# Is prancing around infront of your window naked Indecent Exposure? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 30, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575 "2006-03-30T18:34:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/1 "2006-03-30T18:34:34Z")
My wife and I were driving home from the movies last night and as we pulled into our road we noticed several little boys who were playing baseball in a small grassy area all pointing at a fully naked person walking around their livingroom infront of their largest window. She seemed to be minding her own business but it was very blatent that she was fully naked and standing right infront of the window. My wife was shocked and I was half amused and half shocked. We kept driving and pondered whether or not that was indecent exposure or not. She was in her own house, on her own property… And she just seemed to be minding her own business…just naked. What do you all think? Was this indecent? Or totally normal? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/2 "2006-03-30T18:36:05Z")
Just to get it out of the way, (and honestly I don’t care) but…was she hot? Ya know it’s going to come up. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/3 "2006-03-30T18:40:59Z")
Legally it was indecent exposure. What if it was a creepy old man whacking off while the little baseball players watched? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/4 "2006-03-30T18:46:24Z")
This has come up in GQ a few times. The summary is that it is indecent exposure if normal people passing by get exposed to it accidentally. It isn’t if they have to go out of their way to see it and it is Ok to be nude in your house as long as you have reasonable expectation that others won’t see you. A little old man got called into court by complaint from his elderly female neighbor. The judge says: “Mrs. Johnson says that you parade around your house in the nude and she sees your thing hanging out all day every day.” The man says “Well Your Honor, I do like to do housechores in the nude but I don’t have any glass doors and Mrs. Johnson’s windows are at a very different angle than mine and I am sure that she wouldn’t be able to see me at all.” Mrs. Johnson replies: “Your Honor, I can see him just fine if I stand on my kitchen chair.” ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/5 "2006-03-30T19:22:26Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > Just to get it out of the way, (and honestly I don’t care) but…was she hot? > > Ya know it’s going to come up. No. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/6 "2006-03-30T19:28:22Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > No. Then it’s totally indecent. Only the beautiful should prance about naked. 😉 Seriously, as mentioned above it would be indecent exposure unless she could reasonably assume that that a passerby couldn’t see her. Such as, I’m naked walking around my apartment on a regular basis. Only place someone might see me is in our living room, and that’s only if the balcony blinds are opened. Of course, the only people that even could see me are the ones on the third floor two buildings over, and they’d have to be trying. Now, if I stood on the balcony naked, that’d be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/7 "2006-03-30T20:05:10Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > This has come up in GQ a few times. The summary is that it is indecent exposure if normal people passing by get exposed to it accidentally. It isn’t if they have to go out of their way to see it and it is Ok to be nude in your house as long as you have reasonable expectation that others won’t see you. This, exactly. Recently, a similar case involving a Vancouver man (although not merely indecent exposure, but a juicier indecent _act_,) went [all the way to the Supreme Court.](http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/pub/2005/vol1/original/2005scr1_0006.wp) (Word Perfect link.) Google’s HTML rendering [here](http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:wADgPE1o4rEJ:www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/pub/2005/vol1/original/2005scr1_0006.wp). > [@Shagnasty](#): > > A little old man got called into court by complaint from his elderly female neighbor. The judge says: “Mrs. Johnson says that you parade around your house in the nude and she sees your thing hanging out all day every day.” > > The man says “Well Your Honor, I do like to do housechores in the nude but I don’t have any glass doors and Mrs. Johnson’s windows are at a very different angle than mine and I am sure that she wouldn’t be able to see me at all.” > > Mrs. Johnson replies: “Your Honor, I can see him just fine if I stand on my kitchen chair.” That’s an old joke, but… > [@Supreme Court of Canada](#): > > 1 The appellant stands convicted for having masturbated near the uncovered window of his illuminated living room. > 2 He was first noticed by Mrs. S., a neighbour who was watching television with her two young daughters in their partially lit family room. Mrs. S. moved to another room for a better view and then alerted her husband. Together, they observed the appellant for 10 to 15 minutes from the privacy of their darkened bedroom, across contiguous backyards, from a distance of 90 to 150 feet. > 3 The police were summoned and the appellant was charged under both s. 173(1)(a) and s. 173(1)(b) of the Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46. > > 4 Section 173(1)(a) makes it an offence to wilfully perform an indecent act “in a public place in the presence of one or more persons”; s. 173(1)(b), on the other hand, makes it an offence to wilfully commit an indecent act “in any place, with intent thereby to insult or offend any person”. > 5 According to the trial judge, it did not appear that the appellant knew he was being watched. Nor did the appellant intend “to insult or offend any person”. Indeed, the trial judge found that there was “an escalation of [the appellant’s] activity” when Mrs. S. left her partially illuminated family room, from which she could presumably be seen by the appellant. “[A]nd”, the trial judge added, “there is nothing to suggest . . ., in fact, to the contrary, that [the appellant] was aware that [Mrs. S.] was watching from the darkened bedroom window”. (My emphasis.) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/8 "2006-03-30T21:40:38Z")
