liked George. He had a hardware store down the street, and he'd just gotten divorced.
" ... Oh, I liked George all right, he was okay. Anyhow, when she started going with him, she let me go back to my own bed and I sure did like that. I was sort of mixed up about it, but I kept thinking that I had to start growing up pretty soon, I couldn't be Mama's baby all the time. I was getting into my teens...
"So I asked Mama if I couldn't spend a summer at camp. All the other guys were going, most of them had been there at least for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to spend the whole summer. I'd been listening to my Boy Scout leader telling how a summer in the outdoors would make men out of us kids. It sounded like-well, it sounded like just what I needed...
"Yeah, Mama agreed. She was pretty interested in George by then and wasn't so lonesome any more.
George said it would be good for me, I remember hearing him say that. I didn't know whether I was happy about that or not ... like, he wanted to get me out of the way. But anyhow, I got to go.
" ... It was just like the guys said. At first I shared a cabin with three other kids my own age. The cabins were wood with half walls and screen above, and we let down canvas flaps at night. But it still was almost like living out of doors all the time. The food tasted so good-I've never been much of an eater, but I sure did eat when I was in camp. I learned to swim, and learned the right way, not like my old man tried to make me do it. I found out that swimming was one thing where you didn't have to be a great big guy. I could outswim some of the fellows who were older and bigger! We took a lot of hikes in the woods, and made things for our folks ... I made Mama a little beaded bag. And we sat around the campfire at night and told stories and horsed around.
"I did so well that when they had to move guys around they put me in with an older guy, a counselor. We all thought Bob was neat, and I felt pretty big about sharing his cabin. We all tagged after him and then I heard he was the one who asked to have me share his cabin.
" ... Why was Bob so neat? Well, he had a great build on him, and he could do anything. He could start a fire quicker than anybody else, and it burned better, too. He could wrestle better than any of the other counselors, and swim better too. I was kinda shy and nervous at first, sharing the cabin, but he was nice to me. Of course I found out later that ... well, all those other things. But in the beginning it couldn't have been better. It was the happiest time of my life.
"One of the things Bob told me was that real men didn't wear pajamas, that was kid stuff. He talked a lot about hardening your body and developing your muscles ... of course I believed him! He was a big, strong guy himself, I'd have done anything to get to look like him...
"We talked a lot at night, after the lights were out. He acted like he really wanted to help me ... Oh, things like showing me the exercises he did and all. Yeah, we had regular body-building sessions before we went to bed, we stripped down and did all kinds of exercises.
"And after the lights were out, like I said, we talked. He had a lot to say about sex, and asked me a lot of questions...
"He asked me if I'd ever seen a girl naked and I said no. And if I'd ever fooled around with any girls. I was fourteen by then, and a lot of the guys had, or anyway said they had, but I said no. After a while Bob asked me if I'd ever jacked-ofT and of course I said I had because it was the truth...
"And then he said he hadn't seen me do it since I'd been in the cabin and he just wondered if I was old enough, or man enough. Of course that made me feel bad, so bad I wanted to cry but that would have made it worse. He was laughing at me. He pulled the sheet back and of course I had nothing going ... and he asked did I want to see what a real man looked like. He came and sat on the edge of my bed and man, he really had a hard-on. He told me to feel it but I was afraid, so he pulled my hand over and put it on his prick...
"He said he'd help me. He took hold of my limp prick and rubbed it and he knew just what to do, how to pull it out and tickle the underside and all. And he rubbed up my balls some, too, and of course it didn't take very long before I had a hard-on too.
"He made me keep my hand on his cock all the time. He said he'd show me the way real men jacked off, and he did it to me all right! Wow, I spurted all over and I was embarrassed but he just laughed and said I was going to be a man after all...
"Sure it felt good. I wouldn't tell him just how good it was but it was better than anything ever happened to me. So when he said it was my turn to do him, I didn't mind at all, I was grateful to him. He showed me just how he liked it. He liked me to squeeze his balls every now and then, and when I laughed and said I didn't have enough hands he had me put his cock in my armpit now and then, and he worked himself back and forth...
"There was just one thing that bothered me, and after the kicks were over and I was lying in bed, it bothered me even more. I asked him ... I said I thought that was what the queers did to each other and was it right for us? It didn't seem dirty like ... like the way I used to feel when I was in bed with Mama sucking her tits, but at the same time it didn't seem right.
"But Bob just laughed at that. He explained that masturbating each other, as he called it, was healthful, that boys needed it to keep from going ape or getting mixed up with the wrong kind of girls. He said lots of girls were dirty and had diseases, and I remember seeing a movie about it at school, so that sounded right. He said we were just taking care of our bodies, the same as when we exercises, and keeping ourselves pure.
"We must have kept pure, all right! We were jacking each other off every morning and every night the rest of the summer. Once in a while I wondered some more, but he could always talk me out of it. He told me some of the things real queers did to each other, like putting their cocks in each other's mouths and ass-holes, and he said we weren't doing those things. And he told me again about how dirty most girls were. I could remember Mama telling me something like that, too, so I was satisfied."
But several weeks after the end of the summer, Matt read in the paper that his friend Bob had been arrested for homosexual offenses with young boys. The guilt that Matt felt was almost overwhelming.
"My God, I wasn't gay! When I was a little kid some of the guys called me a sissy and a queer, and I couldn't stand the thought of it. There actually were a couple of gay kids in my class and everybody knew about it and despised them. God, the reason I wanted to go to camp was to make a man out of myself!
" ... and I heard Mama talking about a character who ran a furniture store, that he was queer. She never would buy from him, even if he was the only one in town who had a lamp or something she wanted. I just could've died! I hid that newspaper and prayed nobody would ever mention it to Mama. Bob lived about a hundred and fifty miles away so I figured chances were good she wouldn't hear about it, and find out that was the guy I'd talked about so much."
Matt's mother married George, and her influence on him diminished as she turned her energies to her new husband, although Matt still had an idealized picture of her in his mind. Matt became more popular with the other boys his age, and his tensions seemed to ease. He also went out for the swimming team in high school, and although it was never the popular sport nor carried the prestige of football, it was at least something to aid his self-esteem.
He began to date, mostly with one girl. Martha had a superficial resemblance to his mother, being slight and fair-haired. She dated other boys too, but this didn't particularly bother Matt, as he was not that attached to her.
As usually happens at some point in the teen years, Matt and Martha attended a party where liquor was being served. He didn't particularly like it, but had no objections to Martha's drinking, and she overdid it. This led to another very traumatic experience for him, told here in his own words.
" ... Martha wasn't the only one who drank too much! Most of us were pretty inexperienced ... not part of the fast crowd. I just hoped I could get her home without her parents finding out.
"But we were with another couple, and they'd been drinking too. They had to stop along the way and make out. We were parked on the street not too far from Martha's house. I had my arm around her but it was mostly to hold her up. The other two in the front seat were kissing and all that ... I kept asking Martha how she felt. And then it happened.
"She just reached over with both hands and pulled down my zipper! I didn't know-really-I didn't know what she was trying to do. But before I could move she'd pulled my cock out and stuck it in her mouth! I couldn't believe it, she'd always seemed like such a nice girl. I mean, even drunk, no nice girl is going to do that!
"Well, what I did was try to get hold of her head and pull it away. And before I could she-oh Jesus, it was disgusting! She puked all over me! On my cock and my balls and pants and undershorts. It even splashed up on my shirt and sweater. It smelled like-it stunk! I just can't tell you how vile and revolting it was. I almost puked myself.
"I shoved her aside and got out of the car. The other kids didn't even realize what had happened until I was gone. My hands were shaking and I wanted to zip up my zipper but I couldn't bear to get my hands in that mess, and anyhow the zipper was all sticky and slippery. I ran home so fast I must have set some kind of record!
" ... Martha? I didn't care what happened to her! Let somebody else worry about that!
"I was lucky, because Mama and George were asleep. I got up to the bathroom and stripped down. I can remember wondering was it worse to take a shower with that stink still in the bathroom or put off the shower until I got rid of the clothes. Well, I took a shower and rubbed myself good with soap, and after I dried off, I got some old clothes on and went out in the alley to the incinerator. I buried everything under the trash. Even my shoes smelled! Then I went in and had another shower.
"I didn't sleep very well that night, I could imagine
I still felt her mouth and her vomit on my prick. So I got up early and collected all the waste baskets in the house to give me an excuse, and I burned everything in the incinerator. The shoes just wouldn't ass, so I finally put them in the garbage can, under the garbage...
"I couldn't help remembering what Bob said. And he was right! What was worse, girls didn't have to have a disease to be dirty, they just were."
Giving up dating but needing another outlet, Matt took up tennis and started playing every day that spring and summer. He joined a tennis club and rented a locker. He remarked that he felt the best when he had played some strenuous sets and was physically tired.
The club was not too crowded during the week, although he almost always managed to get a game. But on the weekends, the club was busy. The locker room was filled with men showering and changing.
The heavy physical exercise began to fail him, because he noticed too much about the other men and boys in the locker rooms.
"When I went in to change, there must have been at least ten or twelve men showering. Two or three Were leaning against the tile wall waiting for an empty stall.
"I'd seen naked kids before during swim practice, but somehow it hadn't affected me as much as it began to that year. I couldn't take my eyes off all those cocks. When I felt I was getting a hard-on I went into the urinal and peed. Then I headed back for the shower room."
The first Saturday Matt let go to his peeping compulsion, he remained in the shower room almost all afternoon. He took several showers to keep from being conspicuous. That night he dreamed about the men he had seen.
Here again, in his own words:
"I don't know why, but I dreamed about nothing but the cocks I had seen. The men had bodies but no faces in my dreams, just blanks. But those cocks ... I woke up with a hard-on and I had my own prick in my hand. I was all excited and I masturbated twice, thinking about what I had seen."
Matt spent a great deal of time in the locker room at the tennis club after this incident. He had what amounted to a real fixation on the male sex organ and he couldn't take his eyes off the naked men in the showers.
Another member of the club, a homosexual with the awareness of an habitual hunter, noticed Matt. He waited for an opportunity to be alone with Matt in the shower room.
"His name was Hank," Matt said. "One day everybody cleared out to watch a special match on the courts and Hank and I were left alone in the locker room. I decided to take a shower and change, I wasn't in the mood to watch tennis. After I got in the shower, Hank came up to me. He was naked and he reached out and took hold of my cock. He grinned at me-I just stood there like a dummy. He said, 'Feels good, doesn't it?'
" ... Then when he took my hand and put in on his cock, I really got excited. It was just like I was hypnotized. Hank said it was dangerous to stay there and that we should go up to his apartment. I was very excited and could hardly wait ...
"When we got to his apartment he told me to strip down and he'd give me a massage. He took his clothes off too, and after I got on the bed he started to give me a rubdown. Then he couldn't wait, he turned me over and started playing with my cock. That was tremendously exciting, just lying there and having him play with me.
" ... The next thing he did was to make me get down on the floor and take his cock in my mouth. I'd never done that before! And I didn't really like it, but God, he was tough with me! He made me suck him till he came ... and then he made me get back on the bed while he gave me a blow job.
" ... No, I wasn't very excited, all I could think about was getting out of there. I tried a couple of times but Hank wouldn't let me go. He hit me a couple of times, and he said he'd really beat me if I didn't do what he wanted.
"After he hit me, I decided to relax. I was afraid of him, and for some reason being afraid of him excited me even more. Then he made me bend over the bed while he stuck his cock in my ass-hole. It hurt! I begged him to let me go but he wouldn't. I could even feel a little blood trickling down over my balls. I didn't like any part of that scene."
Matt said that after he went home he masturbated when he thought about the things Hank did to him, but at the same time he resolved not to see the homosexual again, or become involved in a homosexual relationship. He declared with great conviction that he was not in any way a homosexual.
Matt tried dating several girls, and even attempted intercourse with one of them. The attempt was a failure. The girl was willing but Matt found himself impotent.
He continued his peeping at the club and, as was inevitable, was suspected of being a homosexual and asked to resign. With that source of peeping cut off, he next began spending a great deal of time in public wash rooms. He was arrested in one on suspicion of homosexual activity but the charge failed to stand up. He was released within several hours, but he knew that he would have to be more careful.
About this time, Matt decided to leave home. He joined the YMCA and took a room. He stayed there for several weeks during which time he was approached-according to Matt-at least twice a day by homosexuals. One homosexual caught Matt masturbating and threatened to turn him in unless Matt agreed to perform fellatio on him. With this experience, Matt felt that he had reached a new low. He left the Y.M.C.A. and took a small apartment. At this time he was picking up odd jobs here and there to support himself.
Matt said that the apartment he rented was the only one he could afford. It was located next to a trailer park, and there is no doubt that his subconcious led him to it. He used to sit at his window and watch for glimpses of people through the lighted windows of the trailers. Soon he was sneaking into the trailer park after dark and peeping into windows. Often he would see couples engaged in intercourse, and he would imagine that the man was doing it to him. When this happened, he would masturbate while he watched.
One night a policeman came up behind Matt while he was watching a couple and masturbating. He was arrested and this time brought to court. Because of his previous arrest on suspicion of homosexuality, the court dealt harshly with him. He was sentenced to six months in county jail and fined five hundred dollars.
