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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they will eventually select their mates--cross-sex peers of the same<br />
generation but not of the same family. (Broderick, 1966). Broderick<br />
found that the majority of five year olds he studied were already committed<br />
to their own eventual marriages. This majority increases through<br />
each age group throughout childhood.<br />
Sexual Encounters With Peers In Early <strong>Child</strong>hood<br />
We now turn to a systematic account of the young child’s sexual <strong>and</strong><br />
erotic encounters, first of all with peers, <strong>and</strong> later with preadolescents,<br />
adolescents, <strong>and</strong> adults. Many children “experiment” with one another<br />
sexually. Approximately half of the mothers in the Sears study<br />
(1957) reported some activity which could be identified as sex play.<br />
Some play was between brothers <strong>and</strong> sisters, some with neighbor children,<br />
some was with children of the same sex <strong>and</strong> some with the opposite<br />
sex. This exploration is often carried to what could be dangerous<br />
extremes, such as the insertion of unclean or rusty objects into body<br />
orifices. “Doctor games” are popular. They serve to give the child an<br />
excuse for examining the sex organs of his playmates. (Hurlock, 1950,<br />
p. 493).<br />
Before entering first grade there were those<br />
afternoons at my friend’s house. Her mother<br />
worked so my friend was always free to do as she<br />
pleased during the day. We used to play “doctor”<br />
in her bedroom which involved inserting a<br />
pencil into the vagina <strong>and</strong> examining each other.<br />
It would be quite wrong to assume that all of the activity in<br />
“playing doctor” such as taking temperatures rectally is erotic play.<br />
It would also be quite in error to assume that all children who play<br />
doctor are erotically awakened children. On the other h<strong>and</strong>, that the<br />
“playing doctor” encounter can have erotic overtones that go beyond the<br />
mere desire to play with other children <strong>and</strong> the desire to satisfy their<br />
curiosity about the nature of the genitals of others is quite clear.<br />
The following two cases illustrate this point.<br />
It was at the age of five that I (a girl) first<br />
viewed the genitalia of the opposite sex. We<br />
lived in a duplex <strong>and</strong> the family next door had<br />
three children, all of which were girls about my<br />
own age. They had a male cousin who came to visit<br />
<strong>and</strong> we all ended up in the basement behind the<br />
furnace playing doctor. No matter what he would<br />
say his symptoms were, we were so fascinated with<br />
his penis, as none of us had seen one before,<br />
that it was always the center of our examinations.<br />
I remember giggling as I punched it <strong>and</strong> as<br />
I dunked it in some red food colored water that<br />
we were using for medicine. This seemed to give<br />
him great enjoyment. One girl put h<strong>and</strong> lotion <strong>and</strong><br />
a b<strong>and</strong>age on his penis <strong>and</strong> in the process he had<br />
an erection. We asked him to do it again but<br />
there was no such luck. He suddenly felt embarrassed<br />
<strong>and</strong> offended <strong>and</strong> said he didn’t want to<br />
play any more. One of the other girls <strong>and</strong> I felt<br />
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