Between three and six, children raised in traditional homes gather about themselves the accouterments of the male or female role. Little girls play house, enjoy dolls, and draw figures with rounded contours. Boys choose active toys and construct drawings with points, angles, and moving objects. Girls are now much less sexually active than boys.
A curious modification arises at about the time when children
enter school. Sexual activity declines, so that at age
seven only ten percent of boys masturbate, indicating that
most of those who did masturbate have relinquished sexual
pleasure. Only five percent are engaged in sex play with
girls. (Ramsey, 1943) This sudden repression of sexuality is
the beginning of a period called "latency." There are no hormonal
or growth changes which account for this rapid shift.
In cultures such as the Arandas of Central Australia, children
continue to masturbate and show avid interest in sex
throughout maturation. (Roheim, 1974) In some segments of
our own culture, such as certain communes and slums, eroticism
continues to increase. The answer, of course, rests in
our method of child rearing.
Another sign of underlying discomfort is the predominance
of aggressive fantasies about sex. A glimpse of coitus
or sounds from the parents' room at night are construed as
"Daddy is beating Mommy." A five-year-old who sees his parents
kissing passionately says loudly, "Don't do that, it isn't
nice!" One half of the five-year-olds assume that mother's
abdomen must be cut open in order to remove the baby. (Kreitler,
1966) About a third of children five and over believe
that girls first have a penis but then lose it somehow; it
shrinks or is cut off.
One third, more boys than girls, have
castration fantasies. (Conn, 1947) In the five-and-up age
group it is extremely unusual for a boy to say something nice
about his penis. When asked, "What is your penis like, good,
bad or...?" little boys try to cover themselves, act perplexed,
or make a statement such as "not very nice." Little girls of
five are unfamiliar with the term "clitoris" and are more than
likely to state that the "vagina" is dirty.
Although rare at age three, by age five there are already
distortions and conflicts of the sex drive. A few children com
pulsively but joylessly masturbate in ways that invite discovery
and parental displeasure. Others request enemas and
suppositories for the sensations they impart. Some little
boys seek out and oblige older homosexuals, without seeming
to derive any pleasure from the contact. Sprouting eroticism
is easily damaged and difficult to restore.
Once past this most difficult age, normal children begin to
expand their erotic horizons once more, in ways calculated to
avoid discovery. Children over seven are well aware of adult
attitudes about sex. They devise elaborate strategies to
present themselves as innocent. Foreplay and orgasms are
achieved in cellars, haylofts, and attics. Those who have temporarily
abstained from masturbation often begin again. The
accumulative incidence of masturbation in boys rises from
ten percent at age seven to eighty percent at age thirteen.
Heterosexual play rises from less than five percent at age
five, to a third at age eight, and two thirds at age thirteen.
(Ramsey, 1943)