Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

asked each boy to rate his response to each item on a list of erotic
stimuli. Ramsey found a wide variation in the erotic responsiveness of
each individual. The following thirteen items are arranged in a declining
order based on the item’s rating as a stimulant by the group as a
whole: sex conversation, female nudity, obscene pictures, motion pictures,
day dreaming, burlesque or stage shows, nude art, motion when
riding, literature, own body, male nudity, dancing, and music.
About fifty percent of the boys reported erections resulting from
some type of non-erotic stimulus, as well. The situation in which nonerotic
responses occurred usually involved elements of fear, excitement
or other emotional situations. The items reported as non-erotic
stimuli included carnival rides, war motion pictures, being late to
school, reciting before class, fast rides, playing a musical solo, band
music, fear or punishment. These responses were most frequently reported
for boys aged 10, 11 and 12 years.
Boys also reported on dream content in which they found themselves
with an erection on awakening. Dream content often contained non-erotic
stimuli--fighting, accidents, wild animals, falling from high places,
giants, or being chased or frightened.
The incidence of masturbation among preadolescent boys of various
ages is not known with precision. Ramsey (1943) summarized five personal-interview
studies that, when taken along with his own study, indicate
that masturbation occurs at some time in the sexual histories of
nearly all males. Three-fourths reported their first experience to have
been between that ages of ten and sixteen. Masturbation apparently begins
for the majority of males during the years immediately preceding
or very soon after puberty, for some it begins during infancy or early
childhood. In Ramsey’s sample, fourteen percent of those eight year
olds reported having had masturbatory experience, twenty-three percent
of those nine years old, twenty-nine percent of those ten years old,
fifty-four percent of those eleven years old, seventy-three percent of
those twelve years old, eighty-five percent of those thirteen years
old, ninety-five percent of those fourteen years old, and ninety-eight
percent of those fifteen years old. The highest percentage increment
came at ages 11, 12, 13, and 14 and in that order. The increment at
each age from age six to age fifteen was 5.3, 4.2, 4.6, 8.8, 5.9, 24.7
(age eleven), 19.1, 12.2, 10.2, and 3.1. Note the marked increment between
age ten and age eleven. Boys can recall these preadolescent experiences
with masturbation.
I was first told about masturbation in a movie
theater by one of my friends who said, “Man, I
don’t know how, but I was just rubbing and all
of a sudden this great thing happened to me.” It
was considered the “Great, new fad.”
I have masturbated since grade school. I experience
very few wet dreams which I account for by
the fact that I did masturbate often.
Boys often learn of masturbation from each other. For girls, this
is not common. Here is a case where a girl did learn from her sister,
however.
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