Strange World of Frotteurism

Repeatedly for at least 6 months, the patient has intense sexual desires, fantasies or behaviors that involve touching and rubbing against a person who doesn't consent to this behavior.

This causes clinically important distress or impairs work, social or personal functioning.

Associated Features:

              Most perpetrators are aged 15-25 years.
              Frotteurism has been noted to be equally common
              among older, shy, inhibited individuals.

Differential Diagnosis:

Some disorders have similar or even the same symptoms. The clinician, therefore, in his/her diagnostic attempt has to differentiate against the following disorders which need to be ruled out to establish a precise diagnosis.

              Mental Retardation
              Substance Intoxication
              Manic Episode
              Schizophrenia 

Cause:

Most acts of frottage occur when the person is between 15 to 25 years of age, and declines thereafter.

Treatment:

The treatment of paraphilias in general may involve the use of medications and/or behavioral therapy.

Category:
Paraphilias and Sexual Disorders

Etiology:
Like most disorders in this category, many theories exist in an attempt to explain how this disorder develops. Most experts agree that there are underlying issues related to childhood which play a major role in the etiology.

Symptoms:
This disorder is characterized by either intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or behaviors in which the individual touches or rubs against an non-consenting person in a sexual manner. This often occurs in somewhat conspicuous situations such as on a crowded bus or subway. To be considered diagnosable, the fantasies, urges, or behaviors must cause significant distress in the individual or be disruptive to his or her everyday functioning.

Treatment:
Treatment typically involves psychotherapy aimed at uncovering and working through the underlying cause of the behavior.

Prognosis:
Prognosis is good although often there are other issues which may surface once the behaviors are extinguished. If this is the case, these issues must be worked through as well.

Every time I find myself defining the word "frotteurism" for someone I always set the scene on a subway. Underground trains have always just seemed like the right mode of transportation for a sexual deviant. This is why, until yesterday, I felt relatively safe riding the bus. No more. I don't even know what kind of word defines the perverts who ride the bus. Not that I'd rather run into a frotteurist but these bus-riding furniture fuckers need to start doing a better job cleaning up after themselves.

Frotteurism, while strange, at least makes a little sense. I first learned about it in a sexual education class in college and then later on the subway. It falls, I guess if you had to categorize it, somewhere between rape and masturbation. It's like masturbation in that while it's going on you're trying to keep it as inconspicuous as possible, yet it's like rape in that when you get caught doing it you're going to get beaten very badly. Picture a grown man or woman applying his or her genitals to the leg of some unsuspecting commuter in broad daylight. I sometimes just picture Europe.

Here's the definition as explained by www.bigeye.com:

"Frotteurism is obtaining sexual arousal and gratification by rubbing one's genitals against others in public places or crowds."

And this is funny until you realize some stranger is scraping his boner all over your pants.

You ride the bus, though, and you encounter an entirely different kind of problem. Maybe I'm generalizing a little bit but the evidence seems to point to the fact that people are porking the seat cushions on the 57 bus from Brighton to Boston University. I came to this outlandish conclusion yesterday, ass halfway down to the seat, when I realized that there was a spent condom jammed between the cushions.

I looked around for the perpetrator but wound up making eye contact with some happy-dick businessman who smiled that smile that says, "Hey, that's some furniture fucker we've got on our hands, huh?" Or maybe it was more of a smile that said, "You like my work?"

Who is the perpetrator of this deviant sexual act? I don't know and I don't care. But whoever he is, above all else, he really sent us all a message. He provided us all with an opportunity. He gave us a chance to reflect, to really look at ourselves in the mirror as a country, and as individuals. This crazed cushion copulator shot his message deep into the padding of our collective consciousness and let us all rise up together and shout at the same time and at top of our lungs, "NATHAN LAVER NEEDS A GODDAMN CAR!"

