Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

dependency-affectional and sexual behavior patterns as the monkeys grew
older. The human infant, a pliable but non-ambulatory bundle of soft
and spongy bony tissue with a resultant uncanny ability to achieve unusual
postures both prenatally as well as after birth, can only interact
with people as they come to him. At a rapid rate, however, the
infant develops the capacity to locomote, thereby facilitating the development
of the ability to be the initiator of encounters with others.
The newborn’s whole body of impulse and potential can be viewed as
an undifferentiated potential for physical and emotional and social experience.
(Comfort, 1963).
Sexual-erotic development, as all development, takes place at different
rates and in different ways in different individuals; development
in the affectional-sexual-erotic area is not separable from
development in other areas. As an infant develops, every aspect of his
life experience is capable of affecting every other part. This is markedly
evident in the case of the infant whose motor development has progressed
to the stage where he no longer must await, but can actively
seek encounters with others, whether they be an infant running to hug
daddy hello or an infant opening his arms as an indication of his desire
to be held.
The earliest encounters of infant and mother can hardly help but
contribute to the sensory and affectional awakening of the infant
arousing sensitivity in his body and stimulating the growth of sexual
consciousness. Evidence of a child’s capacity for sensory pleasure in
the first year of life is apparent. From birth to one year of age the
mouth is the chief pleasure zone of the infant, but he responds to total
body contact as well. (Renshaw, 1971). The chief pleasurable activity
in the first year is sucking at the mother’s breast or thumb
sucking. However, the progressive development and orderly shift of sexuality
from the mouth to other parts of the body (feet, thighs, abdomen)
is evidenced in the activities of the infant when he is naked or
when being bathed. His fingers wander searchingly over other parts of
his body exploring the ears, the navel, the nipple region, and the genital
area. Whether the infant is free to explore and stimulate his own
body depends largely upon the parental acceptance of the infant’s nakedness
and freedom of bodily activities.
Even prenatally, as we have already indicated, the human begins to
develop a system of tensional outlets. These include changing positions
in the womb, pre-sleep rocking in the crib, bedshaking, head
banging, as well as handling of the genitals and possibly some masturbating.
Removal of clothes and attempts to run around naked occur between
one and two years. (Ilg and Ames, 1955). By two years the infant
has already incorporated some of these impulses into forms of expression
permitted by society, and although rocking, head banging, and some
masturbating occur (Gesell and Ilg, 1946, p. 271), much of the two year
old’s release of tension is manifested by displays of strong affection
toward parents--kissing, for example. (Gesell and Ilg, 1946, p. 322).
Dolls and teddy bears receive much attention as well. Feeding, toileting,
dressing, and being taken for rides is characteristic of things
that occupy the two year old’s attention. (Gesell and Ilg, 1946, p.
366). The evidence of underlying sexual development is exhibited in
other achievements of the infant. Naming of the genitals with the use
of a word for urination, distinguishing boys from girls on the basis of
clothing and haircut (rather than on the basis of bodily differences),
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