Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

It was not until high school that I ever ran
across much pornography, either in the form of
pictures or books. When I got a hold of these
they tended to be the things I masturbated over.
Often I imagined a girl I knew to be the person
in the picture or the story. It was the book
that introduced me to such things as fellatio,
cunnilingus, and anal intercourse, as well as
other “unacceptable” forms of sex. Often I would
imagine these things were being performed during
masturbation.
Throughout junior high and senior high school my
self stimulation continued and my sexual fantasy
developed. At first this involved images of life
with the man I would some day meet or dreams of
being held captive by a gang of boys, having to
perform rituals including intercourse with them
all, and showing my body to the group. Always
the imaginary lead man was handsome and
domineering. Upon dating, my fantasy included
the boy I was seeing at the time or images of
marriage.
Why do preadolescents fell guilty about masturbating? Is it because
of parental attitudes transmitted in infancy and childhood? Is it
parental admonition? Is it from reading some of the “scare” literature
about the effects of masturbating? Many preadolescents are not
consciously aware of any such reasons as to why they feel guilty. They
appear to intuit guilt. If they remember the kind of sexual
socialization they received in infancy and childhood they would likely
know why they feel guilty when masturbating. In the following case, the
boy’s puzzlement over the reasons for his guilt feelings is
illustrative.
It has always puzzled me as to exactly where I
got the feelings of guilt. As far as I can
remember, my parents never said much of anything
about sex. Certainly nothing that would lead me
to believe sex was wrong or bad. Possibly it was
because they said nothing that I felt there was
something secret about sex. Likewise, I can’t
remember picking up much in church that would
have led me to believe that I should not
masturbate. Maybe I merely picked up the guilt
feelings about sex from off-hand comments I
might have heard. At any rate, regardless of
where I acquired my feelings. I definitely felt
it was wrong to masturbate and had deep guilt
feelings about the activity.
Masturbation is much more common in preadolescent boys than is heterosexual
experience. Even for those who are willing, partners are not
easy to come by and masturbating requires no partner. First experiments
with copulation are not unusual between the ages of ten and fourteen,
however. By twelve years of age, approximately one boy in every
four or five has tried at least to copulate with a female and more than
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