Frotteurism, classified among the so-called paraphilias, involves intense, recurrent fantasies of, and/or actual touching and rubbing (the genitalia) against a nonconsenting person, in association with sexual arousal. The behavior usually occurs in crowded places, and the individual usually fantasizes an exclusive, caring relationship with the victim. However, the person generally tries to escape detection after touching the victim. By definition, there is significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.

Most acts of frottage occur when the person is between 15 to 25 years of age, and declines thereafter. The treatment of paraphilias in general may involve the use of medications and/or behavioral therapy. In male sexual offenders, medroxyprogesterone is sometimes used to decrease sexual desire. You may want to refer to the book, Treating the Sexual Offender (Sage, 1991), by BM Maletzky for a review of behavioral and medical treatments. Also see the article in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, vol. 87, pp. 445-450, 1993 by Thibaut, et al., on the use of leuprolide in the treatment of severe paraphilias.

Several psychiatric concepts were prominent at this time. One of them was a constitutional predisposition of unknown origin called degeneration, which refers to an innate neurologic weakness that is transmitted with increased severity to future generations and produces deviations from the norm. Masturbation was blamed for a list of diseases including insanity, suicide, self-mutilation, and tuberculosis. The law of association of ideas suggests that when sex and another experience occur, one stimulus sets off the other.

Ellis worked against the prudish view of sex that existed at the time, and he advocated the decriminalization of homosexuality. Freud wrote on fetishism, masochism, and the theory of perversions. These early investigators of sexual deviation provide an important principal: "Not only must the act be studied, but also the person. The personal roots of deviance spring from an interaction of the individual's biological nature and his early life experiences."

Disorders of human behavior remain difficult to understand, identify, and treat. Few data are available, too much of our knowledge is based on speculation and unsupported theory, and societal stereotypes influence our perceptions. Good science-based research remains difficult, and monetary, ethical, and legal concerns complicate such research.

Sexual deviation is a term applicable to a subclass of sexual disorders termed paraphilias. Paraphilias are associated with arousal in response to sexual objects or stimuli not associated with normal behavior patterns and that may interfere with the establishment of sexual relationships. In modern classification systems, the term paraphilia is preferable to sexual deviation because it clarifies the essential nature of this group of behaviors (ie, arousal in response to an inappropriate stimulus).

The American Psychiatric Association�s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV), the prevailing resource for diagnostic criteria of paraphilias, describes the essential feature of paraphilias as recurrent, intense, sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies generally involving nonhuman objects, the suffering or humiliation of oneself or partner, or children or other nonconsenting persons. The DSM-IV describes 8 of the more commonly observed paraphilias and makes reference to several other examples. People who experience one paraphilia also may experience other paraphilias, although the paraphilia may occur as an isolated event. Commonly, people who manifest paraphilias also exhibit personality disorders, substance abuse problems, or affective disorders.

Prevalence Paraphilias rarely are diagnosed in clinical settings. Large commercial markets in paraphiliac pornography and paraphernalia are testaments that prevalence is high. Pedophilia, voyeurism, and exhibitionism are the most commonly observed behaviors in clinics that specialize in paraphilia treatment. Sexual masochism and sexual sadism are much less commonly observed. Approximately half of patients observed in clinics for treatment of paraphilias are married.

Differentials Nonparaphiliacs may describe nonpathological use of sexual fantasies, behaviors, or objects as stimuli for sexual excitement.

In patients with mental retardation, paraphilia should be distinguished from dementia, personality change due to general medical condition, substance intoxication, manic episode, or schizophrenia in which judgment, social skills, or impulse control are compromised.

When appropriate, public urination should be distinguished from exhibitionism.

Frotteurism The DSM-IV lists the following diagnostic criteria for frotteurism:

The patient experiences intense, recurrent, sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies involving touching and rubbing against a nonconsensual person. Symptoms must be present for at least 6 months.

The patient experiences significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning because of the fantasies, urges, or behaviors; or the patient has acted on the sexual urges.

