AW80W

Around the World with Eighty Women: Maria’s Story (Spain)

Creepy flashers, flamenco dancing, and attending Catholic girls’ school

Photo by Khuong Nguyen on Unsplash

Content warning: Discussion of indecent exposure. *The name Maria is a pseudonym to retain participant confidentiality. To learn about the AW80W project, read the introduction here.

When I ask Maria* if any experiences come to mind when thinking about growing up as a young girl in Spain, she immediately exclaims: ‘I need to tell you about all the creepy flashers!’

For those not familiar with the term ‘flasher’ in this context, it refers to a man who exposes his genitalia, usually to a woman, to cause shock or distress. According to Maria, this was a regular occurrence:

‘The first time it happened, I was around six years old. It was the same for many girls from my neighbourhood. You’d be walking to school — sometimes alone— and a flasher would jump out and expose himself. We’d run away and then share stories over lunch. It eventually became the norm and we laughed it off.’

Maria emphasises how numerous individuals in her area would flash women and girls, but nobody seemed to do anything about it: ‘They were well known in the area and we even knew where one of them lived. It seems shocking now…