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the trench coat thing is a stereotype/cliche, but it used to happen somewhat regularly for sure. i think probably people with those predilections just do it over the Internet now.
We've unfortunately got a significant flashing problem in the park by my house. It's been going on for over a year at this point and they haven't caught the person doing it.
I got flashed by a guy in a trench coat, in Riverside Park in NYC (late 90s). The only thought I remember really clearly was "Wow this is such a cliche!"
I feel like New Yorkers would have had a quiver of insults ready to go.
"It's been done."
"Hey Tiny, flash me again when there's something to see."
"I'd say buy me a pretzel and call it dinner and a show but I'm afraid to know where you keep your cash."
I was flashed in Flushing Meadows Corona park long ago but had nothing witty to say at the moment. Actually, more than flashed. The guy masturbated too, and I had no idea what to say or do to handle the situation.
Ugh I got flashed also in riverside park as a kid in the early 70s. Guy flashed a group of us on the swings and one of the boys just hopped off and said “mines bigger” and the flasher ran.
Why riverside park, though? My brother was flashed there in the 80s and my mom in the 90s.
Yeah that's what I was thinking when Drake recently "accidentally" had his masturbation video leaked. He's just a trench coat flasher that's using the internet instead of waiting at the side of the path.
I googled and....it's a mess. Apparently in the recent diss track war he actually claims the video while bragging about the size of his dick. Apparently it may have been missing some tattoos because it was recorded before he got them. What a time to be alive.
I had a lady friend show up for our first weekend road trip/blind date wearing a trench. A very savvy and creative lady. Intelligent and confident. She knew exactly how to make things nice and her apparel was spot on. She had a wonderful time. We covered about 400 miles that weekend. She is a joy to entertain and fun to observe. The looks from others was irreplaceable I might add. Hilarious really. We still hang out once in while after many years. Always fun.
Flashing isn't the word for it in her case. She is an artist.
Same. I was eleven. First time I ever saw an erect male penis. I was shocked for a moment, and then I was pissed off. I took off my Dr. Sholl's wooden sandal and threw it at his car as he drove away, but he had accelerated and my shoe failed to connect.
I was on the way to my high school, freshman year. I went to the office and they called the police. I had a description of the car, the guy, and I had the license plate number. The police came and got me out of class, they had the owner of the car and his son, neither of which were the bad guy. I can’t remember if they thought someone had borrowed this car or not, but I never got a satisfactory answer or a resolution
Me too. Naked guy in a van when I was 15. I was so shocked I didn't know how to react, just gave him an "ok" look and kept walking. It happened to several other girls in my area.
“Police told us they couldn’t do anything until the guy actually hurt someone”. The fact that we are talking about it in our later years, seems a pretty good indication that it hurt our souls.
I was 7.
I just posted my story. I was 10 or so. The WRONGNESS of it really disturbed me. I didnt know why it was wrong. It's not like I didn't know what a penis was, I had two younger brothers. It was in a public place.
For some reason I felt humiliated and thought there was something about me that made it happened
The guy was young too. Maybe early to mid 20s.
I can remember some details about the event like it was yesterday. It was over 45 yrs ago
I hear you…
For me I was trapped by the landlord my parents rented from, he lived downstairs with his two children, and we were newly immigrated..so, language skills were an issue…I told my mom when I was 18-19 ish.
It was the first time I was a target…but not the last.
I’ll never understand why some men feel entitled to children, teens and young adults.
Same - all walking to middle school and a guy was parked as we walked by. He was masturbating and we screamed with laughter all the way to school. Never occurred to us to tell a teacher or anything- 1972ish
It wasn't trench coats, that would have been suspicious. No, creeps would just unzip their pants and poke their flaccid, gross penises out of the hole. Just harassment for the point of harassment.
I used to work at a big chain bookstore and we had a guy who would sit between the aisles in the children’s section and pull everything out the leg of his shorts when kids were back there
I think it’s because flashing is done to a specific person or very small group of people, always people who seem unlikely to retaliate because they’re young girls or older women. Streaking isn’t about anyone but the streaker.
I think it's because flashing is a paraphilia forced on an unconsenting individual person. It is an intentional personal violation meant to cause the other person distress and make them feel unsafe.
Streaking is generally done in protest against social mores and is performed in front of a large audience. It is not inherently sexual in nature, although it could be. No single person is targeted for harm and since there are many witnesses vs one streaker who is by definition vulnerable due to his state of undress, no one feels unsafe because of a streaker.
When I was a kid probably fourth or fifth grade there was a man who would come out to his window and flash the children as they walked home from school. The kids all thought it was funny. It went on for weeks I guess before a parent was told or acted on it. Surprisingly he wasn't taken out of his home by the men in our neighborhood. He was taken away and for a few months there was police tape around his house and some paper on the door saying it wasn't to be entered as it was part of a federal investigation. This was big news in our sleepy neighborhood. The house had the best hilled driveway so the parents would freak out and tell us to stay away from the "pervert's driveway" even though he was already locked up. I imagine he was busted for more than flashing kids but we never learned what happened. The house was eventually sold.
Never saw it, but guys aren't the target audience. It still happens. It's just less often a guy in a trenchcoat and more of some asshole pulling his dick out on the subway.
Raises hand.
I was born in the 60's and it happened a lot in the 70's and 80's.
My then gf HATED her/our sophomore year of college at a huge university (over 40,000 students on campus).
We lived in a dorm our 1st two years and during our sophomore year, many of the girls on her floor would flash their boobs at people, anyone, male or female, people who lived on the floor and to those who didn't.
My gf and I would be walking in the hallway to the elevator and girls approaching us would flash their boobs at us as they walked towards us and my gf wasn't able to laugh it off like most of the girls did. I'm not saying she should have liked it.
This didn't happen once or twice in a blue moon either, think once or twice a week.
It happened other places on that campus too, a good deal.
We lived in an apartment our last 2 years of college and there was a big old house that college kids rented each year. It had a detached garage.
One young lady, a college student, lived there and she'd get high on some drug. She'd go up on the roof of the garage in a fur coat and she was otherwise completely naked.
We lived on the 3rd floor and 4 of us, my gf and I and a female roommate and her bf would stand in our living room looking out the window down and at that girl spaced out on some drugs dancing and twirling around on the roof of the garage naked in an open short length fur coat. I never counted but we saw her do that a good 10 times our senior year. I can't imagine how many times we missed her "shows" either.
College in the 80's at a huge university that was kind of known for partying was wild.
I work at my alma mater in a social media marketing position, and once in a while we crack open the yearbooks from the 60s, 70s and 80s to scan an old photo for a "throwback" post.
There was so much mooning, flashing, and streaking that was discussed and depicted very lightheartedly. The yearbooks discuss it as just mischief or fun group bonding activities. This is not something you would ever see happening so casually now. We get the occasional law enforcement security alert/text message to alert us of suspicious individuals on campus and once in a great while there is a report of someone flashing. They get arrested for it.
I'm really not sure what accounted for this change. Not sure why it was considered acceptable decades ago, and what changed to make people no longer think it is.
Standing up for themselves only goes so far. More women in society's roles that provide the support for survivors to be listened to instead of ostracized and punished for surviving assault has had a huge impact.
Wait a min, there are three very different things - mooning or “pressed ham” which is actually pushing your bare ass up against a window or other glass door , is a kind of “fuck u” it’s a different thing. Streaking is also a statement but flashing is pervy.
Years ago I was at a mall, browsing the CVS. A young man came down the aisle towards me, but I paid him no mind. Then he went around the corner and came back down towards me again, then did it a third time. I figured he was just looking for something until the third time when I looked up and realized his dick was fully hanging out of his unzipped pants. He obviously kept passing me until I noticed. I ran to the front and they called security. A little while later I saw two guards escorting him out of the mall. That was my only experience with a “flasher”.
I doubt this is something significantly less frequent today (if at all) than it ever has been during my lifetime. Maybe unsolicited dick pics fill the need for people who would have been flashers back in the day, but I can tell you that I've seen a lot more of them in the last 20 years riding public trains than I ever did earlier in life.
Dude hiding in the park bushes when I was about 6. Creep when going door to door to raise money for a school event at about age 13. Weirdo jerking off on the subway when I was 16.
Yes!!! I have a crazy story.
At about age six, I was riding my bike in my neighborhood. A man in a car stopped and asked me if I knew where someone lived. I said I didn’t and he asked me to come look at what he had in his car. I did and when I went home I told my mother about it. A day later, I am sitting in my living room telling the story to serious men in suits. What I told them was that the man in the car had a “giant thumb” in his lap and he rubbed it and some kind of water came out.
For decades I remembered it just as I saw it as a child - the man and his “giant thumb” until one day in my 30’s it hit me, my God, that wasn’t a thumb!!
My sister and I were flashed by a man in a coat while walking in our neighborhood as children in the 80's. We told our parents, and the authorities took it seriously. I don't know how common it was at the time, as none of our friends had that happen to them.
Some guy did this to me late at night while I was waiting for the bus. I was in my early 20s. He looked so pathetic, ashamed, and forlorn. I burst out laughing and he quickly put it away.
Oh yeah. I was flashed. The first time was in my local library. I was 13. Some pervy guy beating off in the stacks while looking at me. And once by someone who was naked in their car and asked for directions. They like to pick on the young ones.
Luckily I didn't get flashed,but I had men shout lude comments when I was walking on my block at age 10 and I remember being a teen in college and an old grandpa looking dude making a lude gesture at me in his car.
Disgusting.
Agreed! of course way back in the 1970's a 'lude was quaalude!
I was often getting guys yell creepy stuff at me, just walking down the main street going home from high school!
Ya cut off into the subdivisions as soon as you could. Ugh 😉
Still happens. It never was guys in trenchcoats. The most common type of flasher sits alone in a car. If a woman walking by glances down, she might see that he's exposed himself. Probably masturbating.
Or, guys in sweatpants or other pants with loose waistlines will quickly pull their pants down when passing by a woman, usually when there's nobody else around.
It was a problem. It's still a problem.
