International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Voyeurism (from the French voir – to see) is a term used to describe the act of observing the actions of other people in order to provoke sexual arousal. Although all-encompassing, it is often associated specifically with the behavior of adolescent males, who frequently engage in voyeuristic activities in the period leading up to sexual maturity. In Robert Zemeckis's Back to the Future (1985), the time-traveling teenager Marty McFly watches a teenage incarnation of his own father (George) in the act of spying on his own future mother (Lorraine), herself still a nubile girl. While she is happily undressing in what she believes to be the safe haven of her own bedroom, her future husband is perched on the branch of a tree, peering at her through binoculars. Here George conforms exactly to the popular idea of a “voyeur,” someone whose primary sexual gratification derives from the unseen, hidden act of looking. Although Lorraine is unaware of being watched, the horrified Marty, who can see everything, groans, “Oh my God, he's a peeping tom.” Marty's disgust is understandable. Described as a “perversion” by Freud, the act of voyeurism is seen as a violation of the victim's privacy, something that, conversely, also applies to the voyeur – for whom gratification is often dependent on not being seen to look. If this kind of voyeuristic activity may appear dangerous (in the United Kingdom ... log in or subscribe to read full text