Frotteurs typically act out their fantasies in crowded places (eg, public transportation vehicles, busy sidewalks), which allows for escape; the frotteur can claim that the touching was accidental. The frotteur rubs his genital area against the (usually female) victim's thighs or buttocks, or the frotteur fondles a woman�s genitalia or breasts with his hands. While committing the act, the offender typically fantasizes about an exclusive, caring relationship with the victim.

Most acts occur in perpetrators aged 15-25 years, after which frequency gradually declines. Frotteurism has been noted to be equally common among older, shy, inhibited individuals. Fantasies of frotteuristic behavior without action have been reported as a stimulant to sexual arousal.

What are paraphilias? Paraphilias are sometimes referred to as sexual deviations or perversions. Paraphilias include fantasies, behaviors, or sexual urges focusing on unusual objects, activities, or situations.

Paraphilias include:

Sexual urges or sexual fantasies with non-human objects
Sexual behaviors with non-human objects
Sexual behaviors involving humiliation or suffering of oneself or another person
Adult sexual behavior that involves children or nonconsenting adults

Frotteurism: Men have a paraphilia called Frotteurism when the focus of their sexual urges are related to the touching or rubbing of their body against a non-consenting, unfamiliar woman. Usually the male rubs his genital area against the female. Most commonly, the man chooses to attack in a crowded public location and then he disappears into the throng of people. Frotteurism usually begins in adolescence and the abnormal behavior tends to decrease when the man reaches his late twenties.

Do paraphilias affect males, females, or both? Paraphilias are primarily male disorders.

At what age do paraphilias appear? Most paraphilic fantasies begin in late childhood or adolescence and continue throughout adult life. Intensity and occurrence of the fantasies are variable, and they usually decrease as people get older.

How are paraphilias treated? Cognitive, behavior, and psychoanalytic therapies are used to treat individuals with paraphilias. Some prescription medicines have been used to help decrease the compulsive thinking associated with the paraphilias. Hormones are prescribed occasionally for individuals who experience intrusive sexual thoughts, urges, or abnormally frequent sexual behaviors. Almost always the treatment must be long-term if it is to be effective.

What happens to someone with paraphilias? The course of paraphilias is usually chronic in nature. The prognosis for complete recovery is generally considered to be guarded.

What can people do if they need help? If you, a friend, or a family member would like more information and you have a therapist or a physician, please discuss your concerns with that person.

There is a continuing high incidence of juvenile sexual offenders—those who commit acts against the victim's will, such as rape, exhibitionism, voyeurism, frottage (rubbing), fetishism, and obscene communication.

frotteur: one who has the syndrome of frotteurism. frotteurism: a paraphilia of the solicitational/allurative type in which sexuoerotic arousal and facilitation or attainment of orgasm are responsive to and contingent on rubbing especially the genital area against the body of a stranger in a densely packed crowd [from French].

Frottage: Sexual pleasure derived from rubbing against another person's body or body parts.

FROTTAGE: When two people rub their bodies together so that they feel good for some type of sexual pleasure. Another phrase for it is dry-humping.

Frottage (aka Dry Humping): This is where you rub each other bodies against each other for sexual arousal. This is most often done as if you were having sex, but with no penetration, ie the penis rubbing against a stomach or arse cheeks, quite often to climax.

frottage - noun: Rubbing against someone else for sexual pleasure without engaging in penetration. Generally used to refer to consensual activity. Never mind that many in the group practice frottage out of concern for the current health crisis.

Should it occur and be mentioned, the female, and more particularly her mother, would be blamed for affording anyone the opportunity. The most common forms of sexual harassment are those of frottage and furtive pinching in crowded shopping areas.

Dry-sex, also referred to as dry-humping or frottage, can involve stimulation of the breast and genitals sufficient enough not only to cause sexual arousal, but orgasm as well. There can also be a psychological component of fantasy that happens during a dry-sex experience which can bring you to orgasm.

frottage: sexual pleasure from rubbing against another person fuck buddy: A casual friend one has sex with. The relationship isn't serious and in these cases the people involved usually trust one another to help relieve sexual tension without "fucking" up the friendship.