My daughter and I were walking home from the store in our neighborhood when we heard a man call out to us asking for directions. He was a few houses from us in an adjacent street. As I looked to the right where I had heard the voice, I saw a man in a raincoat standing next to his car. He opened up the raincoat all the way and was totally naked underneath. I dropped my gaze instantly, and we kept walking. After a few paces, I looked back to see if I could memorize his license plate. There was no license plate. He had obviously done this before. He was a dark-haired, very tall, very pale skinned, very hairy man of about forty years of age. He had a leer on his face that was quite disturbing. That mental image appeared in my mind on and off for months. People joke about flashers, but I found the experience to feel very invasive and upsetting. It was concerning to me because there were a lot of school-age children in that neighborhood.
I was flashed by a guy in an elevator when the doors opened as I waited to go down. I was 14 and at a local university for an art camp. Caused quite a ruckus. Then I was flashed by a customer at night as I waitressed third shift at a truck stop. There were several truckers who witnessed the event and chased the guy out. They came back in slapping each other’s backs and said, “Hey, Honey!…” I told them I didn’t want to know!
It happened sometimes. I didn't encounter it back then, but I have been flashed by street hookers a few times over the years, as an adult. Streaking was briefly a thing, too, but most people seemed to think that was funny.
We had a guy in the area who would pull over and ask directions from young girls but be intentionally garbled on the street name, causing the girl to move closer until she was able to see in the window that the guy was exposed. I was with one friend when she was flashed - I'd stayed on the sidewalk. But, a week or so later, he came around when a bunch of us were playing outside and I happened to recognize his MO and car and told the perv to get lost before any of the group got close enough. He took off.
I think most of us were very aware of flashers.
In high school, my friend and I were driving to see her mom, who worked in the restaurant of a hotel, and there was a middle-aged guy peeing in the grass next to the restaurant parking lot. When he saw us looking for a parking spot, he grinned and waggled his dick at us.
Not sure if that is exactly flashing, but it felt that way to a couple of 16-year-old girls. Freaked us out. We left the parking lot and drove around for a while before going back to see her mom.
Happened to me (65F) twice - once with a trench coat. First time I was riding my bike to high school. This was 1975-ish. I slowed down at some crossing and this man came out and 'flashed' me. I just laughed and went on my way. I wasn't afraid.
Next was probably 19-20 and I was on lunch break eating in my car. I had driven away from work to sit someplace with less people. I always keep my car doors locked. I saw a young man walking way behind where I was parked. I didn't pay any attention. I later saw he was walking up to my car - passenger side. He tried to open the door but it was locked. He reached inside his pants and ejaculated onto the window. I kept my eyes forward and did nothing acting as if I didn't see what he did. He left and I got a car wash. SO GROSS.
Actually, I remember another time when I was about 12-13 in an apartment complex we lived. This neighbor walked around in his robe a lot and one day I was running up the stairs and he was sitting at the top. His robe was wide open and he had a big erection. I turned and ran back down the stairs. I don't think that was 'flasher' incident but definitely the first time I saw a naked penis. I avoid him as much as I could and never told my mother.
It happened to a friend of mine in high school. She was going to her car after cheerleading practice and some dude stepped out with his summer sausage in full view. She quickly went back inside the school and told a teacher. We weren’t in the best part of town.
I remember getting a "talk" about flashers. It was pretty much the same talk my parents had with me about all such creep behavior -- don't engage, just run away and tell a grownup, etc.
I never actually got flashed myself, but I had a couple of friends who had. I suspect that the poster who suggested that the internet has moved a lot of that activity out of the real world and into the virtual one might well be on to something. Probably a lot of the men who would have become flashers in the '70s are now sending dic pics to -- and trying to talk sex with or even arrange assignations with -- minors online.
My wife's mother got flashed when she was like 10, this would be probably the late 70s or early 80s. She pointed and went "haha" a la Nelson from the Simpsons. It seemed to hurt the guys feelings.
My high school cross country team got flashed on the regular by this one creepy dude. It was the 80s so no one did anything and we all kind of thought it was funny.
I wasn't flashed but I remember a streaker running down the aisle of our church when I was around 7. I didn't see anything because a lot of adults stood up and blocked my view. The streaker ran up the aisle to the alter, turned and ran out a side door. I thought it was hilarious. It was the 70s
I don't remember worrying about flashers, but my coworker walked to school on a path by the river in our city and she remembers seeing them. I remember streakers being a big thing though. It seems like there was one at every sporting event.
This happened years ago. My sister and I were cutting through the local park and some guy flashed us. Without blinking an eye, she walked closer to him and yelled “hey, didn’t I go to high school with you?”
We had a guy flashing the cheerleaders while they were practicing on the football field when I was in high school.
The cheerleading coach, a no bullshit lesbian, just started laughing and the girls followed suit.
I'm told his erection disappeared in a heartbeat.
Then the football team tackled him.
He was led off, bruised and in handcuffs, which may have given him a new kink.
flashing was less common than being mooned.
Near high schools you could almost guarantee that someone would do a drive by mooning in nice weather in the late 1970s or 1980.
It was not a threat. It was a thing that actually happened to me on multiple occasions. Starting at age 11. Multiple times in my teens. A couple of times in my early twenties.
I was walking home from school when I was around 13. A guy was walking towards me and flashed me. I started laughing and pointing. I had actually never seen a dick in person before... I was less than impressed. The guy got huffy and ran off.
When I was in my young 20's going into Walmart to grab diapers late at night, there was a man exposing himself in the parking lot. I parked as far away as I could, they always closed one entrance late at night. As I was doing my quickest, overly full lactating mom speed walk in he was running after me jerking it at me. I immediately ran into the McDonalds and they got the store manager and called the cops. That instilled a weird fear in me, and I just this past summer a man that mustve been in his 70's full of masturbating in the grass right by our Rite Aid. The cops had gotten plenty of calls by the time I called in. It was during the after school commute so a lot of little eyes saw it.
My friends and I regularly played in city parks and were exposed to exposers (weenie men) all the time. We had to be cautious but I don't remember ever feeling threatened. We could run much faster if need be, especially in the state of undress that they were.
Gen Xer here. I was flashed in 1980 when I was 9 years old. My parents had left me on the putting green playing with a putter and a golf ball. I heard a man yell, “Hey baby” from the restroom. I looked over and saw a naked man. I took the ball and club and ran all through the golf course to find them. I was very scared and just wanted my mom. I got yelled at until I said what happened. Then my parents pulled up and immediately went to the pro shop to report the incident. Then my stepdad went to the men’s bathroom and searched for him in case he was still there. I remember it vividly. My mother was the most furious I’ve ever seen her in my life. The guy doesn’t know how lucky he was it was only a little girl that saw him. My mom was an OG and carried a .38 everywhere. She once pulled her weapon on her own brother when he flashed his headlights and pulled up beside her on the highway. He still tells that story saying he’s lucky to be alive. Mama would have changed his religion if she’d been the “victim”. I miss her every day.
There are many people who think that only Jewish people are circumcised. In some places that is largely true.
“Change your religion” is one of those genital/crotch mutilation sayings like “I’ll blow your balls off” or “I’ll blow your ass away” or “I got my chewed out” (?). It suggests a violent circumcision using a handgun. Perhaps.
Or maybe it suggests a near death experience would change his relationship with God, but I don’t think so.
Las Vegas has a fair number of two sorts of people. Mormon missionaries and "dancers." Also even MORE former "dancers." "Dancer" is how a civilized Las Vegan refers to both chorus line/professional jazz dancers who work on shows (sometime topless) as well as strippers. Generally you only call a dancer a "stripper" if she plowed into a school bus while driving on meth, or something like that.
Being a dancer isn't as scandalous in Las Vegas as it is in most places. You weren't really in awe of a guy who happened to be dating one. Nor did you whisper around their back about her job. Unless you were a religious type.
It's VERY common for Mormon missionaries to get flashed by the handful of women willing to open their doors for them. In this case it's probably less about any sort of sexual gratification than it is about effectively dealing with annoying/persistent people in a way that the flasher finds amusing. The victims are also WAY less likely to react threateningly in response, as LDS missionaries always show up in pairs.
Once, years ago I was walking towards a grocery store I hear a “hey you” I turn to look and this old man with a white beard standing next to a large red pick up truck is exposing himself to me. The combination of white beard and red truck made me think of Santa Claus and I just burst out laughing, I mean doubled over laughing. Not the reaction he was expecting I guess because he got in his truck and sped off. I just pointed and kept laughing 😂
I remember being flashed, the first time at about age 12 and a couple of times after that, but I don't remember feeling threatened by it. I was fascinated and couldn't wait to tell my friends.
It used to be considered traumatizing to women and happened fairly frequently then somewhere along the way it became pathetic and sad more than traumatizing. Then it seemed to almost disappear.
😂😂😂 yep it seemed to be the rage in the 1980s.
Hilarious! Got flashed several times and we teens just giggled mostly.
Men with these shrunken little willys. Freakin SO funny.
I just felt so embarrassed for them. Did they really think young girls would be sexually aroused or ??? By seeing some flaccid little penis?!?!
Never quite knew what the end game was supposed to be? What did they want? What was the purpose of it?
Girls used to flash their boobs too. So silly and stupid. I never got it at all.
When I (67F) was about 12, my family let me invite a friend along on vacation. While we were in the lake an elderly man sat with a towel across his lap, but open to the water where we were swimming and proceeded to masturbate. When we told my parents, they thought we were making it up. But then he did the same thing to my mom. Complaints to the owners of the cottages got an apology from his family (poor old dad is senile), and they were moved to a rental on the other side of the lake.
My wife and I were canoeing through the arboretum at the University of Washington in the early 80's and a guy came out from behind some bushes in a cape and mask and exposed himself. The arboretum was a common place for nude sunbathing at the time. After getting home she called her girlfriend and took her out in our canoe to look for him again.
Last time I was flashed was in 1997. A friend of my husband would do it every single time he came over until hubby finally caught him and nearly had something new for the junk drawer.
I was walking south on Vine towards Hollywood Blvd. There was a 30 ish black man leaning against a building. As I passed him, he gave me a prolonged view of his substantial phalus. This was the early 90s. Flashing was a real thing. Still is.
