Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

tivity, and especially that which involves adults and children--incest,
pedophilia, exhibitionism, and child-molestation have become
pejorative terms. We use the general term pedophilia to define sexual
behavior wherein adults derive erotic pleasure from encounters with
children. Pedophilic practices include exposure of the genitals to a
child, manipulation of a child, and possible penetration of a child,
though the latter is not common.
Adults who expose themselves to children are almost always of the
male gender. Such exhibitionists usually do not pursue the child or aggressively
seek involvement beyond exposing themselves.
The darkness of the theater made us a little reticent
to search for a seat (seven years old), until
our eyes were adjusted to the indistinctness. To my
right sat two of my friends and next to one friend
sat a man... He was no concern of ours because many
times parents accompanied their children to the
movies. What happened then took place so quietly
and swiftly I doubt that anyone else in the theater
was aware of the horrible sensation that we
felt. All of a sudden I was aware that my friends
were not watching the movie, but their attention
and eyes were focused on the man. His raincoat was
open and he had fully exposed himself and was
manipulating his genitals. He seemed to be almost
laughing softly, and sat there staring at us. We
did not fully understand what was happening. We sat
there and stared in awe with feelings of curiosity
and inquisitiveness while greatly mixed with emotions
of distaste and repulsiveness. Yet, we did
not scream or break into hysterics, but sat as
though we were hypnotized. We must have all felt as
though the sight was wrong, because in unison the
three of us quietly left our seats and headed
towards the back of the theater.
Contrary to common assumptions, old men are relatively uncommon
child molesters, and their approaches to children might be judged as
quite harmless, as the following cases attest.
When I was very young, maybe seven or eight years
old, I got to know an old couple who lived next
door fairly well. I never really liked the man,
though, because he was hunched over and always
seemed a little too friendly, especially when his
wife was gone. One day my friend and I were supposed
to take something over to the neighbor lady,
but the lady wasn’t home and only the old man was
there. He was friendly to us as usual and gave us
candy. Then he told us that he had something special
to show us, but we had to promise not to tell
anyone what we saw. Of course we were curious, so
he took us in the bathroom, unzipped his pants and
showed us his pubic hairs, saying that they were
about the longest ones anyone could have. We were
really shocked and left immediately. I don’t think
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