After his release the cycle repeated itself within a few months, and he has served two more sentences.
ANALYSIS:
There seems little doubt that Matt is a homosexual. He does not admit this even to himself-or perhaps one should say, least of all to himself. The fact that he is a Peeping Tom, and it was peeping offenses that brought him to the attention of the law, is simply the result of a mental conflict about his true sexual nature.
His mother was over-protective because of his intermittent ill health as a boy. Consequently Matt was denied the normal experiences of youth.
His father was obviously the dominant member of the marriage, and perhaps if he had lived he would have found some way to reach his over-cosseted son.
But just when Matt was reaching an age at which he might have admired the more masculine influence, his father died. Thus, rather than model himself after masculine attributes, Matt was exposed to the feminine personality traits.
His natural efforts to break loose unfortunately only resulted in his first true homosexual experience. Even at that age, it might not have been too late if his friend Bob had been the true male that he professed to be. The results of Matt's hero worship of the older boy only served to reinforce his own homosexuality. The physical gratification that came of the relationship reinforced his already femininely-oriented nature.
Matt expressed his dislike for the sexual contacts his mother forced on him. It is very probable that his feelings of guilt about these contacts with his mother were projected to all females he came into contact with. His mind quite simply identified all females with the forbidden mother, and he could not force himself to have any sexual relationships that seemed to him to be incestuous.
Certainly his experience with Martha was the last straw as far as any real relationship with a woman was concerned. First the crudity of her drunken approach, and then the unpalatable vomiting, turned him violently against women and he was ripe for a homosexual experience when he met Hank.
It is interesting to note that he says, in regard to Hank's approach, "It was just as if I were hypnotized." He very much wanted to believe that the contact happened not of his own volition. In fact, he claimed that he did not want to finish the act with Hank, but that Hank forced him to. His passive nature is expressed in his own words: "That was tremendously exciting, just lying there and having him play with me."
Matt was still nowhere ready to face his own inverted nature. He still denied being a homosexual, to the point of dating and attempting to have intercourse with girls. In his full testimony, he glosses over his impotency very lightly, referring to the lack of beauty of the particular girls he dated.
The next step, the Y.M.C.A., leads him to the one place where he knows there will be nude men in evidence. Again he is forced into a homosexual act that he claimed was against his will.
After that, the trailer park, the "only apartment he could afford." This is not to say that trailer parks are hotbeds of sexual intercourse, but simply that they are congested, with more ground-floor windows available so the percentages were better.
Matt is a true Peeping Tom, and will probably remain one unless one of two things happen.
If he were to receive psychiatric help, there is a possibility of rehabilitation. This seems unlikely on the face of it, unless he spends some of his enforced incarceration in a most enlightened institution. Otherwise the pattern is apt to continue.
The other possibility is not as remote as that of receiving adequate mental care. He could conceivably give up the battle against his own ambivalent nature, and admit his homosexuality. Certainly the prison terms he has served and will-likely serve again encourage that speculation. He would find no lack of willing partners, and their coarser conception of reality might enable him to find it preferable to become an overt homosexual.
Certainly the prospects are far from encouraging.
GENERAL COMMENT:
Matt's case is not an unusual one. There are both heterosexual and homosexual Peeping Toms. The majority of the homosexual peepers do not recognize their homosexual personalities, and the peeping is a way of keeping that knowledge at bay.
like the majority of Peeping Toms, Matt never actually injured anyone except through invasion of privacy, usually unknown by the victim. In general, the peepers are harmless individuals. Very seldom does a Peeping Tom assault or rape anyone. They are shy, actually bashful, introverted personalities. All of them believe that their peeping does no one any harm.
Most of them are at least partially aware that they suffer from a mental condition, but few of them are motivated to admit this to anyone or seek out treatment.
Another interesting fact about voyeurs is that their preference is strongly in favor of seeking out strangers to observe. The true voyeur seldom desires any prearrangement with the person or persons observed. He wants to see them behaving in presumed privacy, and he most especially wants to see those who are not available as a sexual partner.
Matt's case bore this out completely, in that although his desire was for viewing males, he still shrank from a situation (the beginning affair with Hank) in which he might view all he wished. The problem, of course, was not only his refusal to face the facts of his homosexuality, but a repugnance toward being personally involved.
VI
THE VOYEUR'S VIEWPOINT
We live in a world where sex is emphasized. Our clothes place heavy emphasis on sex. Whether the girl wears a transparent swim suit designed out of filmy lace or a bikini which calls attention to and emphasizes her genital organs, or takes the more direct approach in the new topless swimwear, she is displaying her figure and her genital organs for others to see. Certainly the low cut evening gown, which calls attention to the female breasts rather than covers them, is designed to heighten the sexuality of her figure.
And it is not only women who so display themselves. Men wear tight fitting knit swim suits which clearly outline and display the genital organ. The fashionable, narrow-cut slacks are so tight that as often as not the genitalia is outlined in even more formal settings than the beach.
These clothes are accepted and freely worn in society. By their design, the clothes are meant to be sexually provocative, and the fact that they are appreciated by members of the opposite sex points up the voyeur tendencies in our society.
If all this is normal and legal in our society, then certainly voyeurism to a point must be considered normal. In fact, it is obvious that we encourage it.
All psychologists agree that voyeurism, as a stimulant to sexual activity, is normal. It is only when voyeurism becomes the only means of gratification, and this gratification is self-imposed, that the act becomes abnormal.
The sexual revolution that is underway in our country today makes the voyeuristic tendency more pronounced than ever. Sexual inhibitions come from sexual restrictions. In the quest for sexual freedom, the restrictions on personal behavior are slowly being lifted.
New codes of sexual behavior are being lived today. These codes will be written tomorrow-that is the nature of any revolution.
As people break the bonds of tradition and reason out individual patterns for behavior, the inhibitions from past restrictions disappear. Acts which were considered immoral, dirty or perverted in the past become more and more accepted.
The fine line between true voyeurism and the act of stimulating sexual potency by viewing may sometimes be hard to understand, if examples are taken at different stages of a maturing personality. The two case histories which are presented next demonstrate graphically how basically stable personalities can be tempted for a period of time by the lure of voyeurism-and yet go on to a normal, heterosexual life. While different in details, the two are alike in that both men drew back from the precipice which divides the normal from the abnormal.
CASE HISTORY #6
Subject: 27-year-old male. Graduate engineer. Family, upper-middle income group. 6'!", 185 lbs. Light brown hair, hazel eyes.
Peter K. was born in St. Louis, Missouri, of moderately well off but strictly religious parents. He was an only child. He was hardly old enough to know what sex was when he was taught that sex outside of marriage was sinful.
"It seems as though my family was obsessed with sex," he said, "because I got a lecture about the evils of it almost every week. I hardly dared buy a girl an ice cream soda because of the third degree I had to go through when I got home."
Peter recalls that when he was about fourteen, he got a magazine filled with photos of nude girls from a friend at school. This was the first time he'd ever seen a nude, and he says that he locked himself in the bathroom and masturbated while looking at the girls in the magazine.
"This got to be a pretty regular thing," he said. "I guess that I did it about three or four times a week. I had the magazine in my room, so that my parents wouldn't know I had it."
Peter said that a family with two teenage daughters moved next door. The following is excerpted from his own descriptions of his encounters with these neighbors.
"These girls were about my age. Ginny was sixteen and Lois was not quite fifteen at the time. They were real dolls! All the guys I knew were trying to date them ...
"One summer evening I was fooling around in the back yard, shooting a few baskets into the net my Dad had rigged up. It was almost dark. The ball shot out of my hands and ricocheted against the garage and went into their yard. I could have waited till morning, but I was at loose ends so I decided to go look for it.
"I crawled through a hole in the hedge and wandered around, trying to see the ball. The light was fading fast, and there were a lot of shrubs and trees casting shadows. Then I noticed there was a light in one of the windows and the Venetian blinds weren't tilted to close.
I don't know why I did it, but I strolled over to the window and looked in. What I saw made me gasp and crouch down on my knees. The window was open, it's a wonder they didn't hear me!
"Ginny and Lois were walking around the room completely naked! Ginny was in front of the dressing table brushing her hair, so I had a double view with the mirror. She had the biggest breasts! Just standing there with her shoulders slumped, they still stood out a mile. And I could see the rest of her figure, too, and you can just bet my eyes got glued on that hairy mound! Lois looked almost as good, although she wasn't as developed yet as her sister...
" ... and what happened next I'll never forget. Lois sat on one of the beds and spread her legs. From where I was I could see everything she had! I was so aroused then that I started rubbing my cock.
" ... Ginny was playing with her sister's breasts. Lois just leaned back on the bed, her face was all rosy and flushed ... her tits stood out like little rosebuds...
"And that was just the beginning. Ginny got down on her knees by the bed, and she had a hairbrush in her hands. She put the handle in Lois' cunt and moved it up and down ... Lois was moaning and crying and I could see she was almost out of her mind with pleasure.
" ... This was too much for me. I got my balls off in my pants but I couldn't stop. I unzipped and pulled my prick out and jerked off again...
"When the girls changed places, I could see the handle of that hairbrush all wet and sticky from her cum. Ginny hung on to her sister's head and shoved her back and forth ... I must have stayed glued to that window for better than half an hour. Finally, I heard my Dad calling me and I had to beat it for home."
Peter said that he visited his neighbor's yard almost every night.
"I saw them play with each other about five or six times," he said. "A lot of nights they had the blinds down, and I couldn't see anything at all ... every time
I saw them, I jerked off. Sometimes, I came two or three times while I watched them."
About six months later, Peter dated the younger of the two sisters.
"I took Lois to a play at school and then to the local hamburger joint where all the kids went. It was all in walking distance. On the way home we cut through an empty lot ... Under the trees, I tried to kiss her. She slapped me! Then she said she was going to tell my Dad how I acted ... I guess everybody knew how tough my folks were.
" ... But I said she'd better keep her mouth shut or I'd tell on her and Ginny. She about flipped! She wanted to know what I meant, so I told her all I'd seen through that window."
Peter and Lois parted that evening, each promising not to say anything to the other's parents. Several days later, Ginny approached Peter and told him that Lois had told her all about it.
"She said they talked it over and they really didn't mind my watching at all! She even asked me if I'd like to climb through the window some night and have fun with both of them ... they'd figured out how to take the screen out, and just when we would have the best chance and all. I guess that was the perfect setup but I was just plain scared ... when I said no, she laughed at me."
At this point Peter was reacting in the true voyeur manner. Dr. Richard Lewinsohn in his classic book, A HISTORY OF SEXUAL CUSTOMS, tells us that while the voyeur delights in looking, he will refuse the act. Freud in ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY says that this is often due to a fear of impotency. The voyeur has no such fear when he is hidden and finds his own sexual gratification.
Peter overcame his fear of physical sexual contact when he was eighteen. He and some friends had gone out of town to take college entrance exams, and he'd received permission from his parents to stay overnight.
"The guys all wanted to get their rocks off and they decided to head out to a house on the highway that one of them knew about. It was really a wild time!
"Of course I was pretty nervous, but I guess everyone is on their first crack at a cathouse. It was a Friday night and the place was mobbed. We each picked out a girl but there were so many guys waiting that we had to share a room with two other couples.
"Man, that v as something! There were just these two beds and the other guvs got right with it. They just pulled their clothes off and started fucking the girls. Seeing all of that gave me a hard-on. I was as hot as I've ever been, and I didn't last half a minute with my gal. She felt sorrv for me and let me try a second time ... I tell you, if I'd had the money, I could have gone on all night!"
Peter's second experience was less gratifying, but proved to him that he was capable of performing the sex act without the sight of others to stimulate him.
" ... of course I worried. I didn't know how I'd act with a girl alone, or how much of my excitement at the whorehouse was due to the circumstances, having all six of us in one room. But it was okay the second time-not as exciting as the first, but I did get my balls off, and that was what I was worried about. . .
"I still jerked off a couple times a week. Most of the time it was with some magazines or sex photos I sent for. I did find some live action, though.
"I went to work part-time for a movie theatre downtown, to get a few extra bucks. My old man was tight with the allowance, he had the idea I should work for part of it. So I was an usher on the weekends, and did other odd jobs, like filling the popcorn machine and so on...
"I got to know the theatre pretty well. One day I was stacking some posters for storage and found out I was on the ceiling of the women's rest room. There were just wooden beams and wall board up there, no regular floor. I could hear everything that was going on in the women's can.
"To make a long story short, I cut some holes in the board over the toilet areas. Then I used to watch the women as they went to the bathroom. This usually gave me a hard-on and I'd jerk off while I watched them.
"Yeah, I worried some about myself. I didn't know for sure if what I was doing was normal or not. It seemed to me I was getting my jollies more with the peeping and ierking off than I did from actually fucking somebody. I'd heard all about masturbation and knew it wouldn't hurt me but ... None of the other guys seemed to have this urge to peep all the time. Of course nookie wasn't that easy to come by, but still ... anyhow, I found out for sure that summer. That was when the roof fell in on me."
Peter was arrested for peeping, and this brought about a drastic change in his behavior pattern.
"When I took my girl to the lake for the weekend, and I was getting all the action I could handle. That's what scared me so; I shouldn't have had to peek but I did.
