We're almost conditioned to ignore indecent exposure

[RadioactiveWear]

Libby Squires's mum talks out about indecent exposure. This is an interesting article. In the past, I have been flashed etc. and I don't remember reporting it.

These incidents need reporting now, as clearly the behaviour escalates and the police need to be put on the spot to investigate. They could have stopped both this and Sarah Everard's murder if they had pulled these 2 men in on their behaviour and dealt with them in the first place.

This

I also wonder what is the precursor to flashing? Is it the person who; winks, cat calls, comments on your physical appearance, tells smutty stories/jokes, makes inappropriate address (hun, darling, babe, sugar, sweetheart...).

Who are these flashers when they are not flashing? They exist alongside us everyday. I have never been flashed (yet) but have come across many of the behaviours listed above (at work and out in the community).

That may be so, but nothing in your legislation link suggests there is such a split.

The section on voyeurism is clearly intended to cover cases where someone deliberately engages in such behaviour and not on anyone who unwittingly stumbles upon it. According to the Act, the male neighbour who records the female neighbour commits an offense, and the male neighbour who is observing it for the purposes of sexual gratification commits an offense. If the woman is sunbathing naked and the neighbour is wanking off to her, that's an offense. If she's sunbathing naked and he makes a complaint about it or does nothing, there's no offense committed by him.

But who defines if he has 'unwittingly stumbled across it'?

And he doesn't have to record anything - merely looking commits the offence.

If he is looking from a window for example, how are you going to prove that he is doing so for sexual gain?

If another neighbor reports it to police - that the bloke over the back is looking and the woman sunbathing naked (so sunbathing woman is unaware) he still would be suspected of the offence

Me and two of my friends were flashed at as kids. They wanted to call childline and I laughed it off. We knew the guy vaguely and he did apologise a couple of days later but thinking about it now we probably should have reported it. I didn't even tell my mum and dad.

I was flashed by a very dirty looking man in an overcoat in the entrance to a tube station. It was a classic flasher look, almost like it was on tv. Didn't even think of reporting it to be honest. Was 20 years ago and I think I just shrugged and kept walking! Now I would be reporting it for sure. Times change.

When I was flashed at in the street and reported it to the police they were sympathetic but treated me as a victim rather than a witness - sent me leaflets about how to avoid becoming a victim of crime by planting prickly shrubs around my property, never took any more details. 🙄

I would still report. Even if 9 times out of 10 nothing happens there might still be that one time when there happens to be a car nearby and he gets caught. Or failing that, at least it will be added to the statistics to help prove there is a problem.

As a child I used to play with my friend in local woods or park. I reckon by the time I was 11 I'd seen at least a dozen cocks (autocorrect just changed dozen to risen 🤣). We never reported or even told anyone, as back then, 1960s, it was never mentioned.
Only once did one of these nasty little perverts try to take it further. Although my friend and I didn't understand what he was doing we instinctively knew it wasn't right and managed to get away.
I suppose it was lucky she and I were always together or I dread to think what might have happened.
I hope that little girls now are told what to expect from some male creatures, and that they can report it and be taken seriously.

I'm interested to see how the pathetic Kyle Walker is dealt with. I see the DM has reported his offence but possibly started on his defence too - he appeared drunk, etc. I'd like to think that justice in the UK is not skewed by fame and money, but I won't be holding my breath. Gives all the rest a carte blanche of he does get away with it, however.

I was flashed at he literally dropped his jeans in front of me, he was only aged about 16 or 17 as well, this was in a quiet residential area, mainly bungalows with older residents, I phoned the police and the woman I spoke to couldn’t have been more dismissive, she said what do you expect us to do about it? I replied that I expected an officer to come and look for him and she said no point as he would be long gone by now, I was furious. Walking my dog in the local park I saw him again and he flashed again, I was so pissed off as I knew the police would do nothing. A few weeks later it was in the local paper that a local flasher had been charged with attempted sexual assault, so it did escalate, I have no faith in the police at all.

Yeah I was first flashed at when I would have been no older than 11 and my sister 2 years younger. We were walking to the swimming baths.

Now we're expected to accept that there will be women with penises getting them out in our changing rooms and there's not a damn thing we can do to complain about it. It's disgraceful that those in power can't see how open to abuse it is.

Nicola Sturgeon told us our fears were not valid...