Back when I was a teenage sex pervert, my best friend and I would go out on Friday nights to rub up against college women. Our venue of choice was the Fish Market in Washington, D.C., a rowdy watering hole for the trust-funded collegiate set. On weekends the bar was a fire marshal's nightmare, jammed wall to wall with sweaty Georgetown frat boys and their perky female counterparts.

My pal Tom and I were your average 17-year-old high school horndogs -- suburban dweebs in skinny leather ties, armed with fake I.D.s and a raging appetite for illicit contact. We would order a couple of Singapore Slings, settle into a corner and try not to look conspicuously underage.

The Fish Market, a long, narrow place with a U-shaped bar, had high-top tables and stools running along the perimeter, by the windows. Between the bar and the tables, dozens of women stood trapped in a mass of clammy bodies. The Fish Market served cheap beer in tureen-sized glasses, so by the time Tom and I rolled in, the lightweights were already teetering. From our shadowy corner we lovingly eyeballed the semi-adult womankind, our juvenile loins tingling with expectation.

Then we would begin: We circled the bar, arms raised over our heads like soldiers wading a creek. There was no room to pass through the crowd, really, so you had to squeeze in-between and around the women, getting sandwiched by their breasts and butts. By pretending we had to get through to go to the bathroom, or the bar, we could usually make three or four circuits before anyone started getting suspicious.

Sure, I'm ashamed to admit that I wallowed in such wanton sexploitation, but back then it seemed more like schoolboy mischief than hardcore perversion. Eventually I quit rubbing up against women and moved on to more socially acceptable courtships -- conversation, dating, marriage, etc.

Not everyone gives up the habit so easily.

Frotteurism, as clinicians call it, is the practice of rubbing up against an unconsenting -- and usually unsuspecting -- person, for the purpose of sexual gratification. The term comes from the French verb frotter, to rub. The rubbing act itself is called "frottage" (the word we also use for the decidedly un-arousing act of rubbing a pencil over an object under paper, to create a snazzy design).

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), the psychiatrist's Bible of mental ills, frotteurism is installed in the category of Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. Unlike other deviancies in that category -- exhibitionism, voyeurism, transvestic fetishism, et al. -- frotteurism is a strictly male pursuit. According to the DSM-IV Case Book, the companion piece to DSM-IV, no cases of the disorder have ever been reported in females.

DSM-IV's frotteurism case study features "Charles," a 45-year-old schmoe who was referred for psychiatric consultation after his second arrest for rubbing up against strangers in the subway. Charles would choose a woman in the train station, follow her onto a train and begin pressing against her from behind -- wearing plastic wrap around his penis so as not to blow his cover with unsightly stains. Charles estimated that he had "frotted" more than 1,000 women over the course of 10 years.

Like Charles, most frotteurists do their sneaky deed in overcrowded venues -- subways, theaters, sports arenas and shopping malls. The average frotteurist, according to DSM-IV, often fantasizes that he has an exclusive, caring relationship with his victim. And he's seldom caught or prosecuted because, where human bodies get mashed together helter-skelter, it's difficult to prove that anyone has acted licentiously.

DSM-IV classifies frotteurism as a paraphilia, or sexual perversion. But in the world of Marv Albert's lace panties, Monica Lewinsky's cigar and Dick Morris' sweet tooth for toes -- the boundary between ordinary sexual behavior and deviation has been blurred beyond distinction. In the millennium's twilight, you can get away with almost anything under the aegis of sexual liberty. (Witness, for example, "Amputee Love," a Web site dedicated to those discriminating connoisseurs who enjoy ogling naked amputees.)

