Chapter 2
THE EYE VS THE LAW
The male in western society is much like the kid with his nose pressed to the window of a candy store. Only, instead of yearning and burning for unattainable chewies and chocolates in endless profusion displayed, the western male (especially in the United States) is constantly enticed by the luscious display of femininity which flows around him-labeled: "Do Not Touch Until Married To You."
To greater or lesser degree, the male population is almost entirely voyeurist. It is impossible for males of any age to escape the lure of attractively-, often seductively-clad, females. They surround him on the streets, in the stores and offices; they attract him in the schools, on the television screen they beckon from the pages of magazines and newspapers, as well as the motion picture screen.
Sex surrounds the western male like another gas in the air he breathes. Yet the accepted mode of behavior requires that he overtly at least, suppress the urge. Is it any wonder that, under the allure of the goodies so attractively, so ubiquitously displayed before him, many a stalwart male is "beside himself" with the anxieties induced by a combination of his natural, healthy sexual desire and the continuing frustration of repression?
The source of these proscriptions does not concern us on these pages; the fact that they do exist is common knowledge, undeniably. Be that as it may, the fact they do contribute to an unnatural, internal unrest is evident in the statistics of increasing illegitimacy;-in the ever-widening incidence of indulgence in pre-marital sex activity-in the reports of precocious and increasingly sophisticated practices in sex experimentation within the ranks of younger "young people" ... wherever you look, the signs are posted.
While voyeurism is an everyday experience with males, it is-in many of its facets-far from a simple or routine activity. For many, it is but a casual, transiently-fleeting pleasure. However, for many another, it is a morbid obsession, leading to frustration of the normal, natural sex manifestations. Between these two extremes, there are many degrees of involvement-and numerous variations in cause and effect. The complications of voyeurism are as manifold as those of sex itself. They range from amusing anecdotal material to repeated and serious involvement with the law-with subsequent forfeit of liberty.
A friend of the author's who is widely acquainted in the "swinging society"-the groups of mate-swappers-tells of one such amusing complication which falls into the first category.
"This one, enthusiastic swinger-let's call him Jack-was completely turned on by photographs of the wife of another prominent and popular member of the swinging society. Over a period of months, Jack had built up a massive desire to meet Mary, being-as I said-brought to fever-heat by her photographs, shown to him by friends. At first, he paid little attention to the fact that Mary's husband (whom we'll identify as Mac) shared with the winsome Mary the title of 'King and Queen of Sex,' kiddingly bestowed by their many friends.
"Then, Jack and his own wife, Jean (who, incidentally is one of the real, living sex-symbols), were invited to a party in a large, midwestern city, some distance from their own home town. A group of cross country swingers had put together a party which promised to gather a group of the most outstanding members of the swinging society. Jack and Jean were included, as a matter of course. When Jack informed Jean they'd been invited, she teased him (he was an avid football fan), saying:
" 'Hooray! Here's our first chance to play an intersectional game! Maybe we can win a bowl bid!'"
"Jack, laughingly, admitted he was 'rarin' to go' and Jean-as the girls do-checked with two other swinging wives by long distance to find out their plans for the group sex part of the affair. The girls always plotted the most exotic and stimulating attire they could dream up to assist in getting the males steamed up.
"You know, it used to be, that men were the ones who were accused of being blabber-mouths where sex experiences were concerned. The expression 'kiss and tell' was a popular cliche in former days. However, in the swinging society, the girls have gotten even. They compare notes ... down to dimensions, techniques, freckles and birthmarks. Of course, they don't confine their comments to the males-the girls and their idiosyncrasies come in for a good share of attention, too.
"Well-in her phone conversations with the other two wives who were going to the party, Jean learned that one of them had told Mary about Jack's interest from having seen her pictures; had sent Mary a picture of him and given him quite a build-up as to his appearance and his abilities. As a result, Mary was intrigued and expressed her interest in meeting Jack.
"Now, if this seems strange, it shouldn't. There's one thing about the swinging society you can't overlook. Its members refuse to have any part of the old-fashioned, 'hush-hush' attitude about sex. Once you get into swinging, your name really gets around ... but only inside the swinging set. Swingers do not discuss their participation with non-swingers, and it's obvious why they don't-but among the members, there's truly a frank and free exchange of thoughts, ideas and information. Not only about sex, but about the people of the swinging set. It's the same, old bit in one respect ... people are the most interesting subject in the world to other people...
