The Encyclopedia Of Smut: E Is For Exhibitionism

The way we see it, clothing only exists to be taken off. Does that make us exhibitionists? We don't think so, but honestly, we don't understand exhibitionism all that well. That's why today's entry in the Encyclopedia of Smut is all about keeping our eyes on the naughty, fleshy, goosebump-laden prize!

Terminology: "Exhibition" is a straightforward Latin word that pretty much breaks down to "out" + "holding." You are holding your body out for everyone to see. How cool of you!

Of course, Wikipedia has a bunch of precise terms that are freaking fascinating:

· Anasyrma: the lifting of the skirt when not wearing underwear, to expose genitals.
· Flashing: chiefly the momentary display of bare female breasts by a woman with an up-and-down lifting of the shirt and/or bra. It can also involve the exposure of a man's or woman's genitalia.
· Martymachlia: a paraphilia which involves sexual attraction to having others watch the execution of a sexual act.
· Mooning: the display of bare buttocks by pulling down of trousers and underwear. There tends to be a gendered double standard here: with males, the act is most often done for the sake of humor, disparagement, and/or mockery than for sexual excitement, whereas with females, the reverse tends to be true, and sexual arousal (or at least sexual attention) of those mooned is the intent.
· Streaking: the act of running nude through a public place.
· Candaulism: when a person exposes his/her partner in a sexually explicit manner.
· Reflectoporn: the act of stripping and taking a photograph using an object with a reflective surface as a mirror, then posting the image on the Internet in a public forum. Examples include images of naked men and women reflected in kettles, TVs, toasters and even knives and forks. The instance generally credited with starting the trend involved a man selling a kettle on an Australian auction site featuring a photograph where his naked body is clearly visible; other instances followed, and the specific term "reflectoporn" was coined by Chris Stevens of Internet Magazine.
· Telephone scatologia [saying nasty and usually unwanted things to someone over the phone]: Some researchers have claimed that this is a variant of exhibitionism, even though it has no in-person physical connotations.

Oh, Wikipedia. You always make us overthink these words! We love you.

[Above: Savannah Stern just happened to show up at this college in time to get involved in "Frat House Fuckfest 6" via AEBN Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

History: Showing off your goods is timeless, really. Wikipedia cites this example of ancient Greek exhibitionism as recorded in "The Histories" by Herodotus:

When people travel to Bubastis for the festival, this is what they do. Every baris carrying them there overflows with people, a huge crowd of them, men and women together. Some of the women have clappers, while some of the men have pipes which they play throughout the voyage. The rest of the men and women sing and clap their hands. When in the course of their journey they reach a community - not the city of their destination, but somewhere else - they steer the bareis close to the bank. Some of the women carry on doing what I have already described them as doing, but others shout out scornful remarks to the women in the town, or dance, or stand and pull up their clothes to expose themselves. Every riverside community receives this treatment.

The same book also contains an example--actually, the origin--of candaulism, in which a king named Canadaules hatched a plot to show off his naked wife in front of his servant. We should add that the theoretical concept behind this juicy fetish is that the flasher identifies so deeply with the spouse's body that he is actually showing off an aspect of his own being and not the body of another.

Without getting into the details, let's just say that exhibitionism has played a part in art all over the world, throughout history: you can find it in Greek and Roman statues, in the figures of African deities, and even on the sides of old Irish and British churches. Sometimes these characters expose themselves to symbolize fertility, and sometimes they exist to illustrate and warn against sins of the flesh, but they all stand apart from regular nudes in that they deliberately and clearly call attention to their exposed parts.

[Above: a masked babe gets freaky in a Brazilian club in "Carnaval Pancadao Sexxxy 2008" via AEBN Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

Law & Psychological Disorder: There's nothing wrong with wanting to fly your freak flag in public as long as you don't plant your flag where it's not wanted. As soon as exhibitionism interferes with an individual's quality of life, safety, or everyday functioning capacity, it's considered a psychological disorder. The DSM-IV defines it as "sexual gratification, above and beyond the sexual act itself, that is achieved by risky public sexual activity and/or bodily exposure" and can include "engaging in sex where one may possibly be seen in the act, or caught in the act." Of course, the pleasure of exhibiting one's own body rides on a lot of variable factors including the reactions of others and the local indecent exposure laws.

Interesting tidbit: one of our favorite exhibition centric sites is Public Disgrace, a branch of the Kink.com empire, and they shoot a lot of their street scenes in Budapest, Hungary. Why Budapest? Because (allegedly) they have extremely lax indecent exposure laws. Let it be known that they can scratch the exhibitionist's itch without breaking the law, and for that, we applaud them.

[Above: sometimes Public Disgrace takes the show indoors, but they still keep the exhibition alive, as seen in "Public Disgrace With Sarah" via AEBN Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

Our Recommendations: If you feel like looking at more exposed bodies, allow us to point you towards the following fountains of smut...

· Public Disgrace: We feature galleries from this site quite often, and with good reason! Kink.com employs some brilliant and sadistic minds that push exhibitionism far beyond the casual shirt flip of "Girls Gone Wild" and all its imitators.
· Hustler's Teasers: You know who's really good at being naked in public? Every pornstar ever. Fortunately, Hustler has a whole website dedicated to following pornstars around Hollywood and letting them touch themselves in the middle of the street. Not only do you get a great exhibitionist thrill with a girl you're probably already familiar with, but also you get Los Angeles, and that city really makes a beautiful background for nudity.
· Fleshbot: Hey, shameless self-promotion is exhibitionism, right? We have tagpages dedicated to exhibitionism, public sex, and regular ol' public nudity that feature everything from celebrities getting naked on the beach, to sex stories with an exhibitionist twist, to guides that help you safely venture into the world of public sex!

Hey, maybe you'll discover that you love the feeling of eyes and wind on your skin! You should.

Because you are beautiful.

[Above: some good ol' fashioned college girl exhibition porn from "Spring Break Wet T And A" via AEBN Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

[At top: Paris Pink gets some fresh air (all over her body), via Public Disgrace (publicdisgrace.com)]

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