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