"It was with a great deal of anticipation that the party gathered at a large hotel for a pre-dinner cocktail party which started things rolling. Another interesting fact about the swinging set is that, very rarely, are even large groups anything but completely congenial. Swingers are a tightly-knit group. Having to exercise the tremendous amount of discretion they do regarding their swinging activity, they tend to be closer in their ties with each other and-in many instances-swingers have found their activity in the swinging society has been far more help in business or career advancement than any other group, association or club they belong to. It also costs a lot more!
"Needless to say, Jack and Mary lost no time in finding each other at the cocktail party, and they-as well as Jean and Mac-got acquainted with each other in the process of mingling. Every once in a while, Jack would hear Mac and Mary introduced as The King and Queen of Sex. It was a running gag. The title had been awarded, largely, through Mac's writings on the subject but, through cocktails, dinner and the resumption of party activity afterward, the words built up an increasing significance in the back of Jack's mind.
"The girls (when the party gathered in connecting suites for sex), began to emerge in all sorts of sexy attire. One of the greatest favorites was the diaphanous 'baby dolls'-nearly all the girls used them for a base, and went on from there. Some wore opera-length, black sheer or mesh hose; some sported provocative, ruffled panties; there were also transparent (or almost transparent) bras, half-bras which displayed nipples as well as bras through which the nipples protruded, bare.
"As the action began to get underway, the laughter and the delighted, excited cries and exclamations began to multiply. The erotic stimulation spread, as it always does, and the men began to shed their garments in excited response to the sight of such an extensive display of libidinous goodies. Soon, everywhere you looked, there was sex activity going on.
"On the end of one sofa, a girl was urging her male partner out of his clothes. It was the first group party of this size he and his wife had ever attended ... and she'd produced a pair of scarlet nylon jockey shorts for him, as a gag. Anyhow, he was overcome by the surrounding spectacle and couldn't manage an erection! Once down to his red panties (which drew comments of delight from the swingers around him) he began to relax and feel more at home. His partner, sensing his problem, began to stimulate him, orally, and under this encouragement, he was soon erect and ready.
"Two gals began working on another male at the other end of the long sofa and soon had him snowed under, struggling but happy. One of them drifted away when the male and the other gal moved into a sexual embrace in the good, old-fashioned way. The third of the trio was swept toward a bedroom by a passing suitor before she got across the living room. A lone male, stopping to watch the two engaged in coitus, suggested that the gal try oral sex on him while her partner concentrated on her bosoms. She agreed.
"Mary came into the living room of the suite, looking for Jack and we welcomed her eagerly. They sank into a vacant easy chair and began to stimulate each other happily with kisses and caresses. Mary was 'elevated' from the drinks (the very small amount of dinner she'd eaten) and Jack fell in with her jubilant mood. As the scene across from them on the sofa became more vigorous, they looked over to watch and comment, their excitement continuing to rise. As the lover who'd discarded his scarlet jockey shorts began to return the oral stimulation favor of his partner, Mary, laughingly, commented:
" 'Otis is really swinging. His wife was worried because he was shy about being in a group.' "
" 'She needn't have,' Jack returned, watching the writhing of Otis' partner under the skillful oral caresses. 'He's really with it, judging from Lillian's reactions!'"
"At this moment, the trio on the other end of the sofa reached climax and Jack and Mary diverted their attention to them.
" 'Wow!' Jack panted, 'now there's a trio in orbit if I ever saw one' "
' You're so right!' gasped Mary, twisting in Jack's embrace. 'Ooh, lover, I've been looking forward to you for a long time!' "
"At this point, a laughing Mac trotted into the living room, not ranning fast enough to outdistance two laughing females. They persuaded him to the floor-there was no other place for them in the busy room-and it wasn't long before the two of them had stripped Mac, kidding him about his title and enthusiastically working on him. They soon had him nude and, working in tandem as he squirmed on the floor, the two set to work to kiss him over every part of his body.
"Jack had reached the boiling point and he and Mary were just about to stretch on the floor for the climax to all their heated foreplay. Jack was oblivious to everything but the entrancing woman in his arms and was just positioning himself between Mary's eager thighs when another couple breezed into the living room and spotted Mac in the grip of the two girls; Mary in Jack's fevered embrace.