Yet it's naive -- and short-sighted -- to think that the times we're living in are extraordinarily perverted. Human nature doesn't change, and the parameters of deviance have always been dictated by cultural context. (Until 1974, the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as a paraphilia.) This isn't to suggest that someday soon frotteurism advocates will march on the Capitol, upholding non-consensual rubbing as the alternative lifestyle du jour. But if frotteurism victims are so seldom aware of what is happening to them, are there any real victims? Is frotteurism a malevolent act -- "the erotic form of hatred," to use sex author Robert Stoller's name for perversions -- or is it a lecherous but basically harmless way for sex-deprived nerds to get laid standing up?

What's so uniquely pathetic about frotteurists is the underhandedness of their transgression. Precisely because she's unaware that anything untoward is happening to her, the victim can't even begin to defend herself. Stripped of its PC descriptors, frotteurism is basically this: low-grade molestation for the chicken-hearted pervert, who dreams -- while he's brushing his stiffy against some unaware bus rider's backside -- of a soft-focus Hallmark forevermore with his darling frottee.

Melissa, a 32-year-old who asked not to be identified, has had a few run-ins with frotteurists. Melissa travels frequently but spends the balance of her time in Washington and New York, and she's noticed a frottage routine unique to the Big Apple. "When you're going through the turnstiles in the New York subway, guys will sometimes squeeze in right behind you, so you're smashed together between two turnstile bars. So they're pressing up against your butt. There's nothing you can do. It's happened to me and a bunch of my friends."

"Elevators and escalators are bad," says Martha King, a 34-year-old from Virginia. "But bars are the worst. It happens all the time: You're sitting at a bar and some guy reaches over you from behind to get his drink from the bar, and he'll rub up against you. It usually happens so quick you're not even aware of it."

Some frotteurists are more direct in their approach. "I was coming off the subway in Washington," Melissa says, "and some guy just reached out and grabbed my boob. I screamed, but it was too late -- the guy was already gone." (Some classic texts distinguish groping -- "toucherism" -- from rubbing, but the DSM-IV compiles both exploits under the banner of frotteurism.)

So what can a woman do to protect herself against the sly frotteurist slinking around the subways and shopping malls?

Jane Kelly, a 32-year-old Washington native who commutes daily on the capital's jam-packed subway, has developed elaborate techniques for defending herself. "I create a strict personal space," Kelly says. "I back into a corner and open the newspaper about 12 inches from my face. I build a wall, and nobody gets inside."

"Elbows are the best deterrent," says King. "If you're in a bar and some guy is rubbing up against you from behind, you pretend to go for your keys and you throw your elbow back. What I really hate are the guys who are so blatant about it. The ones who make eye contact -- they want you to know what they're doing." When the rubbing is obviously deliberate, King will sometimes confront the offender. "I'll turn around and say, 'Was that good for you?' or 'That'll cost you a drink.'"

Everyone seems to agree that frotteurism is rampant, but, among the women I surveyed, not one has ever reported an incident to law enforcement authorities. "I've never felt physically threatened to the point that I would go to the police," King says.

Which raises the next question: Is frotteurism a crime? Calls to the sex crime divisions of three different police departments, the F.B.I. Communications Office and the Bureau of Justice's National Criminal Justice Reference Center rendered a series of long, dumbfounded silences but no cogent explanation of frotteurism's legal footing. Nobody in the world of sex-crime statistic keepers seems to be keeping track of frotteurism. Because it isn't technically a "forcible" act -- like rape, sodomy, fondling, etc. -- frotteurism doesn't even register on the radar screen of American law enforcement.

If nothing much is being done to stop the frotteurist, what can be done to change his ways? One answer is chemical castration. Doctors currently prescribe two distinct classes of drugs -- antiandrogens (to battle overly abundant testosterone) and serotonergics (to relieve depression, which is often one cause of sexually aggressive behavior) -- for the treatment of paraphilias. Since men using antiandrogens and serotonergics have reported a marked decrease in their sexual urges, these drugs have become the standard prescription for sex offenders.