"There was this canvas thing, sort of like a tent, where the girls all changed for the beach. We were having a night swimming party and the chicks all went in to change. I crept up in the dark and saw a slit in the canvas ... to tell the truth, I'd noticed it earlier, I had it spotted. Anyhow I sneaked up and peeked. All the naked flesh was too much for me. They were wiggling into their bikinis and those bouncing breasts and asses were just too much for me.
"I had my fly unzipped and my cock out, and when the cop came up behind me I was jerking off. He hauled me to a local Justice of the Peace, right then and there. They fined me $50.00 and gave me a suspended sentence. I was lucky I had the dough and my folks didn't have to find out. . .
"I made up my mind right then and there. That was the last time I'd ever peep and run a risk like that. It would ruin my whole life!"
Peter said that it was difficult, but he kept to his resolve and didn't give in to the temptation to peep. Although he did not find complete satisfaction, he forced himself to be contented with a normal sex life. He married shortly after graduating from college, and while he still occasionally masturbated while reading sex-oriented literature or looking at his collection of pornographic photos, he kept that side of his nature a strict secret.
CASE HISTORY #7
Subject: 34-year-old male. High school education, presently manager of chain of food stores. 5'I!", 185 lbs., balding.
Fred L. had a number of peeping experiences in his youth. He remembers that his first sight of a nude member of the opposite sex happened when he was eight years old.
"It didn't amount to much," he said. "I was playing soldiers with a friend of mine and we were in his back yard. I had built a fort in some shrubbery next to the house. I remember looking in the window and I saw my friend's mother naked. I remember that I felt it was naughty, but I watched her as she made up the bed. There wasn't anything sexual about it. At that age, you don't have any concept of sex, at least I didn't."
His next experience in peeping took place when Fred was twelve.
"By that time I had some idea of sex, but I still didn't know what it was all about. I had masturbated a few times, and one of the guys had a girlie magazine that we all devoured, but I was still in a fog about what sex really was...
"Then these two cousins came to visit and stayed with us for three weeks one summer. They were a couple of years older than I was and fairly well-developed. My parents gave them my room and moved me to the couch in the living room...
"Once I walked into the bathroom when one of them was in the bath, and I really got an eyeful. Her name was Edie. She didn't even try to cover herself. I know I must have been staring, because she asked me if I hadn't ever seen a girl before. I made some kind of a smart answer...
"The sudsy water came up to her waist, but I could see her breasts sticking out in front like two ... well, I thought of marshmallows because they looked good enough to eat.
"I got so excited, my little cock stood right up and saluted. I'm sure she noticed it, she was a pretty wise girl. Anyhow, I went down to the garage and had a session. I imagined I was putting it right up next to her pink tits, and I came like crazy...
" ... so I fixed up some boxes I could climb on so I could see both of them in the bathroom. I must have watched them a dozen times in the few weeks they were there that summer. Most of the time I would masturbate while I watched them. It was particularly exciting when they were both in there naked at the same time."
When Fred was fourteen, his cousins came to spend their vacation again with his family. By this time, Fred was tall and very good-looking. His cousins were quite sophisticated sexually and delighted in teasing him.
"They wanted to know how many girls I'd slept with, how big my cock was, and all that kind of thing. They were always flirting with me, but they were really just teasing me...
"I can see now that they were probably bored, and restless with not enough to do. Anyhow they got amusement from fooling around with me. One afternoon Edie and Debbie really gave me a bad time. They said I'd probably never even kissed a girl, and they asked me to kiss Edie to prove I knew how. I took her up on it. In fact, I got a couple of good feels in while I was kissing her!
"They said I was pretty good,-but then they asked me if I knew that there were two ways of kissing a girl. Of course I didn't! But they said I wasn't too young to find out, and they told me to sneak into their room that night after everyone had gone to bed. They said that if I really wanted to know the other way to kiss a girl, they'd show me...
"I really didn't know if they were kidding me or what, but after kissing Edie and feeling her up, I'd have done anything they told me! I was pretty hot and bothered, and of course I'd been peeking on them in the bathroom again ... I was at that age where I really had sex, and nothing but sex, on the brain...
"Anyway, when everyone had gone to bed, I slipped down the hall to their room. They were sitting up in bed waiting for me with just the bed lamp turned on. They both had nightgowns on, and the covers pulled up.
"They told me to get into the bed between them. They were sort of kidding me, and it was making them feel superior, but at the same time I knew they were a little excited and fairly serious. Edie asked me if I had ever seen a naked girl, and I told her that I'd seen plenty of them. They didn't believe me, but then they didn't know they were the girls I'd seen! Debbie told me to take my pajamas off and they'd take their nighties off ... I was embarrassed because I already had a stiff prick just from being close to the girls...
"Then we were all three naked on the bed and Edie said I could play with her if I wanted to. She showed me how to play with her tits, and when I did I came for the first time, they giggled, but I knew in my heart they were as excited as I was...
"Then, Edie said she thought I had come back to their room to learn how to really kiss a girl. She showed me what do to ... I kissed her breasts for a long time, and I know she had a climax while I was doing it. Next, I had to do it to Debbie to prove I'd learned how. I don't think Debbie climaxed, but she got plenty hot ...
"Then Debbie took my head between her legs and taught me how to suck her off. Man, I ate that little pussy like it was peppermint candy! I can still remember the taste of it, and the way the hair tickled my nose, and the feel of her little lips in my mouth. And did she ever come! I can taste it yet!
"I did it to both of them before we quit, but they wouldn't let me screw them. I begged and almost cried, and the most they'd do is jerk me off with their hands. That was better than doing it myself, but it wasn't all I wanted by a long shot!"
After this first episode the girls got frightened of discovery and wouldn't let Fred into their room any more. He did continue to peek at them through the bathroom window, and he says that he masturbated while he watched them.
Fred had his first coital contact when he was seventeen. From that point on, he had normal heterosexual contacts with girls all the way through college. Fred says that although he had the urge to peep a number of times, he limited his voyeur desires to the purchase of nudist magazines and occasional solitary masturbation.
He says that the sight of a nude woman is stimulating to him, but the sight alone is not sufficient for sexual satisfaction.
Fred got married when he was twenty-five. He and his wife have three children, and in the years after they were born, he and Mary found their sex life growing dull and routine. They discussed this at length, and at last joined one of the swinging groups that were forming in their city.
While Mary's life is not germane to this discussion. it is obvious that she must have at the least an exceptionally strong sexual drive. It was at her suggestion that they first embarked on the swinging life, and Fred had some initial hesitations. The main reason he decided to try it was to indulge what had become a strong sexual fantasy, that of having two women in bed with him at the same time.
Fred says: "I never told Mary about my adventures with my cousins ... I'm not sure why not. I guess I had a secret feeling of guilt, although I know how silly that was. And maybe I was afraid she'd be hurt to think I wanted another female right alongside her...
"Anyhow, it worked out perfectly! The first time we went to one of these parties, we were a little shy. Everything looked perfectly normal-a lot of attractive, well-dressed men and women sitting and standing around the room, drinking and talking and listening to the hi-fi. One of our neighbors came up right away and asked Mary to dance. I found out later that he'd had his eye on her for some time. Then I started dancing with another chick, a very sexy-looking blonde. It wasn't long before we were off in the corner and she had her hand in my fly and I could feel that I had a stiff prick already...
"It would have been embarrassing if I hadn't looked around just then and seen wilder things than that going on all around me. It was quite a sight! I didn't see Mary, but half the people there were undressed and were either playing 69 or just plain fucking...
" ... My girl took me to one of the bedrooms and there was another couple on one of the twin beds, but the light was dim and I didn't even notice who it was ... I was too hot to care. Well, she went down on me and I went down on her, and after we'd rested a minute and had a cigarette, we started in again. I had my dong up her when I felt a finger going up my ass ... somehow I just knew it was Mary. She always knew how excited that made me...
" ... Everybody at those parties has their own bag, you know, but everybody is willing to help the other guy out. There's every kind of sex you want there except male homosexual-the girls are different, of course. When two of them put on a little act everybody enjoys it.
"I know one thing for sure, it was the saving of our marriage. I can see and I can fuck better when I see. And best of all, I can have two women at a time almost any time I want."
Both Fred and Mary found complete sexual satisfaction in this activity. Since the beginning they have become regular members of several clubs and are both very active in what they refer to as the "swinging life."
ANALYSIS:
In Case History #6, it seems obvious that Peter K. was headed in the direction of a true voyeur in his late teens. His bad experience, when he was caught peeping into the girls' dressing tent, was such a frightening shock that he resolved to avoid all chances of repeating it.
Basically a conventional if not moralistic personality, Peter could not imagine himself again arrested and again in court. He had too much at stake, he figured, to lose it all by peeping. His timidity, which helped create his voyeur personality, in the end helped save him from it.
It was only, however, by exerting his will power and through a great amount of self-determination, that Peter was able to achieve any outward degree of normalcy in his sexual conduct. In doing so, he brought on an inner conflict which may or may not trouble him further in later years. If he is able to maintain his control, or find such comparatively harmless outlets as pornographic photos and literature, chances are good that he will never again yield to his peeping desires and come into conflict with the law.
Fred L. in Case History #7 had many similarities to Peter, but it is obvious his was a bolder personality. Instead of rejecting the opportunity to experiment with the girls, as did Peter, Fred welcomed it. The same boldness led him to an entirely different solution to his emotional problems.
Fred started off with strong voyeur tendencies and committed a number of voyeur acts in his teens, but he was able to control this part of his sexual personality. In his later life, Fred allowed his voyeur desires to act as a stimulant in his sexual conduct, but these became a means and not an end in obtaining sexual satisfaction.
The incident with his cousins had another effect on Fred, though. He admitted that he thinks the epitome of sex is to be in bed with two girls at the same time.
His desire for two women derives from an obvious need to prove himself. This could very easily have been brought on by the teasing his cousins gave him, and their refusal to engage in the coital act. It seems obvious that his cousins used Fred as a means for their own sexual satisfaction, and Fred felt that he was in the subordinate position. His later desires for two girls in bed could well be his way of erasing this subordinate experience. It is also probable that he got a feeling of inadequacy in this early incident in that neither of his cousins would allow him to have intercourse with them, or even a second chance in bed with them. When this feeling of inadequacy crops up, Fred feels a strong urge to prove himself and is able to accomplish this through the club activities.
Both Fred and Mary felt that there was something lacking in their married life. While we do not have the material from which to judge, it seems quite-likely that Mary shared at least a small part of her husband's voyeur tendencies, as she was as desirous as he of group sex activity. By joining their clubs, they were able to not only see the sex organs of others, but the sexual activity as well.
Neither Fred nor Mary can reach a sexual climax with the sight of sex alone. Both, however, find that watching excites them to the point of orgasm in the act.
There is no doubt that this is true of a large number of people. Voyeurism plays a major role in the enjoyment of sex, and almost all people enjoy peeping, whether they will admit it or not.
The impressions made on youth are strong seeds which often form the mold for adult character conduct. Recognizing this, many European countries have incorporated the study of sex into their school curriculums.
In the United States we deny knowledge of sexual matters to our children at the time they are most curious-and also the time when they are most impressionable. In this respect, our society is backward. We conjure up stories of the stork and lie to our children by telling them that sex is evil. We fail to explain that sex is a normal, natural function and a source of great pleasure.
Many psychologists agree that the majority of sexual deviates are victims of guilt complexes and repressions gained from the teaching of a totally illogical moral code.
It is the eyes of youth that form lasting impressions of life, and these impressions often clearly set forth the future behavior pattern of the individual. Almost all children have a voyeur experience. The majority adjust to what society terms a normal pattern of sexual conduct, although some do not.
In both these case histories, it is obvious that early voyeur experiences threatened the normal development of the young men concerned. Their different reactions were a result not only of other external experiences, but decidedly of their own natures.
The rather timid Peter, whose family was only following the dictates of the society around them, received an early indoctrination into the conventional mores. These strictures acted harshly upon him when he attempted to deviate from the norm. His fearful personality was yet strong enough to allow him to stay within conventional bounds thereafter.
The bolder Fred found another way out. He and his wife took advantage of the breakdown of Puritan morality, and found their satisfactions in their own way.
VII
LESBIAN PEEPERS
In Chicago, a young woman in her mid-twenties was arrested when she was found peeping at other women in a hotel shower room.
She had taken a room by the month in a residential hotel, and the rooms did not have private baths. Each floor had a bath and toilet area at the end of the hall. Susan's room was next to the women's shower room. She bought a drill and drilled a hole in the wall. Each day she would watch the other female guests take showers.
Soon she threw caution to the wind and began making remarks to the guests about their physical attributes. She was reported by several highly insulted women, and the police were called. Using a pass key, they caught her in the act of peeping and using a short candle for masturbation. She was arrested and booked on a charge of vagrancy, and when she pleaded guilty was released with a $25.00 fine.
So, contrary to popular belief, some voyeuresses are arrested for their activities, but there is a general tendency to allow them to plead guilty to some vague charge such as "vagrancy".
Another case involved a teen-age girl who was arrested in the women's room at a train station. She was fortunate in that her family realized her problem and she is now undergoing extensive psychiatric treatment.