In Spain there’s no such thing as indecent exposure, at least at the country level; the law was eliminated sometime in the 1980s. Some towns prohibit it in municipal land but that’s considered akin to a bar’s owner saying “no naked customers”, you have the right to decide who enters your property. NO, we do not all go to the beach naked, sheesh. And anyway not every single person at the beach has just stepped out of a CK ad, you know. But now when a bag lady takes a bath in a public fountain, the charges are a health-related issue, not indecent exposure. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/9 "2006-03-30T22:25:17Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > What if it was a creepy old man whacking off while the little baseball players watched? I know a guy who got himself evicted for whacking off but I doubt any little leaguers were involved. It just doesn’t occour to some people that there are some things they need to close their blinds for. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/10 "2006-03-31T13:14:01Z")
This is a “check your local laws thing”. In the UK, it is, for example, perfectly legal to sunbathe nude in your garden- as long as you aren’t visible from the road to passersby. Performing an indecent act in your living room while in full view of the public is one thing- answering the door in your undies or walking around your own home naked- no cause for public alarm. ---
**Author:** ![Artiewhitefox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e95f7d/32.png) [@Artiewhitefox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artiewhitefox)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/11 "2013-05-05T04:36:15Z")
Wonderful, wonderful Spain. They are allowing people to be like they were before the fall of man. ---
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/12 "2013-05-05T05:33:04Z")
> [@Artiewhitefox](#): > > Wonderful, wonderful Spain. They are allowing people to be like they were before the fall of man. Brother, have I got a girl for you. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/13 "2013-05-05T06:59:32Z")
Didn’t Matthew Mcconaughey get arrested for playing the Bongo drums while naked in his own house? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/14 "2013-05-05T07:49:10Z")
I remember “prancing around” naked, in our big picture window . . . when I was about 3 or 4. I knew that exposing my penis was wrong, so I pulled up my scrotum to cover it. Sometimes you have to make do with what’s available. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/15 "2013-05-05T09:23:53Z")
A few years back, a man was arrested and convicted for indecent exposure in his own home in Fairfax, VA. Fox News and some others were making it sound like it was PC run amuck, but the allegation was that he was intetiionally exposing himself to passersby. > **[Man convicted of in-home indecent exposure](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna34483145)** > > A 29-year-old Virginia man has been convicted of indecent exposure after two women said they saw him naked through the windows and doors of his home. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/16 "2013-05-05T10:47:40Z")
Illegal or not it’s kind of a stupid thing to do. Years ago when I was pulling into a friends driveway I saw a car pulled off the road and the man driving was staring at her house. As usual she was running around nude with all the lights on and the shades up. I told her about the man and she just shrugged. She liked flaunting her body for male attention. I worried that one day she would attract the attention of the wrong one. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/17 "2013-05-05T11:05:29Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I remember “prancing around” naked, in our big picture window . . . when I was about 3 or 4. I knew that exposing my penis was wrong, so I pulled up my scrotum to cover it. Sometimes you have to make do with what’s available. I did that, and a few years later I built it up to late night streaking with the neighbour boys, then by high school it was skinnydipping and truth or dare with boys & girls. It was the sticks so we had to make our own fun. The OP’s question can’t be answered without a location given. Different jurisdictions define “indecent exposure” differently. For example in California mere nudity is insufficient, it takes a actual lewd act (though municipalities can pass stricter rules). Same situation in Vermont, and in Canada it’s illegal to be nude in public unless you have a lawful excuse (& legally you aren’t naked if you’re wearing shoes). It’s actually perfectly legal for a woman to expose her breasts whenever she wants in a surprising number of jurisdictions. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/18 "2013-05-05T11:39:11Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > a fully naked person walking around their livingroom infront of their largest window. She seemed to be minding her own business but it was very blatent that she was fully naked and standing right infront of the window. Prancing? > [@](#): > > v.intr. > 1. > a. To spring forward on the hind legs. Used of a horse. > b. To spring or bound forward in a manner reminiscent of a spirited horse. > 2. To ride a horse moving in such a fashion. > 3. To walk or move about spiritedly; strut. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/19 "2013-05-05T14:12:12Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > A few years back, a man was arrested and convicted for indecent exposure in his own home in Fairfax, VA. Fox News and some others were making it sound like it was PC run amuck, but the allegation was that he was intetiionally exposing himself to passersby. > > [Man convicted of in-home indecent exposure](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/34483145/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/man-convicted-in-home-indecent-exposure/) He appealed. In Virginia, the court that hears misdemeanors is the General District Court. A guilty verdict there can be appealed “as of right.” Unlike the usual procedure for a criminal appeal, where the appellant must identify some error at his trial and show that his guilty verdict is the result of that error, a Virginia appeal from the general district court to the circuit court is automatic; it erases the guilty verdict and a new trial (“trial _de novo_”) is held. He was acquitted. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575/20 "2013-05-05T14:40:18Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Prancing? One does not simply trod about dispiritedly whilst naked; one _struts_. As you do. You don’t? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prancing-around-infront-of-your-window-naked-indecent-exposure/350575.md?page=2)