Are you into scoptophilia?

[nice90sguy]

aka Scopophilia, voyeurism...

I watched the 1960 movie "Peeping Tom", which was utterly panned when it came out, but is now a cult film. Scorsese lists it as one of his all-time favourite movies, and is quoted as saying:

I have always felt that Peeping Tom and 8½ say everything that can be said about film-making...

It's part gory, tacky "Hammer-horror" movie, part sumptuous Technicolor art-film, and part critique of film-making, pornography and the "Male gaze".

I thought it was brilliant, and definitely still shocking.

Voyeurism is the converse of exhibitionism, I guess. Neither of these push my buttons. I can get why exhibitionism is a turn-on though, because of the danger. But what's the specific thrill about watching?

In the movie, the "peeping tom" in question would film real-life scenes he found erotic, and get off watching them at home on his movie screen -- THAT was what got him hot -- not watching the scenes "in real life".

 

[XerXesXu]

Voyeurism and exhibitionism can be entirely collusive, that’s how it’s always worked for me. Non-consensual voyeurism or exhibitionism are like everything non-consensual – just plain creepy.

 

[StillStunned]

I suppose I am, and more than I knew, judging by my stories here in Lit. In particular Love at First Sight, Flesh for Fantasy and Pas de Trois.

What's so arousing about it? I think @intim8 got it right in this thread:

the meat of voyeurism, that the voyeur feels part of the action, or like there is a relationship there, even if it is inherently one-sided.

It's the dichotomy of being isolated but together, of sharing an intimate moment without the other person knowing it.

Also, sometimes you get to see boobies.

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't seen that movie, but yes, I enjoy voyeurism. There are several elements to the enjoyment. One is simply the pleasure of seeing a woman naked, or taking her clothes off. That's number 1. The other is the element of surprise, the unexpected, of seeing a woman taking her clothes off where and when you don't expect her to. There's also a relationship between the voyeur and the exhibitionist that is erotically powerful and enjoyable. Then there's also the element of the forbidden, the naughty, the transgressive, that one is being let in on a show that one is not supposed to see.

For instance, I recall a few times in college, lying in my bed at night, with the lights off, looking out my window, and across the way, not far off, was another dorm, and through the uncovered window of that dorm I could see a woman undressing. It was amazing to me that she undressed right in front of a window that was uncovered. She HAD to know of the risk that she was revealing herself, but she did it anyway. I couldn't help but feel that I was in some way invited to watch. That might sound wrong or presumptuous, but that's how I felt at the time. She was putting on a show, and I happened to be there to watch it. There's a kind of unspoken quasi-agreement between the voyeur and the exhibitionist. It may make some uncomfortable that the "agreement" is not explicit--there's no express consent between the particular parties--but that's part of the thrill.

 

[nice90sguy]

That's the collusive side that @XerXesXu referred to, which I get. Naughty and secretive, and, to me, cute and benign. Definitely not the vibe of the movie, or of the kind of "pre-rape" implicit threat of secret spying.

 

[nice90sguy]

Also, sometimes you get to see boobies.

I'm very fortunate in being able to do that whenever I look in the mirror. Obviously I have to tuck the ol' todger between my legs to get the full effect

 

[SimonDoom]

That's the collusive side that @XerXesXu referred to, which I get. Naughty and secretive, and, to me, cute and benign. Definitely not the vibe of the movie, or of the kind of "pre-rape" implicit threat of secret spying.

As I said, I haven't seen the movie, but I've read a little about it. It's a horror movie. It allows those who find voyeurism on a milder scale enjoyable to experience in an exaggerated and horrific way.

Voyeurism is a big part of horror/slasher movies, which feature countless scenes of young people having sex and young women taking their clothes off before being murdered. It may seem weird but there's something people find enduringly entertaining about connecting disrobing and being sexual with violent death.

 

[intim8]

there's something people find enduringly entertaining about connecting disrobing and being sexual with violent death.

I've always taken it as moralistic. If she's doing that, well, maybe she deserves what's about to happen.

The shower scene is also iconic, and doesn't have that moralistic angle. Part of it was simply that 'Psycho' made it iconic. But I think part of the appeal is that a nude girl is very vulnerable, and since a bathroom is the most private space in any home, violating that ups the horror factor.

And it's an excuse to show some T&A.

 

[intim8]

aka Scopophilia, voyeurism...

Isn't watching porn or reading smut a kind of voyeurism?

 

[TheLobster]

I've always taken it as moralistic. If she's doing that, well, maybe she deserves what's about to happen.

Horror movies have a surprisingly wide array of quite rigid tropes that the audience mostly expects to be followed. Subversions, when done right, can thus easily rise to cult status (c.f. Cabin in the Woods).

As for this particular implication (that she deserved it), I wonder if it'd be fun to put it completely on its head. To have the most chaste, prim and proper character die a horrible death first, and for the final girl to be a total slut who somehow survives because of her promiscuity, not despite it.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone had done it already

 

[KeithD]

Many of my stories include voyeurism, yes.