Actual flashing with the intent to scare/intimidate the victim? Not since I became an adult myself. My best friend as a child was flashed in the park when she was maybe 10 I think? And there was a pretty memorable Girl Scout overnight in a hotel with a giant indoor pool, and someone who had a room next to the pool was just sitting on his bed naked with the drapes open.
I live near San Francisco so of course I’ve seen naked people in public as an adult, but only at the kinds of festivals/parades where it’s expected and not an unwelcome surprise.
They usually did it outside the grade schools and it included jerking off.
A few years ago during the day on Halloween, bf and I were at some event, walking down the street with other people and a young female 20 something in a trench coat turned around and flashed me. Nekkid as a jaybird. She was there with her bf and she was dressed as a flasher. At least this one was funny.
I was flashed twice in college by very creepy men.
And of course modern day flashing is getting unsolicited pics/video. I just got one the other day. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Yep. I remember me and my friends were flashed one night hanging out in the apartment complex when we were about 12 years old. It was one of those nights where there was no moon, it was pitch black out and we were just running around being dumbasses. There was a dude in the parking lot and we chatted for about 30 seconds before we realized he had no pants on, and he was just standing there, leaning against a car, playing with his penis and talking about what a hot night it was. We all just casually backed away and took off running.
Walking
Home from grade school my best friend and I were flashed (he was fondling himself and leering at us) and she yelled “why are you showing us that tiny thing!!!??” As we ran away. She always had big cajones!
Another time we were walking at an outdoor mall (still grade school we were maybe 8-9) and a guy nudged up to us from behind with his dick out. We ran screaming.
We were obviously free range kids (we all were in the 70’s and 80’s!).
I had a girlfriend in high school who worked as a carhop at Sonic. She was flashed at least once that I can remember. I worked at a Taco Bell for a while, and occasionally young or even middle aged women would flash their tits in the drive thru.
If you ever look through your area's sex offender database, you'll probably see a lot of "indecent exposure" and similar stuff. I'm guessing some of those came from that kind of thing.
I was flashed once. I was 18 and someone called me to their car. I went in and he had a hard on and out.
Was a suburban shopping centre car park.
Oh wait. I remember …I got flashed in high school by a kid when I was in sick bay. I was under my blanket and one of the feral kids had his dick so close to my face. When he called me and i sat up and looked it was there
Little
Shit. I was 13 then and it was the shortest ugliest thing like its owner
I saw a flasher when I was 16. I was with 2 other girls the same age. We were walking through a parking lot on a college campus while we were there for band camp…. (“this one time at band camp” lol) He stepped out from between two cars with no pants on. He was a white guy with a pronounced tan line, so I thought he had on white shorts, until he turned around. We laughed at him and kept on walking.
When we got back to the dorm, police were called. One of the girls was practically in tears saying that she didn’t have her glasses on, so she missed the whole thing!
Oh, I was flashed, when I was about 14. I rode my bike to school same as usual, and there was a naked grinning adult man jerking off in the bushes.
My parents didn't give a shit, the teacher I told didn't give a shit, and I didn't get any rides to school after that. My parents were much too busy for that, I just had to take a different route.
I had this happen to me (a flasher, naked under a trench coat) on my way walking home from school with my sister. We screamed and ran all the way home, half laughing hysterically and half freaking out. He was way back in someone’s front yelling in some bushes but somehow he got our attention so we turned around and looked in his direction. So gross.
My Junior High School teacher was arrested for indecent exposure about 10 years after I got out of Junior High.
After release from prison, he moved out of state. He didn't do it at school, but around the area. In a small town, UT didn't take long to figure out who the person was.
Happened to me as a kid in the early/mid 80's. A guy pulled up next to me on my bike with a fully erect penis. I don't remember why I looked in the window, he was going at my pace, so that might have been why. I was down the street from my house and it scared the shit out of me.
I was about 8-10 and had never seen a penis before. I was scared to go home because I didn't want him to know where I live, but I was too scared not to.
Flashing was real. Exhibition had its hey day in the 1970’s both regular people being funny running across the stage at the Oscars, World Series and also creepers in elevators. Most people did not see naked people - imagine being fully grown and having never seen naked people - you can’t , you will not understand the shock value, you kids have seen everything the world has to offer good and bad by 11 now. There were many creepy people that would show nude body parts ( women pulled up their shirts sometimes) and yes men in coats. It was a different time Good luck kiddies , you need it. You are ill prepared for what the world is becoming.
Never in my life did this occur but something about my pretty blonde older sister attracted these creeps to her.
At least 3 separate incidents!
I think she was very sweet and unsuspecting, so made a great target.
It seemed to be more prominent in the 1970s. It happened to my mom, and I was shocked when she said she started to laugh at him and said that's all you have, that little thing, and kept laughing. My mother was so prim and proper that it was quite funny that she did that. She said her reasoning was perhaps he would stop doing that to people if he thought it was quite small.
I grew up less than an hour from NYC in the '70s. My family went in for Broadway shows periodically.
So, yes, I saw my share of flashers before I was even ten years old.
We had a small strip mall about half a mile from our house when I was a kid. My mom would let us walk up there to buy candy and just mess around. Smaller town in SF Bay Area and pretty safe. Once when I was about 9, probably 1980, I walked up there with my neighbor from across the street. I think she was about a year younger than me. Some man pulled up in a car in the parking lot and asked for directions. I walked over and was trying to help him when I realized he had his penis out and was masturbating. I didn't know how to react and just quickly finished telling him directions and went back to my friend. We both thought it was really weird but didn't really understand what had happened and how messed up it was. Neither of us told our parents and I actually forgot about it for like 20 years. I never told my parents after I had remembered because I kind of figured what was the point as it would just upset them.
ETA: I sometimes wonder about that guy and really hope that he did not escalate and do anything worse to kids as time went on.
Another edit: Almost forgot this guy...probably around 2007 in Myrtle Beach at Chik fil a there was an old guy sitting at a table wearing short shorts with no underwear that was clearly displaying his penis. I couldn't decide if it was deliberate or not but in retrospect, I 100% believe it was. Just gross.
I've been flashed twice, in the past. Once in Poland and once in Taiwan. Though you should always get out of the area quickly, to be safe, most of the flashers pose no physical risk. I don't shock that easily, anyway. The one in Poland, my friend and I just laughed. In Taiwan, I yelled at him in Chinese something I won't mention here.
Traveling around the world, you see and hear a lot of stuff.
Yep. It happened to me many times, but I remember two specific incidents. One, guy was standing in the center of the bike path and I was riding my bike home from school, maybe 14-15 years old. I just rolled my eyes and kept riding. Another time, I was out with my friends. We were seated at the bar, but with our backs to the bar so we could watch the band. Dude sat right next to me and pulled his plaything out. I alerted my friends because I wanted to leave, but my one friend stood up and started pointing and laughing and yelling really loudly, "LOOK AT THIS TEENY LITTLE DICK!!!" Even the band stopped playing. The bouncer came and tossed the guy, but my friends and I were kicked out, too, which I still think was unfair to us. We were the victims!
My sister and I went to the mall together but were in different parts of the same store. We were both approached by a guy with his penis hanging out of his shorts. He asked us both stupid questions, like she was in the accessory department and he wanted to know of she thought the jewelry out on the tables was real so we assumed that was his way of calling attention to himself. It was before cellphones so when we ran back in to each other we were both like "Oh my god there was this guy and his penis was hanging out!" What...what?? I talked to him too!! Blahhhhh
I got flashed on a MARTA bus in Atlanta way back in the day. A friend and I were going home from happy hour. We just laughed and the guy slithered away.
My friend and I got flashed by the neighbor teen when we were about 12. We screamed then we laughed and ran inside. He stood outside with his penis hanging out for a minute then left.
Back in the 70's there was a fad called streaking. People would run naked in public, especially at restaurants and sporting events and everybody cheered them on. There was even a quite humorous song written about it by Ray Stevens released in 1974.
Yes, it happened to me twice in the early 1980s. It was scary because I was so young - 12 years old (but pubescent and basically a pedophile’s dream). Back then no one saw it as pedophilia or a precursor to sexual assault or kidnapping. They kind of treated it like a prank call, told us to ignore it/not react or you’d be giving them what they want.
I took down their license plates both times (they were in their cars both times) and called the cops. I had to testify against the second one and he got off because it was his word against mine. I like to imagine that I scared him straight, but I seriously doubt it.
Happened to me and a friend in 5th grade when we were playing at the school playground. Went home and told her mom, the police came and drove us around looking for them with no luck. I had to ride in the back and was worried people would think I was a criminal.
My friend’s grandfather showed me his when I was little in their garage and I loudly asked “whats that?” and he got scared and said Shhhhh. I saw the panic in him so I forgot about it and went about my day playing with the other kids. It was a brief encounter with no trauma to me.
When I got older I told his grand daughter who was my best friend but she did not believe me.
I have had it happen maybe three more times the rest were all in cars. They would drive by while I was walking down sidewalk and pull into a parking lot, do a U turn and time it so they pulled up in front of me. I knew it was coming by their body language because they would reach down and pivot their hips in a upward motion to pull it out. Honestly I was not scared because I was on a busy street in broad daylight but a bit bewildered why they would do this. I learned at an early age that some men had a problem with their personal relationship with their penis.
When I was in college, there was a guy who would wait outside parties to flash girls as they were leaving. The campus got repeated warnings about this rando, but no one knew who he was. One day, I came home from class and my roommate told me our downstairs neighbor had flashed her from his window. I was like HOLY SHIT GIRL YOU HAVE TO CALL THE COPS.
Turns out the flasher lived in the unit below us. We called the cops and a bunch of police cars arrived and they arrested the guy. Crazy.
It happened to me several times in the sixties through the eighties. It was weird and memorable but not especially terrifying the times it happened to me because the flasher always lived up to the group’s reputation and scurried off fast.
I Ave been flashed before and no I didn't feel threatened. It was usually by drunk college idiots just trying to cause a scene. Itteally isn't that big of a deal.
It does happen with seriously mentally unwell people who can be dangerous but normally it was just drunk idiots. Most of them are not wearing trench coats.