"The King and Queen of Sex!" they caroled, happily, sinking down on the carpet to urge the two groups on with alcoholic fervor. The words drew Jack's attention to Mac. One moment, he was erect, passionately ready to make love to Mary; turning to focus on Mac he suddenly became flaccid and totally incapable. Mary got onto her knees, wondering what had happened and tried oral stimulation but the sight and sound of Mac, a few feet away from him, had suddenly scuttled Jack.
"He told me, afterward, the minute he heard the words, he looked over to become totally conscious of Mac in the arms of the two girls-and everything quit for him. The party was a total loss insofar as sex was concerned. Apologizing to a puzzled Mary, he proceeded to forego the sexual delights he had anticipated and just proceeded to get smashed. There was nothing else he could do ... the sight of Mac and the silly damn 'title' his fellow swingers had hung on him and his wife, really blew up Jack's chances for fun on the party."
Here is an incident in which the eye constructed an excited anticipation, then destroyed it in a flash. Ironically enough, Jack and his lovely wife are known as artists at sex-and have to take a back seat to none in swinging. This incident is a definite validation of the truism concerning the power of mind over matter....
"I didn't mean any harm," a neatly dressed young man blurted to Beverly Hills police. Obviously shaken, disoriented at being arrested on a peeping Tom charge, his plight seemed totally at variance with his tasteful dress and intelligence. At a glance, one would think him capable of finding all the feminine companionship he desired. He was a nice-looking young man-not outstanding, but clean-cut and obviously the product of a better-than-average environment. Yet, here he was, in the hands of the law, charged with peeping.
"I-I was just leaving the building where I live-I went out the back door to the parking stalls," he explained. "I caught just a flash of this naked girl through the narrow gap at the bottom of her window. At first, I could only guess it was a naked girl-I-well I couldn't see that much-but I had a feeling, somehow, that was what it was. Anyway, I crept around into the alley and through the back gate of the building next door. When I got up close enough to the window, I didn't have any trouble seeing into her bedroom..."
The perspiring young man fell' silent. "What was she doing?" a detective asked, without inflection. The young man looked up.
"Well-she was putting on her clothes," he said, huskily. "She didn't have anything on; then she got into her panties and began to pull on her stockings." The young man shivered at the recollection. "I don't know why-watching her do that..."
"Is that when you took out your penis and began to play with it?" the detective queried, bluntly. The other nodded, miserably.
"I-it-I don't know," he mumbled, "it just set me off. I-I couldn't help myself, I guess..." With no previous offenses, the young man's case received no publicity; he was remanded to the custody of his parents (one a step-parent) with whom he lived.
Another, rarer instance of voyeurism was confessed to by an offender who had a record of previous violations and drew a jail term and enforced psychiatric treatment.
"I get a wallop out of watchin' a couple goin' at it," he said, casually. "Man, it really fires my furnace. Sure-I was peepin'. The cops nailed me with my penis in my hand. But this young married couple rent the garage apartment out back of the boardin' house where I lived. The trees were so thick they figured nobody could see 'em so they never bothered to pull down the shades in their bedroom. They went at it like minks-never seemed to get tired. I spotted 'em one night comin' in the driveway and, when they turned on the light in the bedroom, I could see a little of the action as the leaves moved. I got out my field glasses and got a little better shot at 'em but still not good enough to do me any good. But every night I was home, there was this action in the bedroom.
"The next weekend I went out in the back yard and pretended to be enjoyin' the sun, sittin' in one of the chairs on the grass-but I was checkin' the trees. The one closest to the window'd be a tough one to climb, but not too tough....
"That night-Saturday-I hung around 'til they got home, both of 'em a little high, I figured from their chatter as they went up the driveway. I slipped out by the basement door when they turned on the bedroom light and got up that tree to where I could see in. Man, they were a caution! When I eased myself onto a couple of limbs big enough to hold me, they were gettin' out of their clothes and hangin' 'em up. When the boy pulled off his skivvies, his penis was a'ready half-erect as she stripped outa her panties an' fluffed her muff at him.
