Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

and I can remember being scolded numerous times
when caught playing doctor, but I also remember
that I never had any extended guilt feelings
concerning these activities.
“Playing house” or “playing mother and father” are sometimes more
subtle ways of accomplishing the same goal, namely exposure. Playing
“fun house” is another variation. Adults would classify the behavior in
the following case as erotic play; the erotic implications of the acts
might not be recognized by the children, however. Sometimes older children
play what is clearly adult erotic roles.
Sexual awakening took place early in my childhood
years. My earliest remembered experience
took place when I was about five or six years
old. While I was playing with my younger sister,
we decided that as a new diversion we would play
“fun house.” This was accomplished by turning out
the lights in my room, pulling the shades, and
then pulling down the pants of the person making
the tour. As something “spooky” we rubbed cold,
wet tissue across the genitalia and buttocks of
the person, with the crowning triumph of placing
the soaked tissue between the buttocks, pulling
up the pants over the tissue, and ushering the
person out of the room.
During one of the visits of my next door girl
friend she walked into my bathroom while I (a
boy) was urinating. She said, “What a funny way
to go to the bathroom,” and left. Apparently this
was the first time she became aware of the male
penis.
A day or two later she expressed a desire to
“take our pants off.” This seemed a mere violation
of the nudity taboo rather than anything
related to sex as I had no knowledge of such
things. In search of greater privacy we went to
my bedroom. From then on, she was the instructor
and I was the pupil. She told me to remove my
trousers and underpants and as I did she took off
her panties, laid on her back in the bed with her
legs spread, and lifted her skirt. I distinctly
remember getting an erection and noticed her
pleasure at this occurrence. She told me to lie
on the bed with her. I did. Then she told me to
roll over on top of her. This seemed like a
strange thing to do, but I decided to comply.
Where my friend acquired all the knowledge she
displayed I don’t know, but I would guess she
started out asking about my penis and ended up
learning how to perform coitus.
An interesting conjecture can be raised from
this incidence. What if her next instruction had
been to insert my penis into her vagina? Definitely
there are two things I simply don’t know:
whether or not the relative sizes of genitalia
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