Alexandra Katehakis, sex therapist and clinical director at the Center for Healthy Sex, tells Rolling Stone that pressuring someone to watch you masturbate is not about sex. “It’s not so much a sexual act as it is an act of violence,” she says. “What the person is getting off on is the humiliation of their target. It’s eroticized rage, expressed in a way that’s really sadistic. And the reaction they’re getting is arousing to them because it’s all about power and control.”
Why someone would commit a non-violent sexual assault such as flashing, rather than a physically violent act like groping or rape, is largely because of self-imposed boundaries. “Typically, a non-violent offender won’t cross that line. Rape is a more pathological act and more criminal. Exhibitionism is a lewd conduct charge; rape is a felony,” she says. “We could say the exhibitionist has more impulse control.”
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