It must be said that these are unusual cases, and the majority of female voyeurs are never apprehended. They are, however, typical in one way. It has been stated that perhaps a majority of female voyeurs evidence strong homosexual tendencies.
The following case history is a good example of that type of inversion. Lisa L. is a Lesbian, but she obtains most of her sexual satisfaction through voyeur acts.
CASE HISTORY #8 Subject: 24-year-old female. Completed two years of high school. Family, low socio-economic group. Very attractive. Long black hair, brown eyes, 5'6".
Lisa was born in Phoenix. Her father was an alcoholic and had been arrested several times on charges of sexually molesting young girls. In both instances the charges were dismissed on a lack of evidence.
Here are excerpts from the interview with Lisa.
DOCTOR: How old were you when your mother died?
LISA: Thirteen. She had throat cancer and she suffered terribly before she went. They said that if she'd had treatment sooner, she might have lived, but I don't know. I was just a kid.
DOCTOR: And how did this change your home life?
LISA: In the beginning, things really improved. I guess Dad had a big sense of guilt about Ma. Anyhow he quit drinking and seemed to settle down. He came home most nights, and even helped me some with the housework. Of course, when he wasn't drinking, he could always bring in the money, linotype men can always get work. I started feeling like one of the other kids, and wasn't ashamed to have girl friends or boy friends stop over in the evening. Of course it didn't last.
DOCTOR: What caused the change?
LISA: The booze, what else? He stuck it out for two and a half years, which must have been some kind of record for him. But then he started hitting the bottle and little by little things got bad again. He'd get home at nine or ten o'clock at night, stoned out of his mind. If I said anything to him about it, of course there was a battle royal. So we just drifted into living our own lives...
DOCTOR: And then what happened?
LISA: Would you believe, it was celebrating my birthday? It was my sixteenth, and even Dad noticed that! He decided to take me out to celebrate. We got all dressed up and went out for dinner. I can't remember when that ever happened before, if it did! Anyhow it was fun at first. After dinner we went to a night club. Of course he was half-soused, but at the moment I didn't care, I was having a good time. But he kept drinking at the club ... I don't know how the rest of it got started, but someone told him that he looked young enough to be my date for the evening. Another guy asked him where he'd met the cute chick ... I suppose that's what got him started.
DOCTOR: And what did he do?
LISA: He got really sickening when we danced. He was holding me close and nibbling on my ear ... but I guess I was too dumb to think anything about it. We got home about midnight. I thanked him for the wonderful evening and went to get ready for bed.
DOCTOR: And then?
LISA: I had all my clothes off and my nightgown in my hand when the door opened. He paid no attention to what I said-I wanted him to get out until I had my nightie on. Instead, he came over and put his arms around me and kissed me on the mouth. He forced my mouth open and stuck his smelly tongue in ... I don't really think he knew who I was, just a hunk of female flesh. I was-not really scared, but disgusted. But I got scared quick enough when he pushed me on the bed and started playing with my boobs. He even put one in his mouth and started sucking it! I panicked then, I can tell you! I started screaming at him and trying to push him away, but he put his hand over my mouth and threatened me ... he said I'd really hurt when he got through with me! He said he'd kill me!
DOCTOR: Do you believe he meant that?
LISA: You're damn right I do! I still tried to fight him but he was too strong for me ... he never even took his pants off, just unzipped and pulled that big cock out. Ughhh! I wanted to vomit, just looking at it. And at his big hairy hands and at the sick, boozy stink of him. But I didn't have a chance!
DOCTOR: Did he rape you?
LISA: Yes, he did, the goddamn ape. He shoved that thing into my pussy and he was just like an animal ... I was bleeding and crying and trying to fight, but he just kept pumping it in and out. Every time I fought too hard he'd slap me on the face till I saw stars. He called me a lot of dirty names ... and he pinched my nipples until I thought he'd pull them off. But the worst was his pushing that big hard thing into my little pussy. And Doctor, you'll never believe what he did after he'd finally shot his wad!
DOCTOR: What was that?
LISA: He must have been out of his mind! After he pulled his cock out, he sat on top of me ... I could feel his hairy balls on my belly and I closed my eyes so I wouldn't have to look. And then-I felt something warm and wet trickling over my belly and thighs. And I realized he was pissing on me. Doctor, did you ever hear of anything more revolting than that?
DOCTOR: That must have seemed like the final straw?
LISA: You're damn right! When he finally left me alone I had to take a shower, but it didn't seem as if I'd ever get clean again. I couldn't even go to bed, because it was soaked through. I guess I must have cried all night.
DOCTOR: What did you do in the morning?
LISA: I waited until I was sure he was out of the house, and I packed up and left.
DOCTOR: For good?
LISA: If I'd stayed there, I'd have been my father's whore! I took some money I knew he had in his dresser, almost two hundred dollars. The only place I could think of to go was Los Angeles, so I got a bus out that morning.
Lisa ended up in Los Angeles, homeless, young, and without any special training. She got a room in a cheap section of town and began to look for work. It wasn't hard-as long as she lied about her age. The manager of a Go-Go cocktail joint took her on, with the provision that she'd bring them proper identification when she reported for work. In the rather seamy section where she lived, it was just a question of asking enough people until she found someone who'd sell her a forged birth certificate for $35.00.
She had to buy the brief costume she wore, but she made well over a hundred dollars a week and that seemed like a fortune to Lisa. She enjoyed the job. A lot of men made passes at her, but she watched the other girls and learned how they handied the situation. The management could be unobtrusively helpful, too.
One of the other girls working cocktails struck up a friendship with Lisa almost immediately. Her name was Carla, and she was a full-time Lesbian, although Lisa was completely unaware of that. She admired the way Carla handled the drunks and always had a quick word on any difficult situation.
With the hours the girls worked, they didn't have much time for social life, although they did sometimes join the bartenders and waitresses and musicians in the after-hour spots or the breakfast restaurant many of them frequented. During the day, the two young women shopped or saw movies together. It never occurred to Lisa to wonder why Carla didn't have a boy friend; she was just grateful for the company.
One day Lisa confided in Carla, and told her what her father had done, as well as her true age. Carla was sympathetic; it was the opening she'd been waiting for.
This was the situation, in Lisa's own words.
LISA:...'Why sure, Carla, I'd love to share your apartment, if you really want me to.' I was sure dumb, wasn't I, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Understandably so, Lisa. How did you like it when you first moved in?
LISA: Oh, it was great! Carla said she couldn't cook, but I could, and I was so sick of eating out. The apartment wasn't big-there was only one double bed in the bedroom, and with the dresser there wasn't room for more. But Carla said we wouldn't bother each other. That first night-I moved on Monday, when the Club was closed-we must have sat up all night talking! I never had such a nice, sympathetic friend ... And she told me she'd had the same experience, someone had raped her when she was young. An uncle, I think she said. Anyhow, she felt the same way I did about men. She said they were dirty and mean, and I certainly had to agree.
DOCTOR: And did you talk further about sex?
LISA: Not that night but a few nights later. We'd both had some drinks at the club and I was feeling kinda giggly. Well, Carla asked me what I did about feeling frustrated, but believe me, that wasn't the way she put it. She asked me if I did it to myself, and I told her I had a few times. Then she said it was so much more fun for one girl to do it to another ... I guess I blushed and looked dumb.
DOCTOR: And did she demonstrate?
LISA: She sure did! We got undressed and I lay on the bed. The room was kinda spinning anyhow, and it felt so good to have her hands on me. She ran her fingertips over my entire body ... I was just lying there loving it. When she reached my boobs, she took the tips in her fingers and rubbed them. I guess I got pretty excited then and she must have known she had it made.
DOCTOR: What else did she do?
LISA: She pulled my thighs apart and rubbed her fingers over my bud ... God, nothing like that ever happened to me before! I could feel myself getting all wet down there, and then I came almost right away. She laughed and said I was a hot little devil but she kept it up until I thought I'd blow my mind.
The first Lesbian experience was very exciting to Lisa, and she said that she reached three climaxes while Carla was playing with her. Then the two girls went to sleep. In the nights that followed, Lisa learned how to do everything Carla liked to do, to get excited and reach a climax. The girls made love for hours on end, and life had never been so sweet before for Lisa.
The affair lasted for over two months. Then, one day a detective came to their apartment with a war-rent for Carla, and arrested her. She was charged with a perverted act with an eleven-year-old girl on a complaint by the girl's mother. The detective had walked right in and found Lisa and Carla naked in each other's arms.
Lisa was arrested as a sexual deviate.
Because of the improper entry, Lisa was released. While she was in custody, however, the detective interviewed her thoroughly and in the process she learned that Carla was a Lesbian with a long string of arrests on her record.
For some reason, Lisa had never realized that her affair with Carla was a homosexual relationship. She had always thought that they were just masturbating each other. The realization that she was guilty of homosexual conduct disgusted Lisa.
As a result of her arrest, Lisa lost her job. She got another job as cashier in a restaurant. In her revulsion with the thought of homosexuality, she let herself be attracted by the first good-looking young man who came her way.
What happened next is told in Lisa's own words.
"He took me dancing and we had fun together. Then he asked me up to his apartment. I knew that it would probably mean sex, but I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't a Lesbian. Anyhow I said okay...
"He sat next to me on the couch and made quite a pass at me. I liked him kissing me, but then he had my blouse off and my bra off before I really knew what was happening. He took one of my tits in his mouth. I don't really remember what happened, but all of a sudden I couldn't bear to have him touching me. I pushed him away and ran out of the apartment.
"When I got back to the hotel, I was sick to my stomach. I had to take a good, long shower to get the feel of his touch off my skin."
Lisa then fully realized that she couldn't stand the touch of any man. She still didn't feel this made her a Lesbian. She decided to move into a girls' boarding house where she wouldn't have to have any contact with men except during working hours.
She found a small, attractive boarding house. Each girl had a separate room, but three girls had to share a bath. Lisa found that the girls often used the bathroom at the same time. The first time this happened to Lisa, she found herself naked in the bathroom with an attractive blonde from the room next door.
"She asked me if I minded if she put up her hair while I was in the tub," Lisa said. "I was a little embarrassed but I didn't want to show it.
"She had a gorgeous body with large, pointed breasts. I was fascinated by the hair between her legs. She had long, beautiful light blonde hair but the pubic hair between her legs was coal black. She saw me looking, I guess, because she reached down and stuck her fingers in the hair on her pussy. She said, T guess I should dye the muff to match my hat, huh?'
"I laughed with her, but watching her made me terribly excited. When I got back to my room I locked the door and played with myself, reaching a climax almost at once."
Lisa went out of her way after that to share the bathroom with another girl. She said that seeing the other girls naked always made her excited and that she would return to her room and masturbate immediately.
One of the girls in the boarding house was a Lesbian and she propositioned Lisa. Lisa acted indignant and insulted, and refused. In her mind, Lisa is not a Lesbian.
She does admit that all of her sexual satisfaction is derived from peeping incidents and self-gratification. At the same time she will not admit she has any Lesbian desires.
When asked why she does not peep on males, Lisa replied: "The female body is beautiful and lovely to see. The male body is ugly. Also, how can a girl peep at a man? It's easy to see other women naked, but how would you find a way to see a man?"
Lisa continued her peeping, spent a great deal of time in public rest rooms, and often locked herself into a toilet to masturbate after seeing some attractive woman with her skirt raised. She was finally arrested again by a plainclothes policewoman, who had been following her after numerous complaints.
As this was her second arrest, Lisa was sentenced to six months in jail, during which time she was interviewed by a penal psychologist.
ANALYSIS:
The rape incident involving Lisa's father had a great influence on her future sexual conduct. Psychologists agree that many girls who are raped when they are young are-likely to turn to a homosexual life.
In her mind, Lisa contrasted the "Loveliness" of the female body with what she considered the ugliness of her father's body. The relationship with Carla served further to contrast the gentleness of a feminine touch with the rough treatment she had received from the only male with whom she had ever had intercourse.
Lisa's peeping is a result of a conflict in her personality. At some point, probably as a little girl, she learned to detest the concept of female homosexuality. Even though she found complete enjoyment in her affair with Carla, Lisa refused to admit this particular facet of her personality.
Lisa found relief for her sex drive through masturbation. Still, it must be noted that Lisa is a true voyeur in that she feels the need to see another person naked in order to reach sexual satisfaction. In Lisa's case, the object of her sexual urge is the body of another female.
She attempted a normal, heterosexual relationship with a man at least once, and found that she could not stand the male touch on her body. She stated that it even made her sick to her stomach and that she had to take a shower to erase the memory of his touch. It is only reasonable to assume that Lisa would not be capable of consummating a heterosexual relationship.
In his study of sexual behavior, Dr. Kinsey noted that less than twenty-five per cent of the females sampled showed any erotic response to the sight or portrayal of the sex organs or the sex act. Other studies have shown similar results, but among the sexually oriented females, the percentages are much higher.
There are, for instance, a number of females with strong voyeur tendencies in today's "swinging generation," as will be covered in a later chapter. It is also often found that many females deny they experience any response to the sight of sex objects because they feel that they are not supposed to have any sexual stimulation in these situations. This happens in the same way that Lisa denies that she is a Lesbian, and in each case the conscious belief is quite sincere.