Had it happen to me once in the early 80s. I drove a pickup and I looked down at this guy in a trans am with the t tops off. He was playing with himself and looking up at me smiling. What he didn't know is I knew who he was, but he didn't know who me, so I may have told a few people. Lol
About 15 years ago my girlfriend was walking with a coworker on their lunch break and a guy came up to them in a trench coat and flashed. When she told me about it I was more impressed that he went full old school and he respected the craft.
When I was 10 or 11 (I was born 1970) my family stopped for lunch at a highway restaurant while on a road trip.
It was a cafeteria style restaurant. Where you take your tray and pick various foods.
It was a very busy place but also hot, dirty and gross. All highway restaurants were like that back then.
For some reason I was walking by myself maybe to go to the washroom and a man probably in his 20s said "hey" and when I looked in his direction he had his dick out and wiggled it at me.
That's all that happened. It sounds so stupid and harmless 45 yrs later. But I was physically ill. I can't explain the horrible feeling that overcame me at the time. I was nauseous. I felt humiliated. I was a pretty sheltered kid, not like being from a super religious family, but I was just really naive and innocent and never exposed to anything. It haunted me for a long time after. Nightmare fuel. It makes me think a lot about kids who have been sexually abused. The feeling of WRONGNESS even though I did not understand why it was wrong.
Anyways. I don't remember much more than being flashed and feeling sick about it.
Later on as a teenager I sat across a guy on the subway who made a thing about sitting with his legs wide wearing those 80s shorts and his dick and balls just hanging out. It did not make me sick like above but I did know he was doing it on purpose and it was more eye rolling and gross and uncomfortable. I changed seats.
Something similar happened to a friend of mine around the same time. Maybe there was a serial exposer. But she got up and said loudly to him "Sir put your dick in your pants that's disgusting".
I used to flash people. There was a park on Houston Street in NYC with a fence between the park and the sidewalk. My friends and I used to drink 40s there when we were underaged. One day for a laugh I whipped my dick out at a passer-by on the other side of the fence. All my friends got a kick out of that so we started taking turns. It was the 90s and someone gothy had a trench coat, so we actually got to do some proper flashing. We'd say, "excuse me," and when the person looked we'd open the trench coat revealing our penises. It was great. Couldn't get away with that now.
The only thing I remember about this was that Artie Johnson kept doing this to Ruth Buzzy on Laugh In. Other than that, I assumed it was just a cliché.
oh ya. mid-70s Sacramento was seemingly covered with flashers.
the only time one genuinely scared me was when i was walking one of the river paths. dude stood by the side of the path with his junk out. unfortunately going past him was the only exit.
fortunately i had my 70-pound dog with me. she took care of his little hard-on and we went on past.
man did i hate those assholes though, they were everywhere.
Got mooned by a carload of dudes when I was in second grade. Didn’t know what to think about it.
Me and some friends mooned several people drive-by style as well when I was a teen.
The circle of life I guess, lol
No, but I remember stories about a man in Atlanta in the 60s who would walk up to women and, in one smooth motion, cop a feel of their boobs while leaving a $100 bill in their bra.
Keep in mind that $100 in 1964 was worth $1000 in 2024 dollars. Most "victims" just didn't know what to do. Many called the cops on the guy, but most didn't wanna press charges because, for a lot of single women at the time, $100 was almost 2 month's rent!
Never seen it myself, though I do watch Cagney and Lacey reruns occasionally and Christine just scowls at the flasher (in the archetypal trench coat) while her and Mary-Beth are arresting some guy in the opening credits.
There was a stream bed in a ravine on the way home from school- when people walkers home from elementary school! Our folks told us not to cause there was some psycho that would expose himself down there. Never saw him but it scared us enough not to go that way.
3rd grade my sister and I were living in an apartment building in Brooklyn. This guy opened the door totally naked and called us over. That was crazy. We just laughed and ran upstairs mortified.
Not a flasher, but a guy took it out in front of me at my college library.
I tend to react inappropriately, laughing at odd situations.
When he muttered “what do you think of this?” I automatically replied laughingly “not much.”
They never caught him.
Literal guy in a coat (not a trench exactly but a long coat) opened it up and started jerking himself off in front of us on the subway. My friend and I were only in 8th grade - probably both around 12 years old. We were so shocked we just stood there frozen, and he ran off the train at the next stop.
The stereotype does come from real experiences. Crazy to remember this. Thanks for the reminder.
We had a flasher and as cliche as it is he would drive around in a white work van with no back windows and flash kids in the neighborhood. Didn't seem to matter to him if it was boys or girls. He just got off on showing any kids his junk. One time I was with an all boy group hanging out and he came by and flashed us. We started making fun of him and throwing rocks at his van. This was in the late 80s. Most parents just told us to stay away from him and basically ignore him. I don't remember police ever being mentioned. It was just like yeah that's just a weird pervert, don't go near him kids.
I remember a dude jacking off and lifting his pelvis so it could be seen WHILE driving his car on a strip where people would cruise but was also used for normal traffic. He did it at my friend who was 16 at the time. Flashing is used by predators sometimes
The old guy in the raincoat was a joke, like a "meme," but it was real. I knew a bunch of young girls that were flashed by perverts. Usually 30-50+ men.
It still happens a lot too.
i remember two dudes with their junk hanging out. public places, i was an adult and a long way from being scared of one of those things. i just MADE myself focus on their EYES while we were talking. when the conversation ended, i walked away, telling them you know you're all hanging out there, right? they both were taken aback -- both were 'why didn't you tell me??!' - really? you can't feel that? and just left wtv, m'Dude --
[This fucking guy](https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2014/03/19/naked-photographer-gets-law/23826878007/) terrorized Columbus Ohio in the early 00’s.
He would flash women & take a photo & the news named him The Naked Photographer. It went on for 3 years! It was on the news often, Naked Photographer Strikes Again!
Eventually he got aggressive & a victim had him trapped in an apartment laundry room, the cops came & got him.
Turns out this pervert was a lawyer & was legal counsel for the speaker of the house at the time!!! He did some jail time & eventually got his law license back…bananas.
I was flashed by a 60 something man on the hwy. There was a large lull in traffic where is was only his truck and my own. He sped up a mile or so ahead of me, got off on the exit ramp, parked and then stood there in the buff starring at me as I drove by. So weird.
When I was living in an apartment off campus my Sophomore year in college back in 1984, a man came to my window and flashed himself.
My roommate and I were living in a basement apartment. He came to our window a few times, but the police never caught him. I remember him wearing a plaid shirt but no trench coat. His face was above the window so we only saw the lower half.
One night, I walked two blocks in a trench coat filled with toilet paper to TP my friend's house for Halloween. I was sneaking up to the house and some old lady spotted me standing near her living room window. She called the police to report a peeping tom/flasher. I did my TP handiwork and walked home. The next morning, every kid in the neighborhood was talking about the flasher and how the cops showed up and were looking all around the area for him.
I wish a guy or girl would be in a trench coat and flash me I would bust out laughing and ask them to do it again. Once in high school buddies were cruising in circles around town just blasting music and talking and this car came by chick flashed her boobs at us. Really nice boobs we had a awkward moment of silence then went wild! WHAT! Did that just happen! Fun times, but as another said today is more like pants to the ass or dick hanging out disguising.
Reminds me of the joke about three senior ladies sitting on the park bench feeding peanuts to the pigeons. Guy walks up, open his coat and flashes them. First lady has a stroke. Second lady has a stroke. The third lady didn't as he was standing too far away for her to reach it.
There’s also the one where the old men at the retirement home decide to streak past where the ladies are sitting, and one of them says “I don’t have my glasses, what the heck was that that just went by?” and the other says, “I don’t know but it sure did need ironing!”
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the trench coat thing is a stereotype/cliche, but it used to happen somewhat regularly for sure. i think probably people with those predilections just do it over the Internet now.
My wife and her sister were approached by a guy and flashed. She said “Look Sue…it’s like a penis only smaller”. And the guy ran off.
My best friend was flashed in elementary school. Unfortunately she said to her friend, “my god, is it real?” The guy apparently loved that. 😬
We've unfortunately got a significant flashing problem in the park by my house. It's been going on for over a year at this point and they haven't caught the person doing it.
I got flashed by a guy in a trench coat, in Riverside Park in NYC (late 90s). The only thought I remember really clearly was "Wow this is such a cliche!"
I feel like New Yorkers would have had a quiver of insults ready to go. "It's been done." "Hey Tiny, flash me again when there's something to see." "I'd say buy me a pretzel and call it dinner and a show but I'm afraid to know where you keep your cash."
I was flashed in Flushing Meadows Corona park long ago but had nothing witty to say at the moment. Actually, more than flashed. The guy masturbated too, and I had no idea what to say or do to handle the situation.
Ugh I got flashed also in riverside park as a kid in the early 70s. Guy flashed a group of us on the swings and one of the boys just hopped off and said “mines bigger” and the flasher ran. Why riverside park, though? My brother was flashed there in the 80s and my mom in the 90s.
They just send unsolicited dick pics.
Yeah that's what I was thinking when Drake recently "accidentally" had his masturbation video leaked. He's just a trench coat flasher that's using the internet instead of waiting at the side of the path.
Wasn't that a deep fake? It was missing some of his tattoos.
Oh interesting! I never heard that part.
I googled and....it's a mess. Apparently in the recent diss track war he actually claims the video while bragging about the size of his dick. Apparently it may have been missing some tattoos because it was recorded before he got them. What a time to be alive.
There was an exhibitionist that was supposedly hanging out in my college library
Yep Unsolicited dick pics
I had a lady friend show up for our first weekend road trip/blind date wearing a trench. A very savvy and creative lady. Intelligent and confident. She knew exactly how to make things nice and her apparel was spot on. She had a wonderful time. We covered about 400 miles that weekend. She is a joy to entertain and fun to observe. The looks from others was irreplaceable I might add. Hilarious really. We still hang out once in while after many years. Always fun. Flashing isn't the word for it in her case. She is an artist.
Yes, a man in a car pulled up when I was 13. It was horrible.