I was flashed recently at a nature reserve. I reported it and when i later chased it up they said they had dismissed it because I had used 'young' and 'good looking' as descriptors (so they could find him) and this clearly meant I wasn't intimidated so there was no offence. That particular incident I wasn't particularly intimidated but that doesn't mean it wasn't a crime, doesn't mean someone else wouldn't have been scared and doesn't mean he wasn't doing as a test run for worse things. I said all this but too late, my report was dismissed.

That this behaviour escalates in not a new idea - it's been known for yonks now, I don't know how they can be so short sighted. I can understand not following up on it due to resources/timings etc. but to ignore it because i didn't seem scared enough is disgraceful.

That article is completely ludicrous!!! Wtf?!!

Personally I don't find this the same thing. I can see why women do not want to see a willy out walking but being naked is not the same as flashing for sexual gratification.

How you tell the bloody difference is the problem!

I think 'not understanding' how women feel about it is shitty behaviour though.

This is true enough. The last time it happened to me was in a busy bookshop slap bang in the centre of town. Both times I've been flashed I have instinctually burst out laughing because I find the situation comically absurd rather than threatening. It doesn't perturb me in the slightest so it never occurred to me to actually do anything about it, but I suspect that if the same thing happened to me now I'd at least make mention of it to the shop staff so they can report it. Possibly a generational element to this as well. I was brought up in the era of Benny Hill-type stuff on tv, Carry On films, On the Buses etc where even family shows were a stream of innuendo and smut, so I think I've been programmed to see this sort of thing comedic rather than worrying.

Well, I always think women are more on the passive end of sex , as a receiver (due to the mechanism of how sex work and the strength and everything). So if in a fantasy world where we are in a reversed position for organ composition (women owned penis whilst men had vagina), our male counterparts probably could easier relate to our feelings in this real world?

Men hardly feel violated by women seeing their private parts, but most women do feel so in opposite position.

The education of young children about respect in a sexual context is really important. Unfortunately, lots don't do.

Every girl in my girls’ school some decades ago probably experienced The Flasher. As far as I recall, if someone yelled ‘Flasher in the woods!’, we used to flock to the (nice high) wire fence between us and the woodland, and cackle unkindly. Probably not the best move in retrospect.

The link you offer does not support your assertion. And of course you have and of course you can't.

It's never happened to me or anyone I know of

The author is a male. No way for him to understand women's perspective. Ignorantly arrogant.

This is EXACTLY why children are being taught that women can have a penis. To break down boundaries. Easier access to kids for the pervs then.

When I contacted the police maybe 5 or 6 years ago now, about a man flashing and wanking in the park, like others posting have experienced the police gave zero fucks.
There is such a culture of minimising men doing these type of things as not a big deal/a laugh etc it's fucked up, if you can't abide by the very simple act of keeping your penis in your pants in public maybe go live in a bin, on a deserted island, very far from the rest of us.

You wanted chapter and verse - well that's a link to the law regarding it.

And I am giving you my experiences of this - just as everyone else is on here. I didn't realise we all had to prove our experiences to you before you accept them.

As I said-that's not what your link says. Perhaps you linked to the wrong thing?

As part of an old job I used to have to read through offenders' past offences. Including rapists. I don't think I ever say a rapist's sheet that didn't have some kind of flashing incident on it.

Thing is, police officers read those too. They must be aware that a man flashing is likely to escalate and likely end up sexually assaulting someone in future.

The 'garden nakedness' is a false equivalence. The woman is unlikely to be doing it as a sexual thrill, likely to escalate to sexual assault. The man may well be. It's the nature of male sexual offending, something that affects almost every woman and a lot of children.

This is EXACTLY why children are being taught that women can have a penis. To break down boundaries. Easier access to kids for the pervs then

Also exactly why there's such push for the right to life altering medication at a young age. If you can consent to zero sexual function and infertility then how do you argue that they cant also consent to sex with these boundary breaking pervs.

Even the word " flashing " is minimising whats going on. Its a word used often in comical context. Kids laugh about it. Adults jokingly apologise for momentarily " flashing " whilst changing in whats usually an appropriate set up for said changing.

Everything is given some cutsie minimising name which surely de sensitises us and reduces the apparent seriousness of the situation.

We need to start calling these things what they really are

A sexual offense.

Involving non consenting adults and children is sexual fetishism.

A precursor to violence, rape and physical sexual assaults.

Would also help if this bollocks about being the right kind of victim would do one too.

I dont care what someone's done. How nice they are or arent. If someone does this to you then its wrong. And being a drug addict or alcoholic or first class arsehole shouldn't mean the perpetrators get away with it.