Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

fully initiated but not yet married, takes a boy ten or twelve years
old, who lives with him as a wife for several years, until the older
man marries. The boy must belong to the proper marriage class from whom
the man might take a wife.
A sexual encounter between preadolescent girls and adults among the
Ponape occasions the “treatment” designed to lengthen the labia minora
and to enlarge the clitoris. (Ford and Beach, 1951, p. 176). Black ants
are put in the vulva; their stinging causes the labia and the clitoris
to swell. The procedures are repeated.
Among the Lepcha older men occasionally copulate with girls as
young as eight years of age. (Ford and Beach, 1951, p. 191). Instead of
being regarded as a criminal offense, such behavior is considered amusing.
Girls of Basutoland, South Africa, are expected to attire themselves
with rings of braided grass and cowhide, and white clay rubbed
on their bodies and legs. These young girls are first instructed for a
period of some weeks in the details of sexual intercourse, after which
they are circumcised--that is, the clitoris is amputated. This is done
to prevent them from engaging in promiscuous sexual activity when they
are married. As part of this rite, they act out coital positions with
each other. (“Curiosities,” Sexology, XXX, February 1964, p. 466).
In Western societies sexual encounters between preadolescents and
adults often involve the adult male exhibiting his genitals, commonly
in the presence of girls. In many cases the exhibitionist also masturbates
in the presence of the younger person. It is by no means common
for girls who grow up in an urban environment to encounter such exhibitionists.
(Moll, 1913; Halleck, April 1962).
Many preadolescents have had direct physical encounters with older
persons as well. Halleck, in a United States study found that 35 percent
of a sample of girls had been involved in sexual encounters with
adult males that had resulted in their being handled or in other ways
molested. Reevy (1967) reports that of 4,441 female subjects studied,
24 percent had had experiences during the period of preadolescence in
which adult males had established sexual contacts with them or appeared
to be making approaches. In 31 percent of the cases reporting
sexual approaches the adult patted the child but did not manipulate the
sex organs, but in 22 percent of the cases there was physical manipulating.
Often I visited an in-laws’ house and stayed
overnight. When I was twelve, I awoke from a
happy dream to discover that I was being fondled
by her seventy year old father. I told him
to stop immediately. He kept asking if he could
do it one more time. I told him if he touched me
I’d scream.
Presently the man came over and sat next to me.
It didn’t really bother me, however, it seemed
he could have sat across from me and he was sitting
awfully close... He leaned over and asked
me what I was reading and at the same time put
his hand on my genital area and began rubbing.
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