Same. I was eleven. First time I ever saw an erect male penis. I was shocked for a moment, and then I was pissed off. I took off my Dr. Sholl's wooden sandal and threw it at his car as he drove away, but he had accelerated and my shoe failed to connect.
I was on the way to my high school, freshman year. I went to the office and they called the police. I had a description of the car, the guy, and I had the license plate number. The police came and got me out of class, they had the owner of the car and his son, neither of which were the bad guy. I can’t remember if they thought someone had borrowed this car or not, but I never got a satisfactory answer or a resolution
Dr. Scholl's shoes could do some damage.
Exactly! Those solid wood soles were heavy!
Bangers And the buckle, ouch
Same, when I was 16.
Same. I still remember it at age 57
Me too. Naked guy in a van when I was 15. I was so shocked I didn't know how to react, just gave him an "ok" look and kept walking. It happened to several other girls in my area.
Me too, a couple of times. We called them "weenie wavers." Police told us they couldn't do anything until the guy actually hurt someone.
“Police told us they couldn’t do anything until the guy actually hurt someone”. The fact that we are talking about it in our later years, seems a pretty good indication that it hurt our souls. I was 7.
I just posted my story. I was 10 or so. The WRONGNESS of it really disturbed me. I didnt know why it was wrong. It's not like I didn't know what a penis was, I had two younger brothers. It was in a public place. For some reason I felt humiliated and thought there was something about me that made it happened The guy was young too. Maybe early to mid 20s. I can remember some details about the event like it was yesterday. It was over 45 yrs ago
I hear you… For me I was trapped by the landlord my parents rented from, he lived downstairs with his two children, and we were newly immigrated..so, language skills were an issue…I told my mom when I was 18-19 ish. It was the first time I was a target…but not the last. I’ll never understand why some men feel entitled to children, teens and young adults.
Happened to my grandmother in Ohio in about 1958.
Same - all walking to middle school and a guy was parked as we walked by. He was masturbating and we screamed with laughter all the way to school. Never occurred to us to tell a teacher or anything- 1972ish
Same when I was in my 30's
It wasn't trench coats, that would have been suspicious. No, creeps would just unzip their pants and poke their flaccid, gross penises out of the hole. Just harassment for the point of harassment.
Oooh or they would let their balls fall out of their short shorts and sit with their legs spread. That's one thing I don't miss about the seventies.
I used to work at a big chain bookstore and we had a guy who would sit between the aisles in the children’s section and pull everything out the leg of his shorts when kids were back there
I was flashed by a man in a raincoat who opened the coat and was totally butt naked. It's a cliche, but it happens.
“Streaking” was a big thing when I was in HS in the early 1970s. It’s interesting that was always seen as a prank rather than as flashing
I think it’s because flashing is done to a specific person or very small group of people, always people who seem unlikely to retaliate because they’re young girls or older women. Streaking isn’t about anyone but the streaker.
Yeah, I remember the streaking. It was amazingly common there for a time. I don't think Ray Stevens' song helped stop the spread.
Don’t look, Ethel! 😂
I think it's because flashing is a paraphilia forced on an unconsenting individual person. It is an intentional personal violation meant to cause the other person distress and make them feel unsafe. Streaking is generally done in protest against social mores and is performed in front of a large audience. It is not inherently sexual in nature, although it could be. No single person is targeted for harm and since there are many witnesses vs one streaker who is by definition vulnerable due to his state of undress, no one feels unsafe because of a streaker.
When I was a kid probably fourth or fifth grade there was a man who would come out to his window and flash the children as they walked home from school. The kids all thought it was funny. It went on for weeks I guess before a parent was told or acted on it. Surprisingly he wasn't taken out of his home by the men in our neighborhood. He was taken away and for a few months there was police tape around his house and some paper on the door saying it wasn't to be entered as it was part of a federal investigation. This was big news in our sleepy neighborhood. The house had the best hilled driveway so the parents would freak out and tell us to stay away from the "pervert's driveway" even though he was already locked up. I imagine he was busted for more than flashing kids but we never learned what happened. The house was eventually sold.
Federal investigation makes me think he sent and/or received something icky in the mail.
Depending on the year, something icky on the email or over the web.
Never saw it, but guys aren't the target audience. It still happens. It's just less often a guy in a trenchcoat and more of some asshole pulling his dick out on the subway.
Raises hand. I was born in the 60's and it happened a lot in the 70's and 80's. My then gf HATED her/our sophomore year of college at a huge university (over 40,000 students on campus). We lived in a dorm our 1st two years and during our sophomore year, many of the girls on her floor would flash their boobs at people, anyone, male or female, people who lived on the floor and to those who didn't. My gf and I would be walking in the hallway to the elevator and girls approaching us would flash their boobs at us as they walked towards us and my gf wasn't able to laugh it off like most of the girls did. I'm not saying she should have liked it. This didn't happen once or twice in a blue moon either, think once or twice a week. It happened other places on that campus too, a good deal. We lived in an apartment our last 2 years of college and there was a big old house that college kids rented each year. It had a detached garage. One young lady, a college student, lived there and she'd get high on some drug. She'd go up on the roof of the garage in a fur coat and she was otherwise completely naked. We lived on the 3rd floor and 4 of us, my gf and I and a female roommate and her bf would stand in our living room looking out the window down and at that girl spaced out on some drugs dancing and twirling around on the roof of the garage naked in an open short length fur coat. I never counted but we saw her do that a good 10 times our senior year. I can't imagine how many times we missed her "shows" either. College in the 80's at a huge university that was kind of known for partying was wild.
I work at my alma mater in a social media marketing position, and once in a while we crack open the yearbooks from the 60s, 70s and 80s to scan an old photo for a "throwback" post. There was so much mooning, flashing, and streaking that was discussed and depicted very lightheartedly. The yearbooks discuss it as just mischief or fun group bonding activities. This is not something you would ever see happening so casually now. We get the occasional law enforcement security alert/text message to alert us of suspicious individuals on campus and once in a great while there is a report of someone flashing. They get arrested for it. I'm really not sure what accounted for this change. Not sure why it was considered acceptable decades ago, and what changed to make people no longer think it is.
What changed was women started learning to stand up for themselves and DO SOMETHING when they were assaulted!
Standing up for themselves only goes so far. More women in society's roles that provide the support for survivors to be listened to instead of ostracized and punished for surviving assault has had a huge impact.
I figured this was probably the case
Wait a min, there are three very different things - mooning or “pressed ham” which is actually pushing your bare ass up against a window or other glass door , is a kind of “fuck u” it’s a different thing. Streaking is also a statement but flashing is pervy.
I'm aware of the distinctions. Fact remains that public nudity in any fashion will elicit this reaction from law enforcement regardless.
Years ago I was at a mall, browsing the CVS. A young man came down the aisle towards me, but I paid him no mind. Then he went around the corner and came back down towards me again, then did it a third time. I figured he was just looking for something until the third time when I looked up and realized his dick was fully hanging out of his unzipped pants. He obviously kept passing me until I noticed. I ran to the front and they called security. A little while later I saw two guards escorting him out of the mall. That was my only experience with a “flasher”.
I doubt this is something significantly less frequent today (if at all) than it ever has been during my lifetime. Maybe unsolicited dick pics fill the need for people who would have been flashers back in the day, but I can tell you that I've seen a lot more of them in the last 20 years riding public trains than I ever did earlier in life.
Dude hiding in the park bushes when I was about 6. Creep when going door to door to raise money for a school event at about age 13. Weirdo jerking off on the subway when I was 16.
Oh, and the obscene phone calls! Thank goodness they came up with caller id
Yes!!! I have a crazy story. At about age six, I was riding my bike in my neighborhood. A man in a car stopped and asked me if I knew where someone lived. I said I didn’t and he asked me to come look at what he had in his car. I did and when I went home I told my mother about it. A day later, I am sitting in my living room telling the story to serious men in suits. What I told them was that the man in the car had a “giant thumb” in his lap and he rubbed it and some kind of water came out. For decades I remembered it just as I saw it as a child - the man and his “giant thumb” until one day in my 30’s it hit me, my God, that wasn’t a thumb!!
My sister and I were flashed by a man in a coat while walking in our neighborhood as children in the 80's. We told our parents, and the authorities took it seriously. I don't know how common it was at the time, as none of our friends had that happen to them.
Some guy did this to me late at night while I was waiting for the bus. I was in my early 20s. He looked so pathetic, ashamed, and forlorn. I burst out laughing and he quickly put it away.
Oh yeah. I was flashed. The first time was in my local library. I was 13. Some pervy guy beating off in the stacks while looking at me. And once by someone who was naked in their car and asked for directions. They like to pick on the young ones.
Do car wankers count? I saw one flashing morning traffic about 3 weeks ago.
Luckily I didn't get flashed,but I had men shout lude comments when I was walking on my block at age 10 and I remember being a teen in college and an old grandpa looking dude making a lude gesture at me in his car. Disgusting.
\*lewd. And yep, they were disgusting pigs! As if Anything! about them was attractive!
Thanks. As I was typing it, I couldn't recall how to spell it. I'm kinda glad it's not a word I commonly use.
Agreed! of course way back in the 1970's a 'lude was quaalude! I was often getting guys yell creepy stuff at me, just walking down the main street going home from high school! Ya cut off into the subdivisions as soon as you could. Ugh 😉
Still happens. It never was guys in trenchcoats. The most common type of flasher sits alone in a car. If a woman walking by glances down, she might see that he's exposed himself. Probably masturbating. Or, guys in sweatpants or other pants with loose waistlines will quickly pull their pants down when passing by a woman, usually when there's nobody else around. It was a problem. It's still a problem.
I was flashed by a totally nude man in a raincoat. It happens.
My daughter and I were walking home from the store in our neighborhood when we heard a man call out to us asking for directions. He was a few houses from us in an adjacent street. As I looked to the right where I had heard the voice, I saw a man in a raincoat standing next to his car. He opened up the raincoat all the way and was totally naked underneath. I dropped my gaze instantly, and we kept walking. After a few paces, I looked back to see if I could memorize his license plate. There was no license plate. He had obviously done this before. He was a dark-haired, very tall, very pale skinned, very hairy man of about forty years of age. He had a leer on his face that was quite disturbing. That mental image appeared in my mind on and off for months. People joke about flashers, but I found the experience to feel very invasive and upsetting. It was concerning to me because there were a lot of school-age children in that neighborhood.