"He reached for her, but she slipped around and disappeared with him right after her. Wasn't long before they came back with drinks in their hands; sat down on the bed an' started playin' with each other. He was workin' her breasts over an' she was goin' ape; got hold of his erection an' pumped on it 'til he was really doin' the twist. They wasn't big-the husband couldn't-a been over five-seven or-eight, an' she was about five-five-but they both had lots of equipment. Her breasts were as tight as big grapefruit an' her ol' man looked like a horse.
"When they went at it, she rolled back on the bed like a cat and he slipped a raincoat on his erection an' penetrated her. She locked him up in her arms and legs and they started rockin'. Man! you know he wore out two rubbers before they got their climax? They'd go awhile an' rest awhile an' then they'd go some more. They didn't make a sound but they sure put out the action! I finally had to get down outa the damn tree, but they was still goin' at it. I had orgasm twice while I was watchin' 'em go for the first session..."
Here are three widely varying voyeuristic experiences. The first, no more than an accident of the eye and imagination of a member of the sexually sophisticated set; the second an entrapment by a situation and a compulsion its victim hardly understood; and the third, the accepted practice by a seasoned peeping Tom.
In none of these incidents was there any threat, offer nor yet, danger of violence to the object of sexual stimulation by the voyeur. Actually, the only illegality involved was in the incidents which involved invasion of privacy. In the final instance, although the individual concerned was "put away" on a sex charge, his only crime was that he violated the right to privacy of the highly-sexed young couple whose lovemaking so excited him. Incidentally, he was trapped by an old maid, walking her dog in the alley behind the garage, who spotted his face in the light from the bedroom window into which he was looking.
Privacy is a valuable thing to every normal human. There are times when even the most ardent of lovers, the closest of friends, the most unified of families ... all need privacy from each other. It is a difficult thing to describe-the need for privacy-but it exists to a greater or lesser degree in each of us. The voyeur's only crime-in the majority of instance-is the fracture of this right to privacy. This is a peculiar situation ... but our western customs are full of such "peculiar situations" where the law is contrasted with mores ... the basic violation being classified under another name.
Were there any intent, effort or move to harm or give violence to another in an act of voyeurism, it is understandable that the offender should be charged with a crime of sex. But we are indeed involved with another of the countless anomalies of the existing moral code when an individual may be charged with a crime of sex when his real offense is an invasion of privacy! In this instance, it is the activity of the object of voyeurism, rather than the subject which determines the crime!
J. P. Davis, in his book "Love Against the Law" says (p. 11):
"It has been estimated that, if the laws pertaining to sex were strictly enforced, the country would see 95% of its citizens behind bars. That's right95% of us are sex criminals!"
Mr. Davis, at this point in his book, was talking about the cultural lag-the gap between what is being done and what the law allows or forbids. He goes on to say:
"Laws ... are not passed with an eye to the future, but with the purpose of correcting an immediate problem, or resolving past inequities."
"Unfortunately, though times and conditions change sometimes with great rapidity-and though we learn more about human nature and human behavior, thus being able to correct the misconceptions under which our forefathers acted, the laws which they made are, in many instances, still in force.
" ... while the public's privately-held ideas on sexual conduct have changed to a startling degree in the past decade, the publicly-professed ideas haven't changed that much.
"And, since laws tend to be more conservative than the average citizen's professed ideas, the laws have barely changed at all."
This author further says (Ibid. p. 143-144):
"There are those who maintain ... that anyone who can't have a satisfactory sexual relationship within the proscriptions of legality must be other than normal."
"But ... we can state that the American sex life hasn't changed notably in this century!
"This was one of the more important-and generally ignored-findings of Dr. Kinsey and his associates. When they divided their subjects into groups on the basis of ages, they found no discernible differences in the sex practices of the different generations. Which is to say that, while 1966's citizen may more freely discuss his sex activity than would his opposite number in 1946 or 1906-he isn't doing anything now which wasn't being done then!"
Thus, we have the populace of western societies paying "Lip service" to artificial moral codes-while behind closed doors, they proceed in an entirely different direction in what they do. Is not this the personification of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?"
When the great mass of the population allows such contradictions to dominate the individual's personal life, we can only expect that those we elevate to the leadership of the people will be guided by this same sort of mental conditioning. The by-products of such an unnatural social environment are to be found, especially in our own nation, in the confusions over domestic issues and the-controversy over our foreign affairs image and conduct which lead many nations to laugh at us.
