Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

and that it should be ‘saved’ until the marriage
vows have been spoken. I have always
remembered this and always will.
When I was about nine, ten, or eleven my mother
talked to me. She said to me, “Tell me everything
that you learned in the street, and whatever
you learned in the street that wasn’t true,
I’ll correct.” And I told her. Well, I guess 90
percent of the information that I learned in the
street was true and 10 percent wasn’t.
When I reached the age of twelve I experienced my
first erection. I was worried about this because
I thought is was abnormal and unclean. Being concerned
about the erection I asked my mother about
it and to my relief she told me it was normal for
these things to happen.
The onset of adolescence posed no new problems. I
knew about menstruation before its arrival and
Mother and I had purchased the necessities and
put them in the cupboard. This along with my
first bra and girdle were family matters of
importance.
Before either my twin or myself experienced
menses we saw a fairly good movie in school which
explained some of the things. Then after dinner
that night Mom and Dad talked to us about what we
had seen making sure we understood it and would
not be afraid or worried when it happened to us.
That evening I felt so good because I knew my
parents were concerned about me.
I think a gentle attitude toward sex was
instilled in me by my parents, probably because
both of them were very physical in showing their
affection for each other, me, and other family
members. There was always a substantial amount of
literature concerning the subjects around the
home and most of it was in language elementary
enough for a child of seven or eight years.
My family is a person-centered family. My mother
would always say to me, ‘You are not the only one
in the family. There are four others.’ My parents
taught me very early the attitudes of acceptance,
respect, and desire for other people.
Preadolescents and Incestuous Relationships With Siblings and Parents
Prohibition against incest characterizes every human society. Both
partners in a marriage are forbidden to form sexual liaisons with their
own offspring. An exception is represented by the very rare cases in
which a society expects a few individuals of special rank to cohabit
109