GENERAL COMMENT:
Voyeurism and Lesbianism are often related, as is also sometimes the case with the male homosexuality and peeping. It would be fair to say that in both cases, fear is one of the strongest motivating factors. A kind of double fear operates on these unfortunate individuals. In the first place, fear plays a large part in their withdrawal from a heterosexual role.
The male fears impotency, the female fears brutality or harshness from a sexual partner. This fear, acting of course with other factors, creates the inversion in the first place.
On top of that, the individual fears its own inverted sexuality. Yet sexual drives must find an outlet, and the safest combination seems to be that of voyeurism combined with masturbation. The Peeping Tom or Tomasina is one of human nature's saddest aberrations, as the voyeur as a general rule harms no one but himself.
VIII
SWINGING SCOPTOPHILIA
In the morality revolution which is sweeping our country, there is a rage for sexual freedom. What had been an underground movement first came out into the open in 1948 and 1953, when the Kinsey reports were published. These reports were avidly read by many who then realized that most of their desires and acts were not out of the ordinary and, in fact, were actually common to most of us.
This new understanding of ourselves led slowly to a tolerant, permissive attitude, new to a country which was founded on the Puritan ethic. The older rigid society began to splinter, little by little, as people applied these new ideas to their personal lives.
In the vanguard of these changes were those groups who often refer to themselves as "swingers".
Today, millions of people in this country embrace the idea of sexual freedom. They feel that the wide gulf between the morals of society and the mores of society should be eliminated, and a realistic code of sexual behavior established.
They also feel that the restrictions and taboos placed on sex centuries ago do not meet the demands of modern living. It is their belief that the restrictions and the guilts should be removed from sexual concepts, and that each individual should be allowed complete freedom in his or her choice of sexual expression and activity.
It has been claimed by some sociologists that there are far in excess of five million people involved in the swinging segment of the sexual revolution. These people come from all walks of life, all levels of education, and all income brackets. They are your friends, neighbors and business associates.
In the reports of his studies on the human male and female, Dr. Kinsey's figures indicated that over fifty per cent of the married males had engaged in an extramarital affair. Many were surprised when Dr. Kinsey's samplings, showed that twenty-six per cent of the married females had engaged in an extra-marital affair. Translating these figures, every other man and one out of four married women had engaged in sexual activity outside their marriage.
Further, it is shown that of the married couples between the ages of 25 and 45, one out of every four had experience with wife-swapping. These figures are based on a survey made of 5,390 individuals in 1966, published in SEX REBELS by Drs. Matt and Kathleen Galant.
There is little doubt that the patterns of sexual behavior are changing radically, and there are many factors involved in this revolution. Our society is becoming more widely oriented to sex. Women have gained their freedom. For centuries, women had hardly any rights at all. First she gained her right to vote, then her right to work, and today she is fighting for her right to sexual equality with the male.
While this has been taking place, society has allowed a more frank and honest atmosphere to surround the subject of sex. Books on sexual behavior are freely published, movies have taken on sexual themes, and the majority of people are anxious to learn more about their sex drive.
Often wife-swapping and swinging are thought of as one and the same. They are closely allied but not identical, for there are a large number of single members of the swinging generation. These singles often attend wife-swapping parties. They are also invited to meet with a couple to make up a threesome for an evening of sex. Sometimes a single female and a single male join a a couple to meet other couples for sex parties.
When a single meets with a couple for an evening of sex, we are often dealing with strong voyeur tendencies on the part of one or more of the participants.
Ed K. is a single voyeur who has found sexual satisfaction through his activity in the swinging set.
CASE HISTORY #9
Subject: 32-year-old male. Two years of college, middle-upper income group. Brown hair, green eyes. 6'!", 185 lbs.
Ed was born and raised in a small town in Ohio. His first sexual contact was a homosexual experience when he was eleven.
"I spent the night at a friend's house," he said. "I slept in a big double bed with my friend. We were both in the nude, but I didn't think anything about that. We talked a while when we went to bed, but we didn't touch each other...
"I woke up in the middle of the night, and at first I thought I was having a wet dream, I was all excited. I lay still enjoying it, but as I became more awake I knew that I had a hard-on, and my friend had my prick in his hand, masturbating me. I didn't now what to do, so I just lay there and pretended I was asleep. But J couldn't keep it up long, because I reached a climax, shot off my balls. So I pretended I woke up right then. My friend was lying on his back, and he was pretending that he was asleep. I felt foolish and started to turn over.
"Then, I noticed that he had a hard-on. I decided to get even with him, and I reached down and started working his prick over. He didn't move any more than I had, but pretty soon he went off too. So when he pretended he was waking up, I turned over and made out like I was asleep."
Ed says that he and his friend never talked about the sexual experience they had shared.
"We just made out like we had each been asleep and didn't know what had happened."
Ed couldn't help but worry about what had taken place. He knew that what he and his friend had done was wrong, and he was afraid that he might turn out to be a homosexual.
When he was twelve, Ed joined some other boys in the neighborhood on a raid on the girls gym at school. The plan was to steal some of the girls' gym clothes from their lockers. Ed and three other boys devised a plan whereby they could get into the gym when the girls weren't there. They sneaked in and were gathering up some clothes when they heard the voices of some girls coming into the gym. The boys quickly hid behind a row of metal lockers.
The girls undressed and went to take a shower.
Ed says: "We could see perfectly from where we were. It was dangerous, we'd have been in real trouble if we'd been caught. But none of us even thought about that, once we saw those young breasts and asses. Every one of us boys had a stiff prick in no time at all. Of course we beat it out of there as soon as the girls finished and left ... we even forgot the clothes v e'd gone there to steal!'
Ed says he went home and that night he masturbated, thinking of the nude girls he had seen ai I gym.
After that, Ed made a practice of hiding in the gym when only a few girls would be expected to use it. He states that he went to the gym at least twice a week. This went on for over a year.
Then, Ed got a little bolder. He began wandering through the yards of certain girls' homes at night. He found out which were their bedroom windows, and he would often spend hours peeping at them. If he saw them naked or partially clothed, Ed would quietly masturbate while he watched them.
When he was sixteen, Ed had his first coital experience with a friend of his mother's, twelve years his senior. It happened at his house.
In Ed's own words, this is what occurred.
"I was home alone, so when I went in the bathroom to take a shower I didn't even bother to close the door ... I guess Alice heard the water going and thought it was Mom. She and Mom just walked into each other's houses anyway. They never bothered to knock.
" ... I was just climbing out of the shower and there she was, standing not two feet from me. Alice was a beautiful woman ... I have to admit I'd thought about her before, and wondered what she looked like without any clothes on. I guess the minute I saw her I got a big hard-on. Alice noticed, of course. She looked down at me and smiled and said something about what a big man I was ... then right out of nowhere she asked me if I knew what to do with it.
"I gave her some smart answer. I was embarrassed with my big cock sticking straight out, I didn't know where to look or what to do. Anyway, Alice asked me where my mother was and I told her Mom had gone to play bridge.
"She just pulled her dress right over her head. She didn't have a thing on under it and her tits bounced around in front of me like balloons. She put her arms around me and kissed me. I was so excited I shivered all over. She took my cock in her hand and started running the skin up and down while she talked ... she made me promise never to tell my mother, as if I would! Then with her hand still on my cock she led me into my bedroom...
"I've gotta say, I've never had it better than that first time! She taught me everything. Spread her thighs so I could see up her hairy twat, and showed me what she called her love button. I know I got my balls off twice, but Alice must have come five or six times...
"Then, when we were getting dressed, she told me she and her husband were what she called swingers. She said she'd talk to him and see if I could come over for some sex with the two of them.
"I didn't know what that was all about, but if it was anything like what had already happened, I was all for it!
" ... So one evening after she called I went over. Alice kinda peeked around the door to see if it was me. before she let me in, and once I was inside I knew why. She and her husband-Joe-already had their clothes off. Joe told me it was great to have a hard boy like me to help him service Alice...
"After I got undressed, they fucked each other while I watched. Man, that was really something! He stuck it into her like a pile driver and she bounced up to meet him every stroke. I could see his big cock going in and out, and his balls slamming on her ass. I got so excited I came just from watching. They both got a kick out of that!
"Then they said it was my turn-and I was ready, I can tell you! Alice climaxed three times while I was in her, though I guess it was too soon for me, I couldn't make it. I had a hard-on all right. I was stiff as a tree, but I just couldn't make it. So Joe told me to rest a-while and Alice gave him a blow job. I finally got my nuts off while I was watching."
Ed said this went on for several years. He was also invited to some swinging parties. He says that he would sometimes experience an orgasm in the sex act, but more often he would reach his climax while watching others engaged in intercourse.
When he was nineteen, Ed started dating a girl he had met in an office downtown. They enjoyed each other's company and Ed was beginning to get serious about the girl. One night he made a pass at her in the car and she was agreeable. They drove out to a motel and Ed says that he got very excited as he undressed the girl.
"She was stimulated, too," he said. "When we got in bed, I just bombed out. I mean, I couldn't keep a hard-on. I couldn't do a thing. I apologized, and we sat and talked awhile.
"I asked her if she had ever been to any sex parties. She looked at me like I was stupid or something. She said that the idea was repulsive to her..."
Ed said that he stopped dating the girl and went back to his friends in the swinging life. He had several other experiences with girls he dated from time to time. Always the result was the same.
Ed realized that a normal heterosexual relationship was impossible for him. He said that this was just too "tame" for him.
Today Ed holds a responsible job and has successfully earned a respected place in the community. He has remained single, and continues his sexual activities with the swinging set.
Although he has met several single female swingers, Ed prefers to travel as a single. He says that his preference is for a threesome with a married couple.
ANALYSIS:
There seems to be a great deal of latent homosexuality in Ed's personality. It is probably that he enjoys seeing nude men in his swinging activities. It is also possible that he imagines that the man is performing the sex act on him.
Although he says that he is able to experience an orgasm in the sex act, he admits that this is only possible when he watches another couple engaged in some sex act at the same time. The rest of the time, his satisfaction can only be reached when he watches the sex activity around him. Ed's strong voyeur tendencies play a major role in his sexual conduct. He found that a normal sexual relationship with a girl was not satisfying for him, so he decided to remain single and participate with couples in the swinging set.
It is obvious that there are strong voyeur tendencies evidenced on the part of the couples who invite Ed to join them for sexual pleasures. Certainly Alice and her husband are excellent examples of this. In this chapter, however, we are dealing with the single members of the swinging world. We will take a detailed look at the voyeur role of the married couples in the succeeding chapter.
Many single girls enjoy meeting with couples for threesome sex activity, in much the same fashion as did Ed.
GENERAL COMMENT:
Many factors influence the choice of the swinging life for both women and men. Homosexuality, latent or not, influences the male. Lesbianism or bisexuality play a major role in a girl's decision to join a couple for sex. Ed has many a female counterpart, and the next case history illustrates this particular facet of sexual aberration.
There are also a number of single girls who want to enjoy sex, but who are afraid of contact with a single man and seek the security of a married couple. There are a number of female voyeurs, whose only satisfaction is gained by watching others engaged in sexual acts.
Often it is a combination of all of these things that motivates a single girl to join with couples. She is always popular, and can find more activity than her counterpart, the single male.
Frequently one can find personal ads from single girls in the swinging correspondence clubs, in the underground newspapers, or indeed in the daily papers of many cities. This too is part of the new sexual revolution.
Patty B., however, never felt the necessity for advertising as the fortunes of life brought her into the swinging world almost involuntarily. She said later that it seemed as if one thing simply led to another, find she never felt as if she made the decision to enter it. She did admit, however, that she knew she could only reach an orgasm in sex when there were more than two people participating.
CASE HISTORY #9 Subject: 24-year-old female. High school education. Strict middle-class ethnic background. 5'5", 132 lbs.
"Most people today," says Patty, "can't even imagine what it's like to be raised in a strict Hollander background. Where I come from, around Grand Rapids, Michigan, others do understand but they laugh at us. I don't blame them! Would you believe that my mother and father have never in their lives seen a movie?"
Patty went on to describe their church-oriented life, which to her consisted of more restrictions than anything else. Never play cards, never dance, never travel or spend money on a Sunday-these were just a few of the rigidities which was centered around the church. Needless to say, tobacco and alcohol were banned and sex was a dirty word. Patty was made to account for every minute of her time.
Patty felt, however, no different from her friends who were raised in a similar atmosphere. All of this changed when her father was transferred by his company to the Detroit office. The family sold their home and moved south.
Patty was fourteen when the family moved to the Detroit area, and she immediately made new friends at school and in the neighborhood. At first, the adjustment was difficult. She was continually invited to parties and her parents refused to let her attend. Her clothes were too plain and she felt ridiculous at school.
The family realized that some concessions would have to be made. If Patty was to fit in, she would have to be allowed to dress like the other girls. She would also have to be allowed at least limited participation in the activities of her friends.
"I don't know what sort of compromise they worked out," she said. "One day my mother took me downtown shopping for an entire new wardrobe. I had been crying for two whole days. You don't know just how miserable you can be if you're a square in a round world. That's what all the kids were calling me, a square...
"I was planning to run away, and I think my folks must have known it. I just couldn't stand another day of it. Up until then, my life had been dull, but at least the same as everyone else's. Now I was the only one out of step."