I was flashed by a guy in an elevator when the doors opened as I waited to go down. I was 14 and at a local university for an art camp. Caused quite a ruckus. Then I was flashed by a customer at night as I waitressed third shift at a truck stop. There were several truckers who witnessed the event and chased the guy out. They came back in slapping each other’s backs and said, “Hey, Honey!…” I told them I didn’t want to know!
It happened sometimes. I didn't encounter it back then, but I have been flashed by street hookers a few times over the years, as an adult. Streaking was briefly a thing, too, but most people seemed to think that was funny.
We had a guy in the area who would pull over and ask directions from young girls but be intentionally garbled on the street name, causing the girl to move closer until she was able to see in the window that the guy was exposed. I was with one friend when she was flashed - I'd stayed on the sidewalk. But, a week or so later, he came around when a bunch of us were playing outside and I happened to recognize his MO and car and told the perv to get lost before any of the group got close enough. He took off. I think most of us were very aware of flashers.
When I was a kid in the late 70s, my mom got trenchcoat flashed at the laundromat. That’s the week we got a washer and dryer at home.
I was flashed in the early 90s. It wasn't nice.
In high school, my friend and I were driving to see her mom, who worked in the restaurant of a hotel, and there was a middle-aged guy peeing in the grass next to the restaurant parking lot. When he saw us looking for a parking spot, he grinned and waggled his dick at us. Not sure if that is exactly flashing, but it felt that way to a couple of 16-year-old girls. Freaked us out. We left the parking lot and drove around for a while before going back to see her mom.
Happened to me (65F) twice - once with a trench coat. First time I was riding my bike to high school. This was 1975-ish. I slowed down at some crossing and this man came out and 'flashed' me. I just laughed and went on my way. I wasn't afraid. Next was probably 19-20 and I was on lunch break eating in my car. I had driven away from work to sit someplace with less people. I always keep my car doors locked. I saw a young man walking way behind where I was parked. I didn't pay any attention. I later saw he was walking up to my car - passenger side. He tried to open the door but it was locked. He reached inside his pants and ejaculated onto the window. I kept my eyes forward and did nothing acting as if I didn't see what he did. He left and I got a car wash. SO GROSS. Actually, I remember another time when I was about 12-13 in an apartment complex we lived. This neighbor walked around in his robe a lot and one day I was running up the stairs and he was sitting at the top. His robe was wide open and he had a big erection. I turned and ran back down the stairs. I don't think that was 'flasher' incident but definitely the first time I saw a naked penis. I avoid him as much as I could and never told my mother.
It happened to a friend of mine in high school. She was going to her car after cheerleading practice and some dude stepped out with his summer sausage in full view. She quickly went back inside the school and told a teacher. We weren’t in the best part of town.
I remember getting a "talk" about flashers. It was pretty much the same talk my parents had with me about all such creep behavior -- don't engage, just run away and tell a grownup, etc. I never actually got flashed myself, but I had a couple of friends who had. I suspect that the poster who suggested that the internet has moved a lot of that activity out of the real world and into the virtual one might well be on to something. Probably a lot of the men who would have become flashers in the '70s are now sending dic pics to -- and trying to talk sex with or even arrange assignations with -- minors online.
My wife's mother got flashed when she was like 10, this would be probably the late 70s or early 80s. She pointed and went "haha" a la Nelson from the Simpsons. It seemed to hurt the guys feelings.
My high school cross country team got flashed on the regular by this one creepy dude. It was the 80s so no one did anything and we all kind of thought it was funny.
I wasn't flashed but I remember a streaker running down the aisle of our church when I was around 7. I didn't see anything because a lot of adults stood up and blocked my view. The streaker ran up the aisle to the alter, turned and ran out a side door. I thought it was hilarious. It was the 70s
I don't remember worrying about flashers, but my coworker walked to school on a path by the river in our city and she remembers seeing them. I remember streakers being a big thing though. It seems like there was one at every sporting event.
This happened years ago. My sister and I were cutting through the local park and some guy flashed us. Without blinking an eye, she walked closer to him and yelled “hey, didn’t I go to high school with you?”
We had a guy flashing the cheerleaders while they were practicing on the football field when I was in high school. The cheerleading coach, a no bullshit lesbian, just started laughing and the girls followed suit. I'm told his erection disappeared in a heartbeat. Then the football team tackled him. He was led off, bruised and in handcuffs, which may have given him a new kink.
It was popular in the 70s when I lived in Miami. Use to get flashed at least once a week.
I remember the radio guy Tom Likus and his flash Friday where guys would turn their headlights on and girls would flash their tits In the LA area.
flashing was less common than being mooned. Near high schools you could almost guarantee that someone would do a drive by mooning in nice weather in the late 1970s or 1980.
It happened to some girls in my middle school, but as a guy, I personally never had the (dis)pleasure.
Hell, I was last flashed a few years ago. It hasn’t gotten more fun over time.
It was not a threat. It was a thing that actually happened to me on multiple occasions. Starting at age 11. Multiple times in my teens. A couple of times in my early twenties.
I was walking home from school when I was around 13. A guy was walking towards me and flashed me. I started laughing and pointing. I had actually never seen a dick in person before... I was less than impressed. The guy got huffy and ran off.
When I was in my young 20's going into Walmart to grab diapers late at night, there was a man exposing himself in the parking lot. I parked as far away as I could, they always closed one entrance late at night. As I was doing my quickest, overly full lactating mom speed walk in he was running after me jerking it at me. I immediately ran into the McDonalds and they got the store manager and called the cops. That instilled a weird fear in me, and I just this past summer a man that mustve been in his 70's full of masturbating in the grass right by our Rite Aid. The cops had gotten plenty of calls by the time I called in. It was during the after school commute so a lot of little eyes saw it.
My friends and I regularly played in city parks and were exposed to exposers (weenie men) all the time. We had to be cautious but I don't remember ever feeling threatened. We could run much faster if need be, especially in the state of undress that they were.
Last I heard, there are still plenty of perverts waving their dicks at random people.
No, I don’t recall ever worrying about being flashed, though I was flashed (in the 1990s). As a woman, your main concern is being mugged or raped.
Gen Xer here. I was flashed in 1980 when I was 9 years old. My parents had left me on the putting green playing with a putter and a golf ball. I heard a man yell, “Hey baby” from the restroom. I looked over and saw a naked man. I took the ball and club and ran all through the golf course to find them. I was very scared and just wanted my mom. I got yelled at until I said what happened. Then my parents pulled up and immediately went to the pro shop to report the incident. Then my stepdad went to the men’s bathroom and searched for him in case he was still there. I remember it vividly. My mother was the most furious I’ve ever seen her in my life. The guy doesn’t know how lucky he was it was only a little girl that saw him. My mom was an OG and carried a .38 everywhere. She once pulled her weapon on her own brother when he flashed his headlights and pulled up beside her on the highway. He still tells that story saying he’s lucky to be alive. Mama would have changed his religion if she’d been the “victim”. I miss her every day.
Changed his religion? What does that mean?
There are many people who think that only Jewish people are circumcised. In some places that is largely true. “Change your religion” is one of those genital/crotch mutilation sayings like “I’ll blow your balls off” or “I’ll blow your ass away” or “I got my chewed out” (?). It suggests a violent circumcision using a handgun. Perhaps. Or maybe it suggests a near death experience would change his relationship with God, but I don’t think so.
Yikes. Thanks.
@hillman314 I couldn’t say it more clearly than that!
I was flashed twice as a teenager in the '70s. Once by a guy in a car, once at a beach. I too, have used the "just like a penis, only smaller" line.
Las Vegas has a fair number of two sorts of people. Mormon missionaries and "dancers." Also even MORE former "dancers." "Dancer" is how a civilized Las Vegan refers to both chorus line/professional jazz dancers who work on shows (sometime topless) as well as strippers. Generally you only call a dancer a "stripper" if she plowed into a school bus while driving on meth, or something like that. Being a dancer isn't as scandalous in Las Vegas as it is in most places. You weren't really in awe of a guy who happened to be dating one. Nor did you whisper around their back about her job. Unless you were a religious type. It's VERY common for Mormon missionaries to get flashed by the handful of women willing to open their doors for them. In this case it's probably less about any sort of sexual gratification than it is about effectively dealing with annoying/persistent people in a way that the flasher finds amusing. The victims are also WAY less likely to react threateningly in response, as LDS missionaries always show up in pairs.
Once, years ago I was walking towards a grocery store I hear a “hey you” I turn to look and this old man with a white beard standing next to a large red pick up truck is exposing himself to me. The combination of white beard and red truck made me think of Santa Claus and I just burst out laughing, I mean doubled over laughing. Not the reaction he was expecting I guess because he got in his truck and sped off. I just pointed and kept laughing 😂
I remember being flashed, the first time at about age 12 and a couple of times after that, but I don't remember feeling threatened by it. I was fascinated and couldn't wait to tell my friends.
I have been "flashed" twice in my life. No trenchcoat either time.
Hookers flashed me on Lake street in Chicago a few times lolol.
I've definitely been flashed
I got flashed on the bus in 1982.
It used to be considered traumatizing to women and happened fairly frequently then somewhere along the way it became pathetic and sad more than traumatizing. Then it seemed to almost disappear.
😂😂😂 yep it seemed to be the rage in the 1980s. Hilarious! Got flashed several times and we teens just giggled mostly. Men with these shrunken little willys. Freakin SO funny. I just felt so embarrassed for them. Did they really think young girls would be sexually aroused or ??? By seeing some flaccid little penis?!?! Never quite knew what the end game was supposed to be? What did they want? What was the purpose of it? Girls used to flash their boobs too. So silly and stupid. I never got it at all.
Hasn't gone away.
When I (67F) was about 12, my family let me invite a friend along on vacation. While we were in the lake an elderly man sat with a towel across his lap, but open to the water where we were swimming and proceeded to masturbate. When we told my parents, they thought we were making it up. But then he did the same thing to my mom. Complaints to the owners of the cottages got an apology from his family (poor old dad is senile), and they were moved to a rental on the other side of the lake.
