Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

emember to this day the nauseated feeling that
filled my stomach. I could sense something horrible
was about to happen, but I had no idea at that
moment what it would be. The boys told me that they
wouldn’t let me out of the room to go home until I
touched the genitals of the sick boy in bed. I
didn’t really know what I was doing, but I did
realize that I was being forced to do something
terribly sick.
The need to ejaculate can be very compelling in an adolescent boy
who approaches a child. For example, a boy of sixteen is baby-sitting a
young girl of seven at her home while her parents are out of town.
While the girl was taking a bath, and with the excuse of making sure
that she got clean, the boy stripped and entered the tub. He then proceeded
to wash the girl’s genitals, and suggested that she do the same
to him. After a little protest she obliged. She was surprised when the
boy’s penis became erect. With urging from her “baby-sitter,” she continued
washing, and he had an ejaculation.
Sexual encounters of children with older youth can be either of a
heterosexual or homosexual nature. The following cases involve homosexual
encounters. The first encounter involves two girls, one a young
girl and the other an older girl, and centers around “show it” activity
instigated by the older girl.
The very first sexually related experience I remember
was of a homosexual nature. When I was four or
five, an older neighbor girl once enticed me with
an offer of money to remove my panties and pull up
my skirt in her presence. This experience was
purely exhibitory, as there was no bodily contact
between us. The inquisitiveness on her part helped
to strengthen an already growing feeling in me that
the genital area was “special” in some way and
should not be shown to others, since she felt it
necessary to get my consent. However, at this age,
it did not seem inappropriate to me that another
girl would be interested in my genitals.
The second case involves a boy child in dangerous manipulative sexual
activity--perhaps insertion of some object into his urethra--with
an older boy. In this case the value of the friendship kept the child
from “telling on” his older friend, though blood in his urine as a result
of the activity frightened him.
We (two boys, myself age seven and a friend
twelve years old) came from middle-class families
having many interests in common, such as
baseball and hiking. Sex, however, was not one
of these interests for me as it was for him. I
cannot exactly remember how it all started, but
I think it was in the form of the “doctor” game.
He fondled my genitalia and encouraged me to do
the same to him. It was a new experience for me,
but I cannot recall if it was pleasurable or
not. His erected penis was quite a mystery to
44