 

[nice90sguy]

"Peeping Tom" was made by Michael Powell (of Powell and Pressburger - "The Red Shoes", "A Matter of Life and Death") , and is only superficially similar to a traditional horror film - it has gothic elements, and its subject is a sort of modern "Jack The Ripper".

His camera and his tripod are literally used as weapons of viiolent, brutal rape and murder. He gets aroused by the terror in his victims' faces -- the only two survivors of his assaults are a young, innocent woman, who pities him more than she fears him, and her mother, who is blind.

 

[StillStunned]

Non-consensual voyeurism or exhibitionism are like everything non-consensual – just plain creepy.

My story "Love at First Sight" is all about this. The question remains whether it's consensual or not, but it's definitely psychological thriller material. One reader commented:

With many stories, a sequel would be really interesting but in this case, please don't write one. I am scared where the story might go.

The creepy-voyeur-turned-obsessed-slasher is definitely a possible outcome.

I suppose I am, and more than I knew, judging by my stories here in Lit. In particular Love at First Sight, Flesh for Fantasy and Pas de Trois.

I just realised I should add The Walled Garden and The Sightless Watcher to that list. So 5 of my 32 published stories, with 3 others in E/V as well. Clearly I'm a creepy perv.

 

[Britva415]

Are you into scoptophilia?

I'll try anything once. Sounds dirty as hell

 

[TheLobster]

I'll try anything once. Sounds dirty as hell

I was actually reluctant to click this thread at first because I read it as something related to scat.

 

[lovecraft68]

Sliver with Sharon Stone was an interesting look at this, one of the Baldwin scumbags was in it, if I recall.

 

[XerXesXu]

I haven't seen that movie, but yes, I enjoy voyeurism. There are several elements to the enjoyment. One is simply the pleasure of seeing a woman naked, or taking her clothes off. That's number 1. The other is the element of surprise, the unexpected, of seeing a woman taking her clothes off where and when you don't expect her to. There's also a relationship between the voyeur and the exhibitionist that is erotically powerful and enjoyable. Then there's also the element of the forbidden, the naughty, the transgressive, that one is being let in on a show that one is not supposed to see.

For instance, I recall a few times in college, lying in my bed at night, with the lights off, looking out my window, and across the way, not far off, was another dorm, and through the uncovered window of that dorm I could see a woman undressing. It was amazing to me that she undressed right in front of a window that was uncovered. She HAD to know of the risk that she was revealing herself, but she did it anyway. I couldn't help but feel that I was in some way invited to watch. That might sound wrong or presumptuous, but that's how I felt at the time. She was putting on a show, and I happened to be there to watch it. There's a kind of unspoken quasi-agreement between the voyeur and the exhibitionist. It may make some uncomfortable that the "agreement" is not explicit--there's no express consent between the particular parties--but that's part of the thrill.

Was her quasi-agreement between her and the whole world, including those who would be offended by her behaviour, or just with you.

5 am, quick look at my news feed. 3 peeping-tom/exhibitionist stories.

Men who filmed 6,000 people
Former Police Officer
Disgusting

I read Scorsese's remark as made by a cinematographer for cinematographers and about cinematography, seasoned with a reference to the words Peeping-Tom, as one might put a little salt on a baked potato.

 

[nice90sguy]

I read Scorsese's remark as made by a cinematographer for cinematographers and about cinematography, seasoned with a reference to the words Peeping-Tom, as one might put a little salt on a baked potato.

Then you completely misread it.

I'm not a particular fan of Scorsese, or his movies, but I definitely share his opinion of Powell and Pressburger's films, every one of which I've seen.
In the 1970s, Coppola, Spielberg and Scorsese did a lot to get people to reappraise Powell and Pressburger. It was "Peeping Tom", way too schocking for a Britain still stuck in the 1950s, that finished Powell's career.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I used to go to sex parties, so I don't mind being seen. Watching just doesn't do anything for me.

 

[XerXesXu]

Then you completely misread it.

I'm not a particular fan of Scorsese, or his movies, but I definitely share his opinion of Powell and Pressburger's films, every one of which I've seen.
In the 1970s, Coppola, Spielberg and Scorsese did a lot to get people to reappraise Powell and Pressburger. It was "Peeping Tom", way too schocking for a Britain still stuck in the 1950s, that finished Powell's career.

Then we'll disagree about what he's saying in that clip also.

 

[Lifestyle66]

In my LW stories of a swinger couple, they enjoy watching each other. They have a "same room" rule for that, so they can watch each other. The wife likes to see other women enjoying her husband. And the husband, when spent having been with another women, enjoys watching his wife have "the time of her life" even standing beside the bed watching with another guy is doing her.

So, they are a "scopophilia" couple. (I learned a new word!)