If, you think, this be sensational exaggeration, think a moment on what has gone before. You may never have heard the expression: "vote dry-drink wet." Yet this two-faced division of thought and act was a widespread subject of conversation during Prohibition when it was moral to support the "Great Experiment" publicly-but to conceal one's drinking. Almost any adult, over fifty-five today, can recall the gossip concerning the pillar of the community who was indefatigable in supporting prohibition-the shocked or ribald accounts of those who'd seen him howling drunk at a convention in some distant city-or smashed out of his mind with a sexy broad on a "business trip."
It indicates the width of the individual split over those overtly-professed attitudes, contrasted with the private, secretly-held convictions. Such Janus-like behavior characterizes our civilization, lending weight to the broad existence of the split in the mass personality.'
Where sex is concerned, the schism extends almost universally through our society, and its penetration is far, far deeper. Leland Gardner, in his book "The Secret Sex" indicates that one reason for this penetration and breadth of such double-faced crippling is its induction in children.
"The idiocy," Gardner writes, "of assuming that a child with an intelligence quotient ranging from medium to magnificent can gulp in great quantities of academic learning without being equally hungry for knowledge of the nature and exploitation of private, basic urges is ridiculous. From big breasted movie queens to furniture with legs like phallic symbols, the adult world mentally masturbates itself into a state of sexual frustration. These same adults do lip-service to the promise that their own developed desire can not possibly have companion origins in their children because they are children.
"How sex first comes to children is unknown as a general rule because sex is a secret thing. No child will spontaneously confess to masturbation, miscellaneous experimentation with the sex organ or anus, and never a plurally attended adventure in peeking, probing and pulling unless great fear is instilled in them. Any child who confesses voluntarily is actually deceiving a parent because the child is secretly contemplating great sexual excitement in the punishment or the understanding such confession will produce. Child or adult, the moment of confession is a pure expression of masochistic sex because the human is by nature an animal that must be taught to make noise in coherent fashion.
"Brought into a world admittedly confusing to a child, they take flight in the single personal refuge they have between their legs. The louder the outcry from short-memoried parents, the deeper children bury their fingering and rubbing. The conflict between what they do and what they are supposed to do remains with them for the rest of their lives. (Author's italics)
"Right after ... idealists outline the proper age and place and circumstance for spending the one percent of human attention they allot for sex, they knock their hypocritical heads up against the fact that, age, place and circumstance be hanged, sex feels good."
Thus, the secrecy into which sex is forced by our behavioral concepts is responsible for a considerable portion of the schizophrenic weight which burdens much of our population-a burden assumed by most, early in childhood. The code of acceptable behavior in our society cannot allow the early and permissive sexual experimentation between children which exists in many primitive societies. So, many adverse pressures are brought to bear on early manifestations of this most natural impulse. Once a child experiences the incredibly attractive sensations of sexual sensation, resistance is not natural. The urge and its satisfaction go underground and become secret. On the face of it, it would seem that this is the natural pattern, so often is it repeated but authorities widely admit that the sex urge is more natural than the effort to suppress it, by far.
Unfortunately, the products of this pattern of secret participation and surface innocence become a behavioral pattern. Established in childhood, it is strengthened and enlarged by practical demonstrations that, in relationships and considerations other than sex, it is not good practice to "tell everybody your business." An individual soon finds himself at a disadvantage in dealing with others by so doing.
But, the roving eye reveals little to the outsider. It contributes amazingly to its owner and its influence is as widely varied as the colors of the rainbow. Unfortunately, for some, the voyeuristic bent and the universal human practice of sexual secrecy, can result in the inability to attain sexual satisfaction except by watching others in the act.
Mark S. discovered sex, accidentally, at about the age of five. Mark's sister, Alice (about five years his senior) and Mark enjoyed the normal, combative relations of siblings; their ways divergent in activities and associates. Alice was precocious in sex; from about age fourteen, the front porch swing was her arena for sexual exploration with a long succession of boys. Mark, contemptuously relegated to limbo as a "brat," was not deterred by her attitude; enjoying his role. One of his secret pleasures was spying on Alice.
"She was a 'hot number' all right," Mark recalled. "Every night that wasn't a 'school night,' some boy had a date with her. She didn't disappoint many. She masturbated more guys in that front porch swing than I can remember. Mom and Dad were pretty easy with Alice, except she couldn't have dates on school nights and she couldn't go out on dates until she was sixteen. I don't know (thinking back on it) what my folks figured was going on in that swing, but they seemed to feel they should show they trusted my sis."
