Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

As far back as I can remember my parents have
almost hidden sex from me. They told me that
touching parts of my body was really wrong and
would harm my health. They never discussed masturbation
with me and I can never remember them
using that word. They would use ‘playing with
yourself’ and make it sound really shameful.
When some of my good friends would meet me, they
would sometimes say, “How are ya, ya old
fucker!” One night when my dad came home from
work, I ran and greeted him by saying, “How are
you, Dad, you old fucker!” This occasion marked
the beginning of my sex education!
When I asked my mother where the kittens came
from in the first place and why they couldn’t go
back there again, she scolded me and said that
nice little girls don’t ask things like this.
Hearing the older kids use the word ‘fuck’ in a
dirty story, I asked my mom what the word meant.
I didn’t receive an explanation but rather a
warning that the next time that I used the word
I could expect to get my mouth washed out with
soap!
My father has never been my confident. I have
never approached him with a problem, unless it
has been some minor disagreement with my mother.
I have never spoken to him about marriage or
dating, probably because sex has never been mentioned
in our house. Not so much as the word
‘pregnant’ has been mentioned, or any word that
would carry a connotation of sex with it.
It is possible that my mother talked to my sisters
but nobody ever talked to me. It might be
assumed that by having grown up on a farm which
had livestock, part of it breeding stock, that
the facts of life would be very obvious... Even
though I had observed pigs breeding I did not
associate it with any human act.
The only sex education I ever received in the
family was one morning when Mother informed me
that if I should ever notice a white fluid
instead of the normal yellow urine, it was nothing
to worry about, it happened sooner or later
to all growing boys. Though I have since learned
that semen is passed in this manner I was told
nothing at that time about the nature of the
“white fluid.”
There are some reasons why mothers should prepare their daughters
for the menarche and not depend on the school. In a sample of college
students studied by Shipman (1968) he found that the onset of menarche
ranged in age from seven to seventeen years of age. Because of this
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