Development of Sexual Behavior

Stages of Development

Childhood

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), a native of Geneva, also lived in France and England as a famous writer and composer. He supported the sexual “innocence“of children and demanded that adolescents should be protected from their own sexual curiosity.

Before going into concrete details about childhood sexual development, it may be useful to recall their historical background: In ancient and medieval times, children were seen as “miniature adults” who participated in all daily activities as best they could. It was not until the 18th and 19th centuries, that the the European and American middle classes began to discover childhood as a special, “innocent” phase of life with its own needs and rules. Indeed, in the course of time, even adolescence turned into such a special, “protected” phase. It became an ever-lengthening period of dependency between childhood and adulthood in which young people were expected to remain sexually abstinent.
A seminal book in this respect was written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the most important authors of the “age of enlightenment”. In “Emile or On Education” (1762), he declared that children were born in a state of "holy innocence", and that their sexual ignorance had to be preserved for their own good. After puberty, sexual information was to be given only in answer to direct questions, but even then it was advisable to stifle further curiosity by making the adolescent disgusted with the subject. Perhaps it was best if the educator stressed the connection of the sex organs and their functions with the most repulsive aspects of excretion. On the other hand, one had to be careful not to arouse any premature passions by becoming too explicit. A single inappropriate remark could ruin a pupil's life. For as long as possible, the “natural” innocence of youth needed to be protected from the corrupting influence of adult society.
Rousseau’s ideas exerted an enormous influence over generations of educators, and they, in turn, greatly contibuted to the sexually repressive climate of the 19th century.