"I used to hide at the end of the porch where heavy vines and bushes made a perfect spy spot ... The street light on the next corner filtered through the vines enough to let me see. And, I saw plenty. At first, Alice seemed to be content with kissing and feeling. I remember some boy always had his hands under her dress. It wasn't long before she was unzipping trousers and manipulating the erections of her dates. Meanwhile, I let no opportunity pass to take care of my own excitement at the antics which went on the swing.
"By the time Mary was sixteen and was allowed to go out on dates, this broke up my play house. As nearly as I can remember, she had masturbated fourteen different boys; had performed oral sex on six of them and had the favor returned by three. The first time she performed fellatio, she was dating a boy a little older than her usual run and he wouldn't hold still for her playing with him until he had an orgasm. He worked her panties off and was just about to penetrate her when she kicked loose and threatened to go in the house if he kept on. After a long, whispered conference, Alice leaned down and began to use her mouth....
"Well-I watched Mary and her boy friends for about two years, taking care of myself in the process. Now, I can't get my kicks with a girl. I've tried, but I can't get an erection. I have to be able to watch someone else in a sex act before I can go into orbit."
Mark is a confirmed Peeping Tom; a voyeuristic victim of his early sex experience. Doubtless, had not this early opportunity to spy on his sister been available, he'd not have arrived at the completely warped condition of his sexual reflexes in which he lives. He is constantly in danger of apprehension by police; already has a record of arrests for peeping, but the compulsion is too strong for him to resist. Psychiatric treatment has not helped and Mark will, probably, end up in prison.
While such voyeuristically-induced impotence seems rare, it is a shame-a tragedy, really-that such crippling should ever occur. But, because of accepted customs which insist that sex and most of the considerations surrounding it be kept in secret, such aberrations do occur. Quite often there are outcrops of deviations from the sexual norm which can be traced to accidents or entirely casual events in childhood. "As the twig is bent, so inclines the tree" is very applicable in such cases.
While many of the factors which encourage voyeurism are evidence of a seeming upsurge of resistance to publicly accepted custom, our behavioral codes have existed for so long that they have become instinctive-a conditioning that goes too deeply to allow them to be thrown off without tremendous mental difficulty and emotional conflict. So, this manifest resistance is, in itself, a subject for mass concern in the "publicly professed" adherence to ancient codes-and another thorn in the epidermis of our serenity.
Riley M., an undergraduate-a sophomore-at a midwestern university indicates how, in some cases, voyeurism may contribute to difficulties other than with the law. It was Riley's first time to be away from home-he'd spent the freshman year in a junior college in his home town. Deciding that he would like to go into business with his father (a graduate Electrical Engineer), he entered a state university to seek the same degree.
"It was stepped-up confusion to me, landing at State, getting myself settled and trying to get into the swing of things. I'd made good grades at junior college but, at first, it seemed to me as though I'd never get squared away. My classes were spread out over the campus so a school day seemed like a twenty-mile hike and I used to get back to my room at supper time too beat to eat.
"I hadn't been able to get into a dorm on campus, but I was lucky enough to find a room in a good boarding-house, just a block away. My room was at the back of the house, looking out toward the ailey which ran between my street and the street bordering the campus. There were several sorority houses in the block (on the street facing the campus) and one evening I discovered that I could see into the windows of one of them fairly easily, if the Venetian blinds were slanted the right way.
"Right away, I'd find myself getting up from the desk, when I was studying, to cautiously peek out to see what I could see. I used a student lamp which didn't diffuse much light; it was mostly concentrated on the desk so my room was pretty dimly lit when I was working. I spotted a red-haired girl in the shower one evening. There were no Venetian blinds in the bath, but the window was open at top and bottom and I could see the top part of her, clearly, when she got out of the shower stall and dried off. Inside the stall, I couldn't see anything but the blurred outline of her figure.
"Now and then, I'd get a look at another girl dressing or undressing and I nearly always got an erection. Now and then, the display was good enough so that I relieved myself in the manner common to guys my age. In order to escape detection, I'd prop a shirt cardboard up against the desk lamp, the shadow of it blacking out the window and I could look without fear of detection if I didn't stick my head out too far. Didn't have to, really.
