Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

ing attitudes, conversations, and actions of the
six through twelve age group, which is supposedly
the latency period, the more convinced I am
that Freud was at least somewhat astray on this
aspect of his theory.
Data on overt heterosexual play, including coital play with or
without penetration, does not support the notion of a latency period
either. Ramsey and Kinsey show no evidence of striking increase in the
incidence of such activity as puberty is reached. Kinsey’s data on the
active incidence for each year did show that for boys who later go to
college, heterosexual play of all kinds dropped off after about age
ten, presumably in response to a redefinition of the meaning of this
type of behavior. But, among boys who did not finish high school there
was reportedly little withdrawal and a high level of continuity of heterosexual
activity through preadolescence and into adolescence. There
are sexual differences, however. Among males a very much larger percentage
carried their preadolescent play directly into their adolescent
and adult activities than was true of females. The discontinuities
between the adolescent and preadolescent activities of the female appear
to be the products of social custom and not of anything in the female’s
biological or psychological makeup.
Perhaps it was because I was approaching the age
of puberty, but all of a sudden my parents would
not allow me to engage in any of the boy-girl
activities.
For many, “sexual awakening,” that is the dawning consciousness of
members of the opposite sex as appealing sexual and erotic partners,
comes about in adolescence. But for some it is very real and poignant
during preadolescence (and earlier as documented in earlier chapters).
The heterosexual “awakening” that comes to many during preadolescence
is well expressed by a rural midwestern boy.
As our sixth grade progressed we were thrown
together many times for long bus rides as part of
the school band and that summer proved our undoing.
It was truly the summer of our discontent. The
band began its rounds of parades, each of which
carried with it a magical third world of fantasy
called a carnival. On these hot afternoons, our
group would make the circuit of the fair grounds
trying our skill at the various games of chance,
only to be followed by an innocent group of girls.
Our desire to prove athletic supremacy within the
group spread to a desire to please our shadowy
female following. We had all known our prospective
positions within our clique before, but now a new
frontier was upsetting the balance of power and the
fight for status was on. Little did we know our
future was already laid out for us. When the girls
noticed our exposed intentions, they were quick to
tie the noose and there was no escape. That summer
two worlds fused into one which was entirely different
than anything that I had experienced before.
We did everything as a group.
124