Some doctors claim the drugs are so successful that behavioral therapy has become obsolete. Psychologists, of course, disagree, arguing that the causes of paraphilia aren't always physiological.

"Compulsive sexual behavior is used as a way to disconnect from painful realities, by objectifying another person," says Helen Friedman, a sex therapist and radio talk-show host in St. Louis. "People with a sexual compulsivity describe it as an overwhelming urge. They feel like they want to stop, but they can't."

Friedman has come across quite a few frotteurists in her practice, including one patient currently under her care. So if frotteurism is so common, why don't we -- the public -- hear about it more often? "Most women have had this experience: getting pinched, someone copping a feel. But in our culture," Friedman says, "women are reluctant to come forward."

Jack Porter, a professor of psychology at Westchester University in Pennsylvania, believes that compulsive behavior like frotteurism often serves as a substitute for the more ordinary pleasures of literal, coital sex. But there's also an aspect of thrill-seeking to the frotteurist's game. "Part of the excitement comes from the risk of being caught -- that heightens the sexual component. The more forbidden the act, the more desirable it becomes," Porter says. In his independent practice, he has encountered two cases of frotteurism. "Both were professional men who had access to women in their workplace."

In fact, according to Al Cooper, clinical director of the San Jose (Calif.) Marital and Sexuality Center, the fastest growing group of sexually compulsive individuals is very successful men in high-paying, high-profile jobs. Which explains why so many big-time politicians, actors and pro athletes, guys who should know better -- President Clinton, Hugh Grant, Michael Irvin, et al. -- keep getting caught with their pants around their ankles.

Since there's no unified theory -- from a physiological or psychological standpoint -- for the treatment of sexual disorders like frotteurism, the best solution, for now, seems to be a generous blend of drugs and therapy. In an article available on the Mental Health Infosource Web site, Dr. Martin P. Kafka writes that "most males with sexual impulsivity disorders treated with pharmacotherapy should have a concurrent psychological treatment including a specialized sex offender program, group therapy, a 12-step sexual addiction/compulsion recovery program or a therapist familiar with the disorder."

Still, doctoring one disorder to the exclusion of all others may not do the trick. Friedman believes that the presence of a single disorder like frotteurism tends to signal the presence of a much broader spectrum of sexual maladies. "They say that most frotteurists are between the ages of 15 and 25, and the behavior wanes after that. But true sexual compulsivity doesn't wane. It's more likely that they [the frotteurists] are just moving on to other types of compulsive behavior."

Which raises an interesting question for your humble reporter -- this grown-up horndog, half a lifetime removed from those sweaty days of incidental gang-groping at the Fish Market. What type of compulsive behavior did that old schoolboy urge morph into? Compulsives dine on a vast and varied menu of fetishes: exhibitionism, cross-dressing, obsessive masturbation, chronic marital infidelity, sex with prostitutes, voyeurism, even necrophilia. But a quick inventory of me finds a guy pretty damn normal on all sexual fronts, faithfully married, with a relaxed and wholesome approach to self-abuse, no nude corpses in the closet, no transvestic tendencies beyond the occasional craving to wear my wife's sweaters.

Most of your reformed junior-league frotteurists would make the same claim: I'm grown-up now. I don't go there anymore. Then again, one of the traits commonly associated with sexual compulsion is a tendency toward denial. So play it safe, gentle reader: Keep your back to the wall.

frotteur (frot�teur) (fro-toor�) an individual who achieves sexual gratification by practicing frotteurism.

frotteurism (frot�teur�ism) (fr[obreve]-toor�iz-[schwa]m) [DSM-IV] a paraphilia in which sexual arousal or orgasm is achieved by rubbing up against another person, usually in a crowded place with an unsuspecting victim, or by fantasies of such actions. Sexual arousal achieved by real or fantasized touching or fondling may also be included or may be classified separately as toucherism. Called also frottage.