"Soon after I saw the red-haired girl in the shower, I spotted a blonde bathing one night, deducing they must be room-mates if they used the same shower. For a month or so, this was all my looking amounted to: an occasional look at a naked girl in the bathroom or a girl taking off or putting on her clothes. I used to watch most on Friday and Saturday nights, because the gals really got gussied up for dates and they'd parade around in panties, hose, with or without bras-pretty good show.
"Then, one night, while the red-head was showering, the blonde girl appeared in the bathroom and got into the shower with the other. This really started my motor racing-their actions seen through the translucent shower glass indicated there was something going on besides just soaping and rinsing. To make a long story short, they re-appeared in the bedroom in robes; the red-haired girl coming over to sit on the bed beside the blonde. The angle of the blinds made it impossible for me to see everything, but enough to get the idea. They began to make love, turning off the bedroom lamps and I could dimly see them in the light reflected from the bathroom. The next thing that happened, the blonde girl opened her robe and lay back on the bed, the red-head opening hers, to lie on top of the other girl. Man! this really set me off!
"I'd heard about girls 'doing' each other-and I remembered I had had some mutual masturbation experiences when I was about nine years old with a boy friend of mine, but watching them was something else again. Of course, I relieved myself at the spectacle of the two bodies writhing and twisting under the red-head's robe. It slipped off to one side, finally, so I could see the motions of the red-haired girl's buttocks. Evidently, she knew what it was all about-and the blonde was getting the message! By the time the wriggling and tossing and jerking stopped, I was limp and pooped.
"This was only the beginning. I saw them maybe seven or eight times after that, but at widely-spaced intervals. The blinds were sometimes tight-shut so I couldn't see that particular pair. But the display of other gals, between times, found me spending more and more time looking for a show.
"The result was that my studies suffered to the point where I was put on probation and got a stiff lecture from the Dean of Men. I was ashamed to take my grades home at Christmas-but I had to do it. When Dad saw them, he demanded to know why-and I figured the best thing to do was to tell him the story. We'd always been close and, if I was going into business with him, I couldn't start holding out on him at this point. So, sweating like a condemned criminal, I told him the whole thing....
" 'It's my fault, Dad,' I concluded lamely. 'There's nobody to blame it on but me..."' To my surprise, he broke into roars of laughter, and pounded me one on the shoulder.
" 'like father, like son!' he laughed, tears running down his cheeks from the violence of his glee. 'Only to me, it happened my freshman year and I lived next-door to a girl who must have been an independent prostitute!'"
" 'Now, what do I do?' I asked."
" 'Find another place to room and find yourself a girl-friend and be careful you don't become a father. I know it's a big order, but you have to be practical. And you're going to have to make up these grades, man. As I remember, they're as bad as mine were when I had the same experience. And look-don't worry about it-I'll handle it with your mother, when the question comes up . . "
"I was pretty lucky, I guess, but I followed my Dad's advice about moving. Then, I got a part-time job doing radio repairs with a shop in town and began to make some extra money and could take a girl out, now and then, and I finally found one to occupy my attention. Anyhow, I didn't graduate cum lauda, but my grades were okay from then on. I had to finish out the year in that boarding house, but I kept my own shades pulled down and only peeked now and then. Next year, I got into a dormitory and there weren't any such distractions. Just a bunch of guys-but, by that time, I'd located some female companionship ... "
Depending on the circumstances, there are many attractions for the male eye. In this instance, the young man involved came off lucky, all things considered. Fortunate for him, his relationship with his father-and the attitude of his male parent-were such that they approached the situation as a problem for solution and not a subject for ethical or moral censure. Riley, too, was fortunate that his exposure to voyeurism did not lead him into aberration, as happened to Mark S.
The sex drive is so powerful, in most human males, that the danger is constant; that some mischance may produce the eventual substitution of voyeuristic manifestation for the normal manifestation of the sex act. But, too, noted psychologists have pointed out that we humans are by no means all alike. There is the question of the relative strength of mental fabric between individual models, so to speak. Thus, similar circumstances are capable of producing totally dissimilar consequences, from individual to individual. The increasing appeal to the male eye; the incidence of opportunities to peek during the formative years will leave some unmarked, others badly scarred. It is a thing of chance.
C'est la vie, cherchez la femme ... but if you're looking in windows ... look out for the law.