Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

Sex Instructions
fondle me and investigate the various unfamiliar
parts of my body. Then he laid me on the bed
and he also took off his clothes before lying
down on the bed with me. He continued to caress
me and soon became quite excited and then he
attempted to have intercourse with me, but the
pain was too great for me and I began to cry and
there was also some bleeding in the vaginal
area. I ran to the bathroom and stayed there
crying until my parents returned a short time
later.
When my parents returned my cousin was hysterical
and running around gathering clothes and
food in preparation for running away from home.
My mother came into the bathroom and talked to
me. She spoke quietly and comfortingly, at the
same time asking questions about what had happened.
In the meantime my father was with my
cousin talking in the same manner. Then my
mother left me and she and my father both talked
to my cousin and somehow calmed him down and
convinced him that the best thing everyone could
do would be to treat the whole occurrence as
something very normal.
Older girls are a common source of information about menstruation,
pregnancy, et cetera for younger girls. The first three cases indicate
that they are not always the best sources of sexual information. The
last case concerns a boy who does quite an adequate job of informing
his younger brother about sexual matters.
By the time I reached fourth grade, still not
having been told about menstruation by my
mother, I was approached by some of the older
and more knowledgeable girls who were eager to
impress the younger girls with their newly
acquired information. They filled me in, with
all the lurid details, on the bleeding that
women had to go through.
It (fourth grade girl being told about menstruation
by older girls) sounded perfectly awful and
terribly messy.
I (seventh grade girl having been taught ‘the
facts of life’ by older girls) was stunned,
bewildered, and awestricken by the repulsiveness,
yet the attractiveness with which they
spoke of intercourse.
I remember once our family was out for a ride
and my young brother who was about eight years
old at the time, came up with the question, “If
babies are in mothers’ stomachs, how do they get
out?” It seemed like an amusing question at
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