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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with their immediate descendants. The Az<strong>and</strong>e of Africa, for example,<br />
insist that the highest chiefs enter into sexual partnerships with<br />
their own daughters. In no society, however, are such matings permitted<br />
to the general population.<br />
Though incest is prohibited it does occur. Incest between father<br />
<strong>and</strong> daughter occurs in the United States. In years past we have not<br />
recognized the extent of daughter-father occurrences because of our belief<br />
that many of such accounts were fantasy. (Litin, 1965). In the<br />
following incestuous encounter of a daughter <strong>and</strong> her father, daughterfather<br />
roles became confused because of an unusual sleeping arrangement,<br />
father’s drunken condition, <strong>and</strong> daughter’s favorable response to<br />
the sensual experience.<br />
There was only one bed in our hotel room, a double<br />
one which I shared with my father that<br />
night. As it turned out, my father came back<br />
very late that night, after drinking quite<br />
heavily. I had never seen him drunk before. He<br />
got ready for bed <strong>and</strong> warned me before he got in<br />
that he was used to sleeping with mother <strong>and</strong><br />
that he hoped he would not bother me. He started<br />
to make love to me, not knowing what he was<br />
doing. I did, however, but liked the sensation<br />
<strong>and</strong> I let it continue for awhile--it seemed like<br />
hours, but it was only a matter of minutes. One<br />
way that it affected me was to cause me to wish<br />
again to have the same sensations I had that<br />
night which led me to masturbation.<br />
In the following cases the incestuous relationship is being described<br />
by the social worker in the first <strong>and</strong> by a participant in the<br />
second. In only one case coitus attempted. As is apparent in these<br />
cases, incestuous relationships run the gamut from relatively innocent<br />
sex play to rape.<br />
Mary was a sixth grader when she was raped by<br />
her sixteen year old brother. The father was<br />
drunk when we came to the home. The father began<br />
to tussle Mary’s (now thirteen) hair <strong>and</strong> cuddle<br />
her as fathers often playfully do. However, Mary<br />
did not respond positively, <strong>and</strong> she seemed to<br />
wish to pull away--her face showed anguish <strong>and</strong><br />
she appeared extremely distraught with every<br />
movement of his h<strong>and</strong>s on her face <strong>and</strong> chest. Her<br />
eyes were closed as if she were in pain. To me<br />
it was clear that the father, as well as the<br />
brother, was a source of sexual torment for<br />
Mary. In a short while, the father led Mary from<br />
the entry area (where we were talking) into the<br />
living room <strong>and</strong> sat in a chair with Mary lying<br />
on his lap. It was possible to see them; the<br />
father was stroking her body, particularly her<br />
genitals. I was able to see now that Mary had<br />
been conditioned to endure being touched by her<br />
father for she had no other place to turn for<br />
help.<br />
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