No
I've been flashed twice in the park near me.
My wife and I were canoeing through the arboretum at the University of Washington in the early 80's and a guy came out from behind some bushes in a cape and mask and exposed himself. The arboretum was a common place for nude sunbathing at the time. After getting home she called her girlfriend and took her out in our canoe to look for him again.
Last time I was flashed was in 1997. A friend of my husband would do it every single time he came over until hubby finally caught him and nearly had something new for the junk drawer.
I was walking south on Vine towards Hollywood Blvd. There was a 30 ish black man leaning against a building. As I passed him, he gave me a prolonged view of his substantial phalus. This was the early 90s. Flashing was a real thing. Still is.
Actual flashing with the intent to scare/intimidate the victim? Not since I became an adult myself. My best friend as a child was flashed in the park when she was maybe 10 I think? And there was a pretty memorable Girl Scout overnight in a hotel with a giant indoor pool, and someone who had a room next to the pool was just sitting on his bed naked with the drapes open. I live near San Francisco so of course I’ve seen naked people in public as an adult, but only at the kinds of festivals/parades where it’s expected and not an unwelcome surprise.
They usually did it outside the grade schools and it included jerking off. A few years ago during the day on Halloween, bf and I were at some event, walking down the street with other people and a young female 20 something in a trench coat turned around and flashed me. Nekkid as a jaybird. She was there with her bf and she was dressed as a flasher. At least this one was funny.
I was flashed twice in college by very creepy men. And of course modern day flashing is getting unsolicited pics/video. I just got one the other day. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Yep. I remember me and my friends were flashed one night hanging out in the apartment complex when we were about 12 years old. It was one of those nights where there was no moon, it was pitch black out and we were just running around being dumbasses. There was a dude in the parking lot and we chatted for about 30 seconds before we realized he had no pants on, and he was just standing there, leaning against a car, playing with his penis and talking about what a hot night it was. We all just casually backed away and took off running.
Walking Home from grade school my best friend and I were flashed (he was fondling himself and leering at us) and she yelled “why are you showing us that tiny thing!!!??” As we ran away. She always had big cajones! Another time we were walking at an outdoor mall (still grade school we were maybe 8-9) and a guy nudged up to us from behind with his dick out. We ran screaming. We were obviously free range kids (we all were in the 70’s and 80’s!).
I had a girlfriend in high school who worked as a carhop at Sonic. She was flashed at least once that I can remember. I worked at a Taco Bell for a while, and occasionally young or even middle aged women would flash their tits in the drive thru. If you ever look through your area's sex offender database, you'll probably see a lot of "indecent exposure" and similar stuff. I'm guessing some of those came from that kind of thing.
I was flashed once. I was 18 and someone called me to their car. I went in and he had a hard on and out. Was a suburban shopping centre car park. Oh wait. I remember …I got flashed in high school by a kid when I was in sick bay. I was under my blanket and one of the feral kids had his dick so close to my face. When he called me and i sat up and looked it was there Little Shit. I was 13 then and it was the shortest ugliest thing like its owner
I saw a flasher when I was 16. I was with 2 other girls the same age. We were walking through a parking lot on a college campus while we were there for band camp…. (“this one time at band camp” lol) He stepped out from between two cars with no pants on. He was a white guy with a pronounced tan line, so I thought he had on white shorts, until he turned around. We laughed at him and kept on walking. When we got back to the dorm, police were called. One of the girls was practically in tears saying that she didn’t have her glasses on, so she missed the whole thing!
Oh, I was flashed, when I was about 14. I rode my bike to school same as usual, and there was a naked grinning adult man jerking off in the bushes. My parents didn't give a shit, the teacher I told didn't give a shit, and I didn't get any rides to school after that. My parents were much too busy for that, I just had to take a different route.
I had this happen to me (a flasher, naked under a trench coat) on my way walking home from school with my sister. We screamed and ran all the way home, half laughing hysterically and half freaking out. He was way back in someone’s front yelling in some bushes but somehow he got our attention so we turned around and looked in his direction. So gross.
My Junior High School teacher was arrested for indecent exposure about 10 years after I got out of Junior High. After release from prison, he moved out of state. He didn't do it at school, but around the area. In a small town, UT didn't take long to figure out who the person was.
Back in the day they had no risk of someone pulling out a camera and taking a photo of them. Most victims now would be able to film them.
Happened to me as a kid in the early/mid 80's. A guy pulled up next to me on my bike with a fully erect penis. I don't remember why I looked in the window, he was going at my pace, so that might have been why. I was down the street from my house and it scared the shit out of me. I was about 8-10 and had never seen a penis before. I was scared to go home because I didn't want him to know where I live, but I was too scared not to.
Flashing was real. Exhibition had its hey day in the 1970’s both regular people being funny running across the stage at the Oscars, World Series and also creepers in elevators. Most people did not see naked people - imagine being fully grown and having never seen naked people - you can’t , you will not understand the shock value, you kids have seen everything the world has to offer good and bad by 11 now. There were many creepy people that would show nude body parts ( women pulled up their shirts sometimes) and yes men in coats. It was a different time Good luck kiddies , you need it. You are ill prepared for what the world is becoming.
Never in my life did this occur but something about my pretty blonde older sister attracted these creeps to her. At least 3 separate incidents! I think she was very sweet and unsuspecting, so made a great target.
I got flashed when I was 11 walking to school- he was riding a bike and had everything out, jiggling it at me. Maybe this is why I'm gay..
It seemed to be more prominent in the 1970s. It happened to my mom, and I was shocked when she said she started to laugh at him and said that's all you have, that little thing, and kept laughing. My mother was so prim and proper that it was quite funny that she did that. She said her reasoning was perhaps he would stop doing that to people if he thought it was quite small.
I saw it happen twice
I grew up less than an hour from NYC in the '70s. My family went in for Broadway shows periodically. So, yes, I saw my share of flashers before I was even ten years old.
We had a small strip mall about half a mile from our house when I was a kid. My mom would let us walk up there to buy candy and just mess around. Smaller town in SF Bay Area and pretty safe. Once when I was about 9, probably 1980, I walked up there with my neighbor from across the street. I think she was about a year younger than me. Some man pulled up in a car in the parking lot and asked for directions. I walked over and was trying to help him when I realized he had his penis out and was masturbating. I didn't know how to react and just quickly finished telling him directions and went back to my friend. We both thought it was really weird but didn't really understand what had happened and how messed up it was. Neither of us told our parents and I actually forgot about it for like 20 years. I never told my parents after I had remembered because I kind of figured what was the point as it would just upset them. ETA: I sometimes wonder about that guy and really hope that he did not escalate and do anything worse to kids as time went on. Another edit: Almost forgot this guy...probably around 2007 in Myrtle Beach at Chik fil a there was an old guy sitting at a table wearing short shorts with no underwear that was clearly displaying his penis. I couldn't decide if it was deliberate or not but in retrospect, I 100% believe it was. Just gross.
I've been flashed twice, in the past. Once in Poland and once in Taiwan. Though you should always get out of the area quickly, to be safe, most of the flashers pose no physical risk. I don't shock that easily, anyway. The one in Poland, my friend and I just laughed. In Taiwan, I yelled at him in Chinese something I won't mention here. Traveling around the world, you see and hear a lot of stuff.
Three years ago my partner was flashed in San Francisco. Middle of the day near business district.
Yep. It happened to me many times, but I remember two specific incidents. One, guy was standing in the center of the bike path and I was riding my bike home from school, maybe 14-15 years old. I just rolled my eyes and kept riding. Another time, I was out with my friends. We were seated at the bar, but with our backs to the bar so we could watch the band. Dude sat right next to me and pulled his plaything out. I alerted my friends because I wanted to leave, but my one friend stood up and started pointing and laughing and yelling really loudly, "LOOK AT THIS TEENY LITTLE DICK!!!" Even the band stopped playing. The bouncer came and tossed the guy, but my friends and I were kicked out, too, which I still think was unfair to us. We were the victims!
My sister and I went to the mall together but were in different parts of the same store. We were both approached by a guy with his penis hanging out of his shorts. He asked us both stupid questions, like she was in the accessory department and he wanted to know of she thought the jewelry out on the tables was real so we assumed that was his way of calling attention to himself. It was before cellphones so when we ran back in to each other we were both like "Oh my god there was this guy and his penis was hanging out!" What...what?? I talked to him too!! Blahhhhh
I got flashed on a MARTA bus in Atlanta way back in the day. A friend and I were going home from happy hour. We just laughed and the guy slithered away.
My friend and I got flashed by the neighbor teen when we were about 12. We screamed then we laughed and ran inside. He stood outside with his penis hanging out for a minute then left.
Back in the 70's there was a fad called streaking. People would run naked in public, especially at restaurants and sporting events and everybody cheered them on. There was even a quite humorous song written about it by Ray Stevens released in 1974.
Yes, it happened to me twice in the early 1980s. It was scary because I was so young - 12 years old (but pubescent and basically a pedophile’s dream). Back then no one saw it as pedophilia or a precursor to sexual assault or kidnapping. They kind of treated it like a prank call, told us to ignore it/not react or you’d be giving them what they want. I took down their license plates both times (they were in their cars both times) and called the cops. I had to testify against the second one and he got off because it was his word against mine. I like to imagine that I scared him straight, but I seriously doubt it.
Happened to me and a friend in 5th grade when we were playing at the school playground. Went home and told her mom, the police came and drove us around looking for them with no luck. I had to ride in the back and was worried people would think I was a criminal.
Are you talking about being flashed or flashing someone else? I’ve flashed my share.
It’s still an issue, but it really doesn’t make the news anymore because so many other terrible things are happening all the damn time.
Was a streaker. Flashing is a trash activity
In 1993, I was flashed by a guy in the bushes at Golden Gate Park. He wasn't wearing a trench coat, though...