The new clothes calmed Patty, and that night her father told her that she could go to some of the parties, if she promised not to dance or let any boy kiss her. She was also admonished against the use of tobacco or alcohol, but she was allowed to see certain movies.
"Can you imagine what an experience it is for a fourteen-year-old girl going to her first movie? I had always been told that they were sinful and the work of the devil, but I loved them!"
As will so often happen, the repressed Patty became intoxicated on her new found freedom. At parties she learned to dance and found that it was a lot of fun. She secretly began to use cosmetics and received admiring glances from the boys. It was only natural that she would question all the other restrictions of her past training. She had found that the things she had been denied were fun and not harmful. As a result, her mind questioned all of the edicts of her parents.
Patty began to hang around with a very sophisticated crowd. Her girl friends found Patty's innocence amusing, and they delighted in teaching her all about life. Several of her girl friends were no longer virgins and lived what some might call fast lives.
"They were always talking about sex, Patty said. "At first I thought they were kidding, but then I realized I didn't know anything at all. And they realized it, too...
"They always used to talk about how big this boy was, they'd come right out and say he had a great cock. And how good a lover another one was. Then they would talk about the different ways they had found to masturbate...
"I had only masturbated once in my life, and I really felt terribly guilty about it. I really sincerely believed that it would make me sick if I did it again...
"One afternoon I was over at Molly's house. She asked me how I masturbated. I told her that I didn't, that I was afraid it would make me sick. She laughed and said that there was no way it could make me sick, but that it would help relax my nerves and make me feel good.
"I admired Molly so, she was my best friend and I felt that I could talk to her. I told her that I didn't know how, and I asked her how she did it. She said that she'd show me, and she got up and closed and locked her bedroom door. She told me to take my clothes off, and she started to undress.
"I was embarrassed, but she told me not to be silly. I finally got my clothes off too and got on the bed with her. She spread her legs and said to watch her. Then she began playing with her clitoris. I could tell that she was feeling excited, her breathing got deeper and her face flushed. After a few minutes she moaned and then stopped.
"She explained that rubbing the clitoris was the best way to come. I know this will sound ridiculous, but I didn't know what the clitoris was. I asked her and she showed me-she used her finger to show me where mine was. It felt so good! Then she told me to lie back and she would take care of me...
"I remember that I got very hot almost at once. I reached a climax, my very first, and Molly laughed. She said that I was an easy one.
"I can't describe how good it felt, and how much I wanted it again. We talked for a few minutes and then I asked her if she'd do it one more time. She said she'd show me other ways, and she did. I used my fingers on her. And we-well, we kissed each other's pussies and used our tongues.
"That part of it did make me feel guilty but not guilty enough to stop. Molly said it didn't make any difference, that everybody masturbated and how you did it didn't matter."
Patty said that this relationship continued for over a year. The two girls would meet at least once a week and masturbate in front of each other, or play with each other with fingers and occasionally perform cunnilingus. Another girl, Ellen, joined them occasionally and the three girls would spend an hour or so in sexual activity.
Patty confessed that she had never seen a boy naked, and Molly suggested that they sneak out to a small lake where some of the boys swam nude. On a Saturday in the summer, the two girls drove out to the lake in Molly's car. They arrived early in the morning and hid the car in a woods a short distance away. They made a little cave for themselves in a thicket near the edge of the lake.
About mid-morning, several of the boys they knew from school appeared at the lake edge and stripped down. Molly told her all about each of the boys, and Patty noticed that Molly was rubbing her hands across her own nipples.
"Molly had slept with one of the boys, and she was getting all excited thinking about it. She pushed her halter up and massaged her nipples and I could hear her breathing getting heavy...
"The second boy put his foot in the water and yelled that it was too cold. Molly's friend, Tom, dived in and said that it was perfect. The other boy said he wasn't going in. He put on his clothes and yelled that he'd see Tom later. Tom called him a chicken and kept on swimming...
"Molly was really hot to trot by now. When she saw the other boy leave, she leaned over and whispered to me. She said that she just had to have Tom inside her. She thought she could double back and seem as if she was arriving from the other direction, and asked if I minded. She said, 'You can watch, if you want to.'
"She came out on the shore about fifty feet from where I was. Tom didn't seem surprised to see her, but hollered out that she should come on in, the water was great. She shucked off her clothes and dived in and they swam for a while....
"When they came to shore, they were only about ten or fifteen feet from where I was, and I figured Molly had maneuvered him so I'd have a good view. They were dripping wet and cold but Tom had an erection in spite of the cold. He had his hands on her breasts-I could even see her nipples rise in spite of the goose-bumps.
"Tom pushed her back on the sand and put his hand down on one breast. Molly started to moan, and I knew what that meant. I was fascinated watching his erection, or cock as Molly called it. He shoved it up inside her-I couldn't imagine how it would ever fit in ...
"I didn't even realize it, but I had my shorts pulled down and my panties too, and my hand was inside, playing with my clitoris. I even pushed a finger up inside me, to see how it felt, but I liked playing with my clit the best. . .
"I had at least two orgasms while I watched them, the wildest I'd ever had-better even than when Molly kissed me."
It was at this point that Patty began her voyeur activity. After the experience by the lake, she tried to follow Molly every time her friend had a date. She usually knew where Molly and her date would be going, and tried to arrange to be there ahead of them.
Patty also was guilty a few times of peeping in the bedroom window of her neighbor's house. She had discovered that the couple left the window open because it faced onto their backyard, and they felt no one could see in.
When Patty was seventeen, she still had no real boy friend of her own. Molly was dating Tom steadily, and had told him about the sessions the two girls had together. Tom pleaded to be included in them.
Patty was reluctant but she finally gave in. The threesome rented a motel for safety's sake, and spent the first afternoon of many enjoying each other's bodies in all the ways they could think of. This went on until they all graduated from high school. Although Patty had tried to have intercourse with another boy, she found that it was dull after the other sexual activities she'd enjoyed.
Tom and Molly married shortly after high school graduation. Patty found a job in a small city which was, by no coincidence at all, only a few miles from where Molly and Tom lived. Sometimes she wondered if she were intruding into their lives, and made a determined effort to find other friends, although the young couple had assured her they both missed her when she wasn't available.
It was during one of these periods when Molly and
Tom were left without their third playmate that they were introduced into a sex club by a neighbor. After discovering how much they liked it, they quickly brought Patty back into the picture.
The three of them are not as close today, as Patty has found her own outlet through several swinging clubs. They do meet at sex gatherings fairly often, however, and the original three still enjoy sex together when they do.
ANALYSIS:
Patty limits her sexual activities to threesomes with couples, and perhaps many would classify her as a bisexual. She can, however, reach a climax with a male in the sex act. This is rather dull for her after the adventures with the swinging set.
Actually Patty is more of a Lesbian than a bisexual. She does not really enjoy sex with a man alone. She has to have a woman present in order to achieve complete satisfaction.
It must also be remembered that Patty's first sexual contact was with a female. She and Molly found that they could satisfy one another and did so regularly.
Patty's decision to follow Molly and Tom and watch them make love is clear evidence of her voyeur personality. She even peeped on her neighbors frequently. The sight of the sex act obviously stimulates Patty, and she gets no real pleasure out of sexual acts without it.
Aside from her obvious strong fixation on Molly, it was her voyeur tendency which guided Patty to her threesome activity in the swinging life. Patty receives her stimulation from watching others engage in sexual acts.
There are a number of other psychological reasons for Patty's behavior pattern. Certainly a great deal of her motivation comes from a desire to rebel against her rigid upbringing. It also seems obvious that she suffers from a considerable amount of insecurity, and that her preference for the married couple is a manifestation of that need for security.
Additionally, Patty suffers from a duality of sexual personalities, and the threesome offers her the opportunity to satisfy each separate drive. There are a large number of girls like Patty in the swinging life; it has provided outlets for them that no other social establishment has yet to offer.
IX
MARRIED MIXOSCOPIA
There are literally millions of married couples engaged in wife-swapping today.
The motivations which draw them together are many and different, but all are agreed in enjoying this new expression of sexual freedom. Voyeurism plays a major role in influencing many married couples to experiement with the mate-exchange philosophy, and almost every individual interviewed admits to a high sexual stimulation at the sight of their mate in another's arms.
Although it would seem that the emotion in this situation would be jealousy, interviews and surveys indicated just the opposite. The quotes below are indicative of the way many of these individuals view wife-swapping as a stimulant.
Jeanne P., a Cambridge housewife, told an interviewer that the sight of another woman performing fellatio on her husband, Carl, stimulated her and increased her delight in erotic play with her partner.
"We like to get all four of us on a king-size bed," she said, "so we can really be close and see what's happening. And when I saw this gal do that to Carl, it got me excited...
"I've tried to analyze it, but I really can't. I know that Carl loves to have it done to him, and this girl looked like she was really good. Maybe it thrilled me because I knew that Carl was enjoying it. I don't know.
"And Carl says I'm a very competitive person, maybe that has a little bit to do with it. I want to see what some other gal does just so I can see if I can do as well or better. I know I always want to be the best. This could be partly responsible for the stimulation I get from watching other girls with Carl."
Lyle S., a San Francisco businessman, says that he becomes unusually stimulated when he watches his wife, Cora, with another man.
"I've never really tried to understand why," he said, "but seeing Cora with another man always gets me turned on. I don't know how many times it has happened in swinging, but I can be literally all done for the night, mentally and physically exhausted-and that usually happens about an hour after I get to a sex party! And then Cora gets going with some guy and I'll get another erection, just like that ...
"Cora kids me about it, and I'm sure she does it on purpose a lot of the time, just to keep the party from sagging ...
"I've had this succeed with me two or three times during the course of one evening."
There are many reasons for this sexual stimulation at the sight of the mate engaged in sex acts with another person. It can be argued that the sexual stimulation is a physical manifestation of the jealousy emotion. Many individuals, seeing another person performing the love act with their mate, feel a need to prove themselves, and in this instance the sexual stimu-fill this need.
Certainly, however, the sexual stimulation in these instances is a form of voyeur behavior. The sex act is something that traditionally has been performed in secrecy between two people. Watching people engaged in the sex act, even with their knowledge and permission, represents to the individual peeping at something he or she shouldn't see. As a result there is a certain amount of stimulation to be gained from partaking of the forbidden fruit.
There is also a high incidence of Lesbian activity among the women involved in wife-swapping. After extensive study sexual researchers discovered that this activity was encouraged by the male because he received great sexual stimulation from seeing his wife engaged in Lesbian play with another woman. In the majority of instances, the women had no desire for the homosexual act with another woman, but engaged in it at the urging of their husbands. They did this because the husband received pleasurable stimulation from seeing them with another girl.
This is just another instance where voyeuristic traits have an influence on the sexual behavior of those engaged in wife-swapping.
There are two classes of individuals in wife-swapping. First, there are those couples who engage in mate-exchanging, but only on a separate room basis. The other group prefer to have their sexual activity in the form of a party, with a number of people engaged in sex acts in the same room. The first group have embraced the philosophy of sexual freedom as a practical matter. They have analyzed their own desires, recognized a definite need for variety in their sex lives. Yet they have decided that the extra-marital affair is dangerous both to the marriage and to the emotions of the other parties involved, and after thoroughly discussing it between them have mutually agreed that the practice of sexual freedom through wife-swapping is the solution for them.
These people argue that there is no emotional involvement if their affairs are of a co-marital nature. They do not, however, enjoy the sex party or the group activity idea. They feel a need and a desire for privacy in their sex act, and they insist on separate rooms. Generally, these people will meet other couples at a motel, each taking a separate room.
The second group, on the other hand, prefers group activity or the sex party, where everyone is nude and the sex acts are all performed in the same general area. Within this group, the voyeur tendencies are strongly in evidence.
In a sociological study made in 1966, by Matt and Kathleen Galant, 5,392 individuals involved in wife-swapping were surveyed. One of the questions asked had to do with the personal preference for separate rooms or group activity. The results of this phase of the survey are shown below. It is obvious that each married couple represents two individual opinions, and for that reason the sampling is divided into two areas: male and female.
Males
Females
Always prefer group sex..................23%
11%
Prefer mostly group sex..................21%
17%
Occasionally prefer group sex............38%
30%
Never prefer group sex...................18%
42%
The males give a far higher response to the enjoyment of group sex activity, but it is interesting to note that a majority of the females say that they prefer group sex over the private affair.
Many reasons are given for this preference. One woman said: "I'd rather be at a sex party than in a private room because if you get a dud for a lover, you can always change off to another man. If you're in a separate room, you're stuck with the dud for the night."
This argument has been advanced to several psychologists, and there is some validity to it, but there is little doubt that the prime motivation for group sex is the desire to watch others.
The majority of couples say that they start off with the separate room concept when they first enter wife-swapping, but that they quickly graduate to group sex once their inhibitions are gone. It seems that this is the normal step taken by most couples.
First, they endorse the new morality of sexual freedom. Then, they must take the big step and actually experience the practice. At each step they must cast off inhibitions and taboos they have been a lifetime in acquiring. The move to group sex can only be taken after they have completely freed themselves from any inhibitions about public nudity and engaging in sexual acts in front of others.
