“Criminologists say flashers are motivated by a deviant desire to surprise the unsuspecting. Such an impulse may have driven the man who startled Sara Chenekan as she picked okra in her employer’s backyard in October. That same man, police suspect, has exposed himself to at least 16 women in Gwinnett County since 2005. While working in the backyard garden, Chenekan, a 53-year-old caregiver, saw a white van with a ladder rack atop it pass by her and park on the side of Drowning Creek Road in Dacula. She thought the driver wanted to inquire about buying homegrown vegetables, but he didn’t have any questions — or clothes. He got out of the van and walked toward her while touching himself. ‘He was naked. It was no joke,’ Chenekan said. ‘It was terrible. The way he was coming toward me… It was not an easy thing.’ Chenekan was alone, but she yelled toward the house as if her employer was within earshot. ‘Tim, this man is coming at me,’ she said, hoping to spook him. The man scurried back to his van and drove away… Police have had difficulty investigating the case because of the sparse description given by victims, said Cpl. Illana Spellman, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Police Department. One reason for the sparse descriptions may be that it’s the man’s lack of clothes — not his face — that first draws attention and disgust.” — Atlanta Journal Constitution (US)

“It was no joke,” the woman insisted — but in her disavowal you can hear a deep furrow of absurdity running through the whole episode. Really, if you have to be harrassed by a flasher, could you be doing any sillier thing than picking okra? Somehow the very word undermines the gravity of the whole story. That’s not to say the woman wasn’t genuinely frightened, or that the man might not be a potential attacker. But the moment you hear okra, you just can’t take the incident too seriously. It’s as though the man were naked except for a pair of Birkenstocks. The detail subverts the horror of the thing.

Fortunately for the victim, she kept enough presence of mind to scare the flasher off. A psychologist quoted later in the story advises that “the best reaction for a woman faced with such a scenario is no reaction.” The idea is that the flasher gets off on the look of shock on his victim’s face, so if you show no shock, you give him no gratification.

On reflection, though, that hardly seems like an efficient way to deal with a flasher. It’s too late to discourage him with lack of reaction. He’s already dropped his drawers. Wouldn’t it be better to discourage him a little more strongly? You could say something like, “If I wanted to see a baby gherkin, I’d buy a pickle,” or, “Little boy, why don’t you come back when you and your wee-wee have grown up a little?” Or if you happen to be picking okra when you are accosted by an exhibitionist, perhaps you could take advantage of the fact that the little pods are covered with spines. (”Coming in contact with the spines can lead to a burning, itching and unpleasant sensation wherever one’s skin touches the plant.”) Invite your flasher to step closer, then whip some okra at his peter. That’ll teach him to keep away from the okra patch.

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