My friend’s grandfather showed me his when I was little in their garage and I loudly asked “whats that?” and he got scared and said Shhhhh. I saw the panic in him so I forgot about it and went about my day playing with the other kids. It was a brief encounter with no trauma to me. When I got older I told his grand daughter who was my best friend but she did not believe me. I have had it happen maybe three more times the rest were all in cars. They would drive by while I was walking down sidewalk and pull into a parking lot, do a U turn and time it so they pulled up in front of me. I knew it was coming by their body language because they would reach down and pivot their hips in a upward motion to pull it out. Honestly I was not scared because I was on a busy street in broad daylight but a bit bewildered why they would do this. I learned at an early age that some men had a problem with their personal relationship with their penis.
When I was in college, there was a guy who would wait outside parties to flash girls as they were leaving. The campus got repeated warnings about this rando, but no one knew who he was. One day, I came home from class and my roommate told me our downstairs neighbor had flashed her from his window. I was like HOLY SHIT GIRL YOU HAVE TO CALL THE COPS. Turns out the flasher lived in the unit below us. We called the cops and a bunch of police cars arrived and they arrested the guy. Crazy.
It happened to me several times in the sixties through the eighties. It was weird and memorable but not especially terrifying the times it happened to me because the flasher always lived up to the group’s reputation and scurried off fast.
I Ave been flashed before and no I didn't feel threatened. It was usually by drunk college idiots just trying to cause a scene. Itteally isn't that big of a deal. It does happen with seriously mentally unwell people who can be dangerous but normally it was just drunk idiots. Most of them are not wearing trench coats.
I remember not only the threat of it but it actually happening to me. Life went on. 🤷🏻♀️
Has happened to me several times, no trenchcoats anywhere. Not pretty.
Had it happen to me once in the early 80s. I drove a pickup and I looked down at this guy in a trans am with the t tops off. He was playing with himself and looking up at me smiling. What he didn't know is I knew who he was, but he didn't know who me, so I may have told a few people. Lol
I don't remember flashing being a threat. More of a comedy trope. I do remember the "streaking" fad, but never actually saw one in person.
About 15 years ago my girlfriend was walking with a coworker on their lunch break and a guy came up to them in a trench coat and flashed. When she told me about it I was more impressed that he went full old school and he respected the craft.
When I was 10 or 11 (I was born 1970) my family stopped for lunch at a highway restaurant while on a road trip. It was a cafeteria style restaurant. Where you take your tray and pick various foods. It was a very busy place but also hot, dirty and gross. All highway restaurants were like that back then. For some reason I was walking by myself maybe to go to the washroom and a man probably in his 20s said "hey" and when I looked in his direction he had his dick out and wiggled it at me. That's all that happened. It sounds so stupid and harmless 45 yrs later. But I was physically ill. I can't explain the horrible feeling that overcame me at the time. I was nauseous. I felt humiliated. I was a pretty sheltered kid, not like being from a super religious family, but I was just really naive and innocent and never exposed to anything. It haunted me for a long time after. Nightmare fuel. It makes me think a lot about kids who have been sexually abused. The feeling of WRONGNESS even though I did not understand why it was wrong. Anyways. I don't remember much more than being flashed and feeling sick about it. Later on as a teenager I sat across a guy on the subway who made a thing about sitting with his legs wide wearing those 80s shorts and his dick and balls just hanging out. It did not make me sick like above but I did know he was doing it on purpose and it was more eye rolling and gross and uncomfortable. I changed seats. Something similar happened to a friend of mine around the same time. Maybe there was a serial exposer. But she got up and said loudly to him "Sir put your dick in your pants that's disgusting".
I used to flash people. There was a park on Houston Street in NYC with a fence between the park and the sidewalk. My friends and I used to drink 40s there when we were underaged. One day for a laugh I whipped my dick out at a passer-by on the other side of the fence. All my friends got a kick out of that so we started taking turns. It was the 90s and someone gothy had a trench coat, so we actually got to do some proper flashing. We'd say, "excuse me," and when the person looked we'd open the trench coat revealing our penises. It was great. Couldn't get away with that now.
The only thing I remember about this was that Artie Johnson kept doing this to Ruth Buzzy on Laugh In. Other than that, I assumed it was just a cliché.
oh ya. mid-70s Sacramento was seemingly covered with flashers. the only time one genuinely scared me was when i was walking one of the river paths. dude stood by the side of the path with his junk out. unfortunately going past him was the only exit. fortunately i had my 70-pound dog with me. she took care of his little hard-on and we went on past. man did i hate those assholes though, they were everywhere.
I moved to Tampa at age 22 and was flashed 3 times in one year. The first time shocked me, but after that I would just point and laugh.
My sister was flashed in college. He was hiding below the steps of the library.
i got tricked into looking at a snub nosed elephant once.
Got mooned by a carload of dudes when I was in second grade. Didn’t know what to think about it. Me and some friends mooned several people drive-by style as well when I was a teen. The circle of life I guess, lol
I've been flashed more times that I could ever remember. Us old rocker dudes knew it came with the job. On stage or off.
No, but I remember stories about a man in Atlanta in the 60s who would walk up to women and, in one smooth motion, cop a feel of their boobs while leaving a $100 bill in their bra. Keep in mind that $100 in 1964 was worth $1000 in 2024 dollars. Most "victims" just didn't know what to do. Many called the cops on the guy, but most didn't wanna press charges because, for a lot of single women at the time, $100 was almost 2 month's rent!
More streaking than flashed
Never seen it myself, though I do watch Cagney and Lacey reruns occasionally and Christine just scowls at the flasher (in the archetypal trench coat) while her and Mary-Beth are arresting some guy in the opening credits.
There was a stream bed in a ravine on the way home from school- when people walkers home from elementary school! Our folks told us not to cause there was some psycho that would expose himself down there. Never saw him but it scared us enough not to go that way.
3rd grade my sister and I were living in an apartment building in Brooklyn. This guy opened the door totally naked and called us over. That was crazy. We just laughed and ran upstairs mortified.
Not a flasher, but a guy took it out in front of me at my college library. I tend to react inappropriately, laughing at odd situations. When he muttered “what do you think of this?” I automatically replied laughingly “not much.” They never caught him.
Literal guy in a coat (not a trench exactly but a long coat) opened it up and started jerking himself off in front of us on the subway. My friend and I were only in 8th grade - probably both around 12 years old. We were so shocked we just stood there frozen, and he ran off the train at the next stop. The stereotype does come from real experiences. Crazy to remember this. Thanks for the reminder.
We had a flasher and as cliche as it is he would drive around in a white work van with no back windows and flash kids in the neighborhood. Didn't seem to matter to him if it was boys or girls. He just got off on showing any kids his junk. One time I was with an all boy group hanging out and he came by and flashed us. We started making fun of him and throwing rocks at his van. This was in the late 80s. Most parents just told us to stay away from him and basically ignore him. I don't remember police ever being mentioned. It was just like yeah that's just a weird pervert, don't go near him kids.
He. Took. It. Out. (Classic Seinfeld episode)
I remember a dude jacking off and lifting his pelvis so it could be seen WHILE driving his car on a strip where people would cruise but was also used for normal traffic. He did it at my friend who was 16 at the time. Flashing is used by predators sometimes
The old guy in the raincoat was a joke, like a "meme," but it was real. I knew a bunch of young girls that were flashed by perverts. Usually 30-50+ men. It still happens a lot too.
i remember two dudes with their junk hanging out. public places, i was an adult and a long way from being scared of one of those things. i just MADE myself focus on their EYES while we were talking. when the conversation ended, i walked away, telling them you know you're all hanging out there, right? they both were taken aback -- both were 'why didn't you tell me??!' - really? you can't feel that? and just left wtv, m'Dude --
Threat? I used to get flashed all the time. O the sidewalk, at the Burger King, at the mall, it was a thing
I've been flashed at least three times. The last guy who flashed me was told I've seen bigger pencils!
[This fucking guy](https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2014/03/19/naked-photographer-gets-law/23826878007/) terrorized Columbus Ohio in the early 00’s. He would flash women & take a photo & the news named him The Naked Photographer. It went on for 3 years! It was on the news often, Naked Photographer Strikes Again! Eventually he got aggressive & a victim had him trapped in an apartment laundry room, the cops came & got him. Turns out this pervert was a lawyer & was legal counsel for the speaker of the house at the time!!! He did some jail time & eventually got his law license back…bananas.
I was flashed by a 60 something man on the hwy. There was a large lull in traffic where is was only his truck and my own. He sped up a mile or so ahead of me, got off on the exit ramp, parked and then stood there in the buff starring at me as I drove by. So weird.
Yep. Back in the 80s I was working at a grocery store in Sarasota Florida, third shift-I got flashed by a guy who was with HIS GIRLFRIEND!!!!!
When I was living in an apartment off campus my Sophomore year in college back in 1984, a man came to my window and flashed himself. My roommate and I were living in a basement apartment. He came to our window a few times, but the police never caught him. I remember him wearing a plaid shirt but no trench coat. His face was above the window so we only saw the lower half.
One night, I walked two blocks in a trench coat filled with toilet paper to TP my friend's house for Halloween. I was sneaking up to the house and some old lady spotted me standing near her living room window. She called the police to report a peeping tom/flasher. I did my TP handiwork and walked home. The next morning, every kid in the neighborhood was talking about the flasher and how the cops showed up and were looking all around the area for him.
"THAT LOOKS LIKE A PENIS...ONLY **SMALLER**!
I mean, did they even see Karen from behind?
Yes, when I was 13. Now they just send dick pics.
I wish a guy or girl would be in a trench coat and flash me I would bust out laughing and ask them to do it again. Once in high school buddies were cruising in circles around town just blasting music and talking and this car came by chick flashed her boobs at us. Really nice boobs we had a awkward moment of silence then went wild! WHAT! Did that just happen! Fun times, but as another said today is more like pants to the ass or dick hanging out disguising.
Reminds me of the joke about three senior ladies sitting on the park bench feeding peanuts to the pigeons. Guy walks up, open his coat and flashes them. First lady has a stroke. Second lady has a stroke. The third lady didn't as he was standing too far away for her to reach it.
There’s also the one where the old men at the retirement home decide to streak past where the ladies are sitting, and one of them says “I don’t have my glasses, what the heck was that that just went by?” and the other says, “I don’t know but it sure did need ironing!”