To understand this particular phenomenon in society, the study of several case histories is helpful. First let's examine the case of a married couple where each of the individuals had strong voyeur experiences in childhood.
Paula and Harry W. of Denver have been married for six years. They have been "swinging" for three of those years.
Paula was born just outside Denver and spent the early years of her life on a ranch. Her father was a successful raiser and breeder of cattle, and the family enjoyed the life of people in the middle income bracket.
CASE HISTORY #10 Subjects: Husband and wife, both in late twenties, Upper-middle income group. Both tall, physically attractive.
Paula remembers that as a child she used to enjoy watching the ranch animals engage in copulation.
"I was pretty young, not over eight or nine, but I remember that I loved to watch the bull with the cows ...
"Dad was a breeder, and he kept the stud bulls fenced in a separate range. He'd mate them by bringing the selected bull and cow into a corral. I wasn't supposed to know what it was all about, but I'd climb up in a cottonwood tree where they couldn't see me, and watch. When I saw a bull mount a cow, I'd get all excited. In fact, I don't think I ever missed a chance to watch."
Paula says that she does not remember masturbating at this time. She says that she started masturbating when she was about twelve.
"I woke up one night and heard noises in my parents' room. I went down the hall to see what it was, and I found their door open a crack. I peeked in and saw them in bed. They were--well, they were fucking, and it reminded me of the bulls. I don't know why, but it did. I went back to my room and started playing with myself. I think that was the first time I ever had a climax."
Paula says that she continued masturbating fairly regularly. She also began getting up in the night and creeping down the hall to see her parents. She watched them often, and always masturbated afterward.
Her first sexual experience ending in coitus took place when she was sixteen.
"I was going with a boy from the university," she said. "We went to the country club pool one afternoon, and then to a dance. After the dance we decided to go moonlight horseback riding. There was a full moon that night, and it was warm and balmy.
"My parents were over in Laramie, so it didn't matter what time I got home...
"Rog and I rode out on the prairie and tied our horses up by a little creek. We built a small fire and sat there looking at the stars. We started making out, and Rog made his usual pass at me. He was surprised, this time, as I didn't even try to stop him! He took my shirt off and undid my bra, pulling it off my shoulders...
"Like I said, it was a beautiful night and we weren't cold. His hands felt so good on my tits! Then, he unbuttoned my Levi's and got his hands down between my legs. It's funny when you think back on it. Levis and boots aren't made for seduction scenes. I remember he tried to pull my pants down, but he had to get my boots off first. We both got to laughing about it. . .
"He had me pretty excited, though, I was wet in the pussy and could hardly stand to wait. He had an old blanket tied to his saddle and we spread it out on the ground.
"I've heard a lot of girls say that it hurt them the first time they had a man, but it didn't hurt me at all. I figured I was just born for fucking. Of course, neither one of us really knew what we were doing, so it wasn't the greatest lay of the world.
"Still, I came and so did Rog."
Paula said she continued her affair with Roger for several months, though they only had the opportunity to have coitus on three occasions. Then, Roger went East to college and they stopped seeing each other.
Paula indicated that she took sex very matter-of-factly, even during her teens.
"I didn't see any big deal about it," she said. "Maybe it was my ranch upbringing, but it seemed to be just a natural act which happened to be fun. I was pretty selective in my choice of partners, but I had no moral restrictions.
"I guess I got the attitude from my parents. They were pretty liberal minded. My mother even took me to a doctor, one time while we were on vacation, and had me fitted for a diaphragm. She didn't want to do it at home where we were so well-known. Mom told me that she knew I would be tempted, and that it was best I had protection against pregnancy. She said that I would just have to make up my own mind when I got in a situation where I was tempted to sleep with a man.
"Frankly, I think that's a damn good way to look at it. I am certainly going to do the same thing with my daughter when she gets old enough. Of course, I'll get her on the pills instead of that awkward diaphragm."
When she was eighteen, Paula vent on a double date with a girl friend. They had dated these boys before, but neither of them had ever slept with them.
"We all went out for a big night on the town-dinner at the Brown, dancing afterward. Then we went to a private party and drank some more. Jean told me that her date wanted to take a motel room, and wanted to know if I was going to make it with Les, my date. She said Les had asked her to feel me out about it. I told her it sounded okay to me.
"Pretty soon Les came over and told me that Jean and her date were headed for a motel, and asked me if I wanted to go along."
Paula said the two couples went to the outskirts of town and rented two rooms at a small motel. She and Les had a long session of sexual activity, which included two climaxes for both of them.
"The boys had gotten adjoining rooms, with a connecting door. Jean's date had driven, so even though Les and I were tired, we had to wait for them. We lay in the bed naked and talked-we were both sexed out. But I kept getting sleepier, so finally I went to peer in the door to see how Jean and Bob were doing.
"I opened the door just a crack and looked in. They had the lights on and were really going at it. It got me all excited again seeing them in action.
"I signaled Les to come over and look. He peeked over my shoulder and watched too. Jean and Bob were having a '69' party, and the way they were going at it would excite anyone. His big prick pumping in and out of her mouth just really turned me on.
"I could tell Les was feeling it, too. He started panting! I reached down and took Les' cock in my hands and started rubbing it, and he began to play with my breasts.
"It wasn't very long and we were ready again! We closed the door and went back to bed. I guess we were really charged up, he came down on me and I gave him a blow job. It was just too much!
"Les and I talked about it afterward, and we decided we'd do the same thing the next Saturday night, and watch Jean and Bob from the start. We never had a chance though. They had a fight the next week and stopped dating."
When she was twenty-two, Paula started dating Harry. They fell in love almost at once. Paula said they had coitus on their first date. Six months later they were married.
Harry also had an interesting sexual history. He was born and raised in Tucson. His family owned a hotel there, and the family lived in the hotel. He remembers that his first sexual contact was with some of the maids at the hotel.
"We used girls of Mexican descent on the hotel staff," he said. "A couple of them were my favorites when I was a little boy. They'd give me candy and play with me, when my mother wasn't watching...
"When I was about six or seven, I used to run into their dressing room a lot. If I had to go to the bathroom, one of them would help me. Sometimes she'd hold my little prick out to the other girls, and they'd kid about what a great lover I'd be some day. Then she always gave it a little squeeze when she put it back. It felt good, I liked it, and I'm sure that I used to wait until I could go into their dressing room before I'd go pee."
Harry says this went on for two or three years, and that the girls would always make a big thing out of how much his penis had grown. Then, one day he asked his favorite of the girls why girls went to the bathroom differently than boys did. They were in her room alone, and she lifted her skirt to show him.
"She didn't have any pants on, and she lifted her skirt so I could see her cunt. Then she took my hand and put it on her pussy. Next thing, she had my hand up her, and I mean my whole hand, not just the fingers. She told me that felt good.
"And she said she'd show me how to feel good, too. She took me in the toilet and played with me. I don't know that I reached a climax, probably not, but that was my first taste of masturbation."
Harry said that she did this to him about once a month, and she'd let him play with her now and then too.
When he was twelve, this same maid took him to a closet in one of the vacant rooms and lifted him to the shelf near the ceiling. She told him that if he kept quiet and leaned through a small opening, he'd be able to see into the next room. There was a couple in the act of copulation, and Harry said that he got very excited watching.
"That was something new for me," he said. "But I quickly discovered that the hotel was a perfect place to see that kind of thing. Over the next few years, I figured out at least a hundred ways to peek into the rooms. When I worked as night clerk for a while, I arranged to put any young couples who checked in into a special room where I could watch everything they did. I'd give them about 20 minutes to get undressed, and then I'd bribe one of the bellmen to cover the desk while I watched them making love."
This was Harry s only true peeping experience. In his teens, he lived a robust sex life and slept with a number of girls.
Harry's attitude about sex was very relaxed, and when he met Paula, he was immediately impressed with her equally casual feeling.
After they were married, their sex life continued on a plane for about a year. Then, they both noticed a decline in their interest and frequency of coition. Each admitted to the other that they missed the variety in their sex life. Both of them were ready for an affair, but unlike most couples, they discussed the problem with each other before they got involved in any extra-marital activity.
They decided against either of them entering into an affair. They sent away for some sex movies and stills, and used them often as a stimulant for their own love life. Often they would be having intercourse at the same time as they watched the movies.
Harry read several articles on wife-swapping and asked Paula what she thought about the idea. They discussed it at great length and read every book and article concerning it they could find.
"We must have talked about it for several months," Paula said. "It sounded like the perfect solution to our problem. It fitted everything we believe about sex, and from what all the stories indicated, there was no emotional involvement."
When they finally made up their minds, they placed an ad in one of the now quite numerous publications which cater to the swinging set.
"Several couples answered our ad, but these two looked quite attractive from the photographs, and they lived right here in Denver. We gave them a call and arranged to meet them for dinner, to get acquainted.
"I guess we must have been nervous, because they guessed it was our first meeting almost at once. They were understanding and made it easy for us. We had a lovely dinner and then went dancing, which helped break the ice."
Paula said she and Harry invited the other couple to their home at the end of the evening.
"Our kids were spending the weekend at my folks' ranch, and the house was all ours. It was a little awkward at first-Harry and I talked about it on the way home. We were both eager, and agreed to go ahead even though we didn't quite know how to begin. But Lois was a tall, good-looking redhead, and Harry was excited about the idea of getting her to bed. And her husband, Mike, was loaded with sex appeal as far as I was concerned...
"We sat around having a drink, wondering what to do next. Lois solved the problem! She just casually got up and went over and sat down in Harry's lap. Mike was sitting next to me. After he saw Lois make the first move, he put his arm around me and kissed me. It wasn't any casual kiss, I can tell you that! I hadn't been kissed like that in a long time. He started right off with his tongue in my mouth, and we didn't come up for air for quite a while. And his hands were everywhere, touching my breast, my ass, my crotch...
"We shifted positions on the couch and I caught a glimpse of Lois and Harry out of the corner of my eye. Harry had her skirt up around her waist, and I could see everything she had. She didn't have any panties on, and I remember thinking that was very practical in a situation like this. Harry had his hand on her cunt and he was really working on her...
"Maybe I should have been jealous but I wasn't. Seeing Lois and Harry sort of spurred me on. I got busy making love to Mike...
"After a while, Mike whispered that we should head for a bedroom. I agreed, and we said goodbye to Lois and Harry. They took over the couch...
"Mike and I got undressed and started all over. He asked me what I liked, and I told him that I liked a little of everything. And that's what I got! We tried everything I'd heard of and some things I didn't know about. I even let him fuck me in the ass-hole, and I found that it wasn't bad at all. It'll never replace the real thing, but it is interesting for a change once in a while.
"They stayed the night with us, and when Mike woke up in the morning, he wanted to screw all over again. I didn't have any objections!...
"Later when I told Harry about it, I think I said that I'd had seven orgasms. That was some sort of record for me, but Mike was quite a man."
Paula said that she and Harry met with Lois and Mike about once a week for the next few months. During this time, Lois and Mike introduced them to a number of other couples in the Denver area.
One night they were invited to a sex party with six other couples.
"We had heard of these parties," Paula said, "and we were dying to try one. This one was held at a big ranch house outside of town, and we were pretty excited about it. We knew two of the couples and had seen photos of the others that would be there.
"This was our real initiation to the swinging life, and it was marvelous! We all got there about 8:30 p.m. Everybody had a few cocktails, and as things warmed up, we started getting undressed. There was some good music on, and one of the fellows suggested that we try dancing in the nude. If nothing else will get a party going, that'll do it! I can't tell you why, but dancing naked is a very exciting experience.
"Harry was dancing with a cute little blonde, and she was blowing in his ear. I don't know why, anybody who looked at him could see he didn't need any stimulation!
"I was dancing with a man I'd just met, and I was getting a little worried because he wasn't aroused. I started rubbing my tits against him, and I felt an immediate response. He guided me over to a bearskin rug in front of the fireplace and we sat down.
"He kissed me and started playing with my nipples. Then he eased me back to a lying position and started kissing my body all over. He sucked on my breasts and then let his lips start wandering. The feel of his tongue trailing across my tummy sent shivers through me. This man really knew what he was doing!
"Then, he gently spread my thighs apart and kissed and licked my pussy. He bit my clitoris till I thought I'd lose my mind! This was right in front of everybody and I started to protest, but when I looked around, I saw that almost everyone was doing something. The blonde was kneeling in front of Harry sucking his cock, and several couples were screwing.
"Seeing all that, combined with what was happening to me, put me right into orbit. I reached two orgasms within a minute or two of each other.
"Things went on like this all evening. When you got tired and needed a rest, you just sat back and watched what others were doing. The only trouble was that watching others got me hot again...
"There were a lot of threesome games, too. I had two men making love to me at one time. That was something I'd read about, but I never dreamed that it could really be done. It's difficult, but no girl should die without that experience...
"If one of the men seemed to be sexed out, two girls would make love to him at once. That never failed to revive the guy.
"I remember that at one point I was giving one man a blow job, and another man came up from behind and started fucking me. That's another experience a girl should have before she goes!
"Harry became extremely popular because he is built like a moose. I know that each one of the girls had at him at least once during the evening. The next day he was so sore, we had to use skin lotion on his cock."
After this party, Paula and Harry decided that they would circulate in the group sex field almost exclusively.
