Peter's main psycho-sexual conflict is that his matching sister (Jan) is very
shy and introverted and you could say non-sexual. Peter, by contrast, like his
older brother Greg, is a vivacious horny young man. The new living situation,
where he can spy on his three "sisters" changing or showering or whatever makes
him even hornier and of all the three brothers he is the most likely to try to
act out his fantasies if given the chance. He has discovered masturbation, and
you could speculate that part of the reason that Greg's bed is distanced away
from the bunkbed is because in addition to masturbation, Peter enjoys pranking
his siblings by squirting his jizz on them when they are not expecting.
Peter reacts to Jan's frigidity by coveting his older sister Marcia, but she
does not reciprocate, although she being a perverse nympho herself understands
and appreciates the crush, but does not like his practical jokes such as
getting jizz on her or peeking in on her while she is using the bathroom.
Meanwhile, his younger sister, Cindy, developes a crush on him and works as
his magicians assistant and he, like Bobby, is divided between his sexual
desire and his sense of responsibility and duty to his sister. His
covetousness towards Cindy actually makes her dissapear in the magician
episode, and the famous Marcia's "broken nose" episode is loaded with sexual
metaphors. Greg and Peter have been tossing the football around the yard,
engaged in male bonding, and the surge in testerone makes Peter hurl the ball
far too hard, hitting the unsuspecting Marcia in the nose, and she shouts "Oh,
my nose." The sexual metaphor here is that Peter has actually made a sexual
attempt on the pristine virgin Marcia, and has broken her hyman. The other
time we see Peter throwing the ball around the house (a metaphor for male
sexual seeking behavior or hunting) is the episode where he breaks the glass
vase and his mother's words "Dont play ball in the house" reverberate through
his head. This is a Freudian slip for "Dont play with your balls in the house"
or "Dont bring your sexual appetite into the house" or literally "Dont covet
your sisters." Carol Brady is trying to convey to her stepson that she knows
and understands his sexual desires and needs but is trying to teach them that
you cant bring those desires into the family, they are for the external world.
The main idea is that if you play ball (behave sexually) in the house,
something will get broken or go awry. The other brothers and sisters all cover
up for Peter until he is eventually caught and punished, but then eventually
forgiven. After all, "boys will be boys".
The flow of drama concerning the episodes with Peter usually follow the
proceeding pattern: Peter plays a practical joke or does something wrong which
backfires, the rest of the brother and sisters retaliate to try to teach him a
lesson, he doesnt learn the lesson, the whole family feels bad for him and then
accept him for who he is. After all, you cant punish a boy for masturbating
too much or having sexual desires. After all, "boys will be boys". How many
episodes do you have Greg and Marcia teaming up to give Peter a "taste of his
own medicine", or "teach him a lesson". What they are actually sick of,
metaphorically, is is constant masturbation and misfiring of his jizz all over
them. But when they team up and try to get back at him he sort of reacts by
becoming depressed and moping around (representing the fatugue of a compulsive
masturbator). But then they realize they must accept him for his
shortcummings, literally, and forgive his habit of compulsive masturbation.
The spookhouse episode, the ufo epside, the Peter's twin episode, the surprise
party episode, and even the very last episode in which peter sells a hair tonic
which turns your hair orange and he eventually gets on Greg's head and
embarasses Greg is just another metaphor for Peter wanting to jackoff on
everybody as a prank, possibly staining their clothes, or turning their hair
orange. You could even go so far as to use Peters masturbation problem to
explain why all the boys hairdues turned into massive afros in the third
season, but that was prolly more cultural than anything. How many times do you
recall Peter hackling in that sort of prankster-pixie type laugh. And finally,
the name chosen for the second child subconscously reminds you of the source of
his excessive sexual compulsion: his penis.
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