"We enjoyed the swapping with other couples," Harry said, "but we both got more kicks out of the group affair. We got much more excited when we were with a group, and we found that we reached a lot more climaxes and that they were of higher intensity.
"Also we found that our own sex life was better after a party. I guess it was a matter of remembering what had happened at the party, and this gave impetus to our own lovemaking."
ANALYSIS:
Both Paula and Harry evidenced strong voyeur tendencies before their marriage. Paula liked to watch animals copulate when she was a child. She also witnessed her parents in the sex act, and afterward sought relief through self gratification. These are clearly voyeur experiences.
While still in her teens she discovered that she got sexually aroused by watching her friend Jean in the act of intercourse, and Paula then took the aggressive role with her partner and stimulated him.
Paula's realistic training in sex from her parents probably prevented her from having guilt feelings about her voyeur desires. As a result, she was able to avoid having the voyeur segment of her sexual personality take over. Group sex appealed to Paula because it offered her the opportunity for sexual activity along with the stimulation she receives from the sight of others similarly engaged.
Harry, on the other hand, was on the road to becoming a true voyeur when he was working in his father's hotel. He was, however, able to find complete satisfaction in coital contact and overcame his desires to peep. The group sex activity immediately appealed to Harry because it combined for him the ability to watch others and to also involve himself.
It is interesting to note that both Paula and Harry indicated a clear preference for the situation which would allow their desires to peep to be satisfied. When given a choice of the private sex act or the public activity, they immediately chose the group.
It happens that in some other situations, only one individual prefers the group activity, but through force of personality, had been able to gain his or her mate's cooperation.
GENERAL COMMENT:
Obviously, not every couple in the swinging set has the same motivations as Paula and Harry. Who are some of the others, and how do they handle similar situations-particularly when one partner prefers group activity and the other, private sex?
A quick glance at additional case histories supplies some of the answers.
Ted and Marie G. are prominent members of the swinging society in San Francisco. They are a popular couple, and are invited to quite a few parties. Marie says that she much prefers the intimacy of the private meeting, but that Ted gravitates to the sex party.
"I guess I'm what you'd call an incurable romantic," Marie said. "I think that you lose all the romance in a group affair. The little whispered nothings that mean a lot, just aren't there. The group thing is purely and wholly physical. I realize that sex is what we're after, but I hate to sacrifice the little niceties that, at least in my mind, go with it.
"Ted, on the other hand, really gets a kick out of the parties. He loves to watch me with another man, and it arouses him to unbelievable heights.
"Once in a while we go out on a separate room affair, but most of the time I go along with the party idea for Ted's sake. I know I lose a lot of the fun that way, but having Ted so stimulated makes up for it. Our own sex life is fantastic after we have been on a big party.
"Ted gets aroused very easily for a week after the party, and he wants to do the things he saw other men do to me. That seems to make it all up to me."
In the majority of cases where one individual in a marriage prefers the group scene, it is generally the male. There are, however, a number of dominant females who force their husbands into group sex.
Mac M. is a rather shy and somewhat passive person. His wife, Gerry, is aggressive and dominates in the family.
In key with her general personality, Gerry has a very aggressive sexual nature. On their second date together, Gerry and Mac went to a movie. They sat in the back row at Gerry's insistence. During the show, Gerry reached over and unzipped Mac's pants. She took his penis out and excited him by massaging it. Then she put her head in Mac's lap and performed fellatio.
From then on, in the majority of their sex life, Gerry has been the aggressor. She dominates Mac and makes him obey her orders. If he fails to obey, Gerry will manipulate his sex organ until he has an erection, and then slap it hard with a ruler, bringing intense pain to her husband. Mac, of course, has a personality which enjoys this type of domination.
Gerry often ties Mac's hands to the bedpost and then does the same with his feet, leaving him in a spread eagle position on the bed. She then will perform all types of sex acts on him while he is her prisoner.
It was at Gerry's insistence that they entered wife-swapping. Mac is bashful and does not enjoy group sex, but Gerry forces him to participate. Gerry will not go to a separate room meeting. She much prefers the group activity where she is certain to meet people (either male of female) that she can dominate.
This type of personality is a study in itself. Sexual behavior surveys indicate that the majority of dominant females prefer group sex, and it seems quite-likely that this is in part due to a high incidence of voyeurism in this type of personality.
Among the married voyeurs there are a number of older men with young wives. Many of these men are constantly worried about their ability to satisfy their young wives' sex drive.
As these men progress in years, they find that they lean to younger women for sexual satisfaction. Many are trying to regain their youth through association with youth. Others simply find that they cannot become sexually aroused unless they are with a younger woman. Often they marry a young girl, find sexual satisfaction themselves, and then begin to worry about their wives finding the same satisfaction.
Some of these couples find a solution for their problems in the swinging life. Dave and Marlene M. are an excellent example. Dave is fifty-three and Marlene twenty-six. They had been married for two years when Dave began to realize that Marlene was not entirely satisfied with their sex life. When confronted with this, Marlene told Dave that she had realized this might happen even before they were married. She said that it was simply a matter of her becoming mentally adjusted to their life.
"I felt an urge for sex almost every night," she said, "but Dave couldn't perform more than one time a week, at the most. He was worried about me, but I told him that I could handle my problem.
"When I had an urge, I'd wait until Dave was asleep and then I'd go in the living room and use the vibrator on myself. One night Dave caught me doing this and it upset him. It also aroused him, I might add, and we had quite a time on the couch.
"Then Dave started reading about the swinging life. He even sent ten dollars in to some club and joined. They sent him a bulletin. He showed it to me and I got upset. I thought that maybe it was all my fault, and that he wanted some other woman because I had failed to satisfy him.
"He swore that this wasn't the case. He said that he was only doing it for me. There were a number of single men advertising in the little bulletin. They wanted to meet with couples for threesomes. Dave said that we could get a different man up to our apartment all the time, and that I would get plenty of sex and plenty of variety.
"At first, I didn't like the idea, but Dave was insistent. When I agreed, he wrote to a twenty-one-year-old man who had an ad in the bulletin. A few days later the young man called and Dave asked him up to our apartment for an evening.
"This man had met with a lot of couples for threesomes, and he didn't waste much time getting started. The first thing I knew, he had me in his arms and was kissing me. Then, he started undressing me, with Dave watching and encouraging him.
"I'll have to admit that he had me plenty aroused, and I just decided to let myself go. We all got completely undressed and went into the bedroom. He played with me for quite a while, and then he got on top of me and started making love.
"Dave was lying right next to us and I noticed that he was getting a hard-on. I reached out and took his prick in my hand. All the time the other man was fucking me, I was playing with Dave.
"Dave had his climax while I was playing with him, even before the other man did. Later that night, when Dave and I were alone, we made love and we both came again.
"Dave explained that it got him very excited to watch another man screwing me. It had been a great evening as far as I was concerned, and I was more than willing to continue when Dave suggested we do this more often."
It is probable that Dave imagines that he is the other man when he watches him making love to Marlene. By projecting himself, Dave then feels he is completely satisfying his wife. Marlene told us that Dave always answered the ads of young men, usually in their 20s. Perhaps Dave feels that these men are merely studs for the satisfaction of Marlene and that, being young, they will offer him no competition for her love.
There are also a number of older women who have persuaded their husbands to agree to the threesome, so that they could try to regain their youth through the sex act with a younger man. In almost every instance, one or both of the parties who enjoy the threesome activity have strong voyeur desires.
Certainly, any individual in the swinging set who enjoys and leans to group sexual activity is doing so out of a need to satisfy the desire to peeo.
In the case histories discussed, the individuals each had some experience with peeping in the background before they entered the world of sophisticated sex. There are, however, a large group who have never had peeping desires or opportunities and yet, on a first encounter with group sex, find they enjoy watching others engaged in various erotic activities. These individuals often discover that this form of voyeurism is highly stimulating to them.
There are even some cases where the married couple entered wife-swapping almost entirely in order to observe others. Some of them refuse sexual contact with any person except their mate, but yet attend sex parties and make love to each other while they watch the action around them.
All in all, it is safe to say that voyeurism has a definite role in wife-swapping.
X
WHY PEOPLE PEEP
The majority of human beings have a desire to peep. The recent sex researchers have found that a definite majority of both the males and females sampled showed an erotic response to the sight of the genital parts of another person.
When Dr. Kinsey made his studies on the sexual behavior pattern of adults, he reported that the sight of the sex act, or portrayals cf the sex act, caused an erotic response in the viewer.
It is also evident that the level of response is generally higher in the male than in the female. This margin between the male and female, however, seems to be decreasing over the past few decades. When G. V. Hamilton made his survey in 1929, he reported that only seventeen per cent of the females admitted any desire to peep. When Dr. Kinsey published his reports in the late 50's and early 60's, the percentage of females who admitted erotic response from peeping had climbed to thirty-two percent, or almost double in less than three decades.
In other surveys in 1966, this percentage had climbed to fifty-one per cent. These, however, were not a true cross section in that they were prepared from sampling among people who were highly sexually oriented. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the percentage of females who respond sexually to the sight of genital organs or the sight of the sex act is increasing.
Basically, it is known that the human being does respond to the sight of the genital organs and/or the sex act. The real question is, why?
In certain individuals this response is a manifestation of a mental illness-a sexual deviation. For the moment, however, let's think about he who society deems a "normal" person.
The average person can walk into a fine restaurant, see a number of people eating a variety of dishes, yet does not have an immediate digestive action at the sight of food or people in the process of eating. Under normal circumstances, these people will not even feel a craving to eat. In fact, watching someone else eat is not the most pleasant of sights.
Take these same people, however, and force them to abstain from eating, and plant the suggestion that food is delicious, but they will only be allowed to eat under certain circumstances.
Now, let these people walk into the same restaurant and look at the diners. They will have an immediate reaction to what they see. They will crave food, and feel an almost irrepressible urge to eat.
We-in our moral ethics-have treated sex in much this manner. For centuries certain strong elements of society have preached that sex was a sin. In some generations, the very possibility of thinking about sex was an evil thing. It has been said that the sex drive is the work of the devil.
Man has been taught that his essential sex drive is unnatural, and as a result he has hidden his true desires from his fellow man.
One quirk of human nature is that anything that is bad or evil is often desirable. Many generations of human beings have been raised to believe this physical drive, inherent in all of us, is something naughty, something to be sneaked in a dark room away from the eyes of other humans. But, the very fact that it is forbidden made sex all the more desirable.
Not too long ago, people were taught that the sight of the human body naked was a shameful sight. It has been argued that mankind clothed themselves with so many articles of attire out of a desire to make clothing manufacturers wealthy. A look at the history of wearing apparel lends validity to this, but the actual reason man has donned so many clothes is to hide his nudity, which he had come to believe was a shameful sight.
Here, right here, is the secret as to why the human being enjoys peeping. By declaring sex naughty, and by over-dressing the human body, we have made it open season for peeping.
Had man, for instance, decided that sex was a natural function like eating, and had no restrictions been placed on sexual acts, the sight of the act of intercourse would hold little interest for anyone other than those enjoying it.
The nudist camp bears this out. We know that the sight of the genital organs is sexually stimulating to the majority of human beings. Yet when individuals are constantly exposed to this sight, as in a nudist camp, they receive no stimulation and, in fact, lose all interest in looking.
The point here is that, once constantly exposed to the naked body, all interest in seeing it is gone.
The truth of the matter is that man's voyeur desires are man-made. It is only because we have made sex and the sexual anatomy such a secretive thing that we have created the morbid interest in it.
In his book, Voyeurism-A Form of Sexual Behavior, Dr. D. O. Cauldwell argues that voyeurism is a natural part of human sexual conduct. It seems obvious that this argument has a solid foundation. If the majority of people enjoy the sight of sexual objects or acts, and if they receive stimulation from the act of seeing, then the phenomenon must be natural.
We could hardly call peeping abnormal in a society where the emphasis is placed on being sexually provocative. Pick up any current magazine and look at the advertising. The girls used in the ads are dressed in provocative attire, posed in provocative positions, and even the copy is filled with double entendre.
If voyeuristic desires are sick, then our whole society is sick.
In most areas, however, peeping is a crime. This is where we walk the razor's edge between what is normal and what is abnormal. Society considers a Peeping Tom a criminal primarily because he or she invades someone else's privacy. There is certainly validity to this. The right to privacy is one human right which should remain inviolate.
The problem is, where does one cease to be normal in the satisfaction of contemporary voyeur desires, and become a Peeping Tom? The answer lies in two areas: first, is the act a means or an end, and, is the privacy of another being invaded?
Although invasion of privacy is the legal issue, the primary problem for the individual involved is finding a normal sex life and existence. If the act of peeping becomes a fixation and self gratification is the only means of sexual satisfaction, then the individual is not living a healthy existence.
The Peeping Tom is a mentally ill person, and must be considered a sexual deviate. Society would be far better off in seeing that these individuals receive treatment for the illness, rather than sending them to prison.
Is peeping normal? If it's part of the sex act and used as a stimulant, certainly it's normal. The majority have no trouble controlling this instinct, and should have no feelings of guilt or repressions about its practice.
Why do people peep? Most peep because they enjoy it, and because it stimulates them for sexual activity and they enjoy that, too!
