The Sexual Curriculum (Oct., 2002)

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Janssen, D. F. (Oct., 2002). Growing Up Sexually. Volume II: The Sexual Curriculum: The Manufacture and Performance of Pre-Adult Sexualities. Interim Report. Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Language, Culture and Developmental Sexology[1]. A Constructionist Identification

"Can that be written in letters too? Kill him, sir, please!"[2]

Summary: This chapter explores constructionist perspectives on the developmental representation of sexuality in verbal exchanges. A specifically human trait, language, more than behaviour, is identified as a structuring agent capable of organising and shaping curricular hierarchies within gendered subcultures. This was demonstrated for two male curricular verbal cultures incorporating sexologist narratives: the Afro-American ritual of "sounding", "homophobic" slander, and the curricular "sexist" discourse. Ethnographic material expands on this model in suggesting that restrictions and proscriptions on rapport and exchange shape the totality of sexual/erotic timescapes, curriularising and compartimentalising both "exterior", social spaces (gender, age and kinship dimensions) and "inner"-spaces (bodies). Language, in short, (1) curricularises sexual / body trajectories, (2) segmentalises sexological societies on the basis of several social gradients, and (3) organises discursive and situated sexualities. Poststructural perspectives on sexual/erotic identity are to identify individuals localising themselves within the order of communicated hypothetical sex rather than solely within the biographical realm of lived-experiences. It was emphasised that narratives, albeit locating sexuality, are further used to shape sexuality on discursive and situational levels. This was tentatively potentialised by addressing how sexualities are autobiographically reconstructed, or fitted within a pedagogical discourse.

Contents [up]

Language, Culture and Developmental Sexology. A Constructionist Identification 1

4.0 Introduction 2

4.1 Sex, Language and Developmental Scenarios: Theoretical Frameworks 2

4.2 Delineating Sex Language: Ethnographic Observations 3

4.2.1 The Grid of Non-Communication: Social Geographies 3

4.2.2 The Grid of Non-Communication: Body Geographies 3

4.3 Erotic Lexicon and Curricularisation: Cross-Cultural Patterns 4

4.4 Language and Segmentalisation of Sex 4

4.5 Sexual Communications, Power Dynamics and Shaping of Curricular Masculinities 4

4.5.1 The Dirty Dozens 4

4.5.2 "Homophobic" Masculinities 5

4.5.3 The Heterophobic / Heteromysic / Hetero-Erotophobic / Sexist Performance 5

4.5.4 The Humour Performance 6

4.5.5 Sexuality, Subversion and Environment 6

4.6 Locating Narratives: Mapping Sites, Media and Technospheres 7

4.6.1 Magazined Sexualities 7

4.7 Narratives that "Space": Empty, Ambivalent and Bogus Salient Spaces 7

4.8 But I Didn't Even Know What it Was About: Reconstructed and Pedagogic Erotic Biographies 8

4.9 Preliminary Conclusions 9

Notes 9

4.0 Introduction [up] [Contents]

Using a constructionist approach, it is hypothesised that language shapes, and in fact creates potentiality and probability for all social aspects of "sexuality" be it gender or genitality. In societies compartimentaling and segmentalising genital behaviour by means of visual barriers (cf. §10.2.2), language becomes an important additional vehicle for the establishment of compartimental and segmental heterosexuality and coitality. In societies with a high degree of consumerism and distribution of visual as well as verbal representations of sexual behaviour, control of these modalities governs patterns of "sexual learning" via the visual confirmation of overheard possibilities and probabilities, and the verbal consolidation of visual experiences. This information economy typifies sexological trajectories according to the ethnoscape, mediascape, and technoscape[3] in which they take place.

In the current chapter, a theoretical outline positioning language within the concept of sexological curricula is followed by a cursory exploration of ethnographic data.

4.1 Sex, Language and Developmental Scenarios: Theoretical Frameworks [up] [Contents]

It has not systematically been explored how language operates to represent or interact with sexuality conceptualisations. However, many theorists have argued for its centrality. Arango (1989)[4] traces the psychic origins of dirty words to early infancy and childhood, suggesting they "awaken passion", and, if not used, one will "not fully experience our [human] sexual nature". Scripting theory implies sexual identity to be the interim result of an ongoing scenario building process (e.g., Stoller, 1976)[5] including a pathway of writing, reading, and rewriting subjectivity. According Stoller, the individual localises the self as a character in a nascent Utopian novel, to be celebrated by genuine experiences. Plummer[6], examining the making of "sexual stories" from a symbolic interactionist perspective, has to assume that children are gradually introduced to a culture characterised by a "recent exponential multiplication of [sexual] narratives", including family, emotional, representational, bodily, gender, erotic, and identity genres.

Classic constructionists have argued that language, restricting the possible or probable extent of the information sphere and the associated shaping of cognitive representations of sexuality, provides occasion for cross-rationalisation ("borrowed sanctions"), non-labelling (vs. cross-interpretation), and non-suggestion ("information control"), and, indirectly, opportunity minimalisation ("preventing stimulation") (Sears et al., 1957:p185-92; Gagnon, 1965; Gagnon, 1989:p508)[7].

Contemporary constructionist approaches (e.g., Senchea, 1998)[8] argue that language exchanges constitute the tools for conversation participants to actualise and distribute sexological discourses[9]. That is, the sexual, the talking, the doing, all converge in a multi-layered hierarchy that is knowledge (power). This has been examined most closely for "classroom ethnographies" visualising alleged "homophobic", "heterosexist", "sexist" and koromisic abuses of language as instrumentalising curricular power configurations. Talk about being feminine often regulates subculture, class identity, and power (Christian-Smith, 1993)[10]; talk about girls does the same thing[11].

These modern interpretations of language challenge mainstream ideas about sexological narrative merely representing bidirectional flows of information, "informing", "teaching" and "educating" the recipient. The speaking child, in turn, does not merely signify or demonstrate his sexuality / sexology by doing so, (s)he is in the continuous process of establishing, managing and redirecting a sexological order. As such, the speaking child is a crucial actor in diagnostic pursuits (e.g., Cheung)[12]. Sexuality being "communicated" within gender specific rhetoric and textual styles and forms (e.g., Blair)[13], these styles factually provide negotiable boundaries of sexual/erotic spaces, phases and identities not, as is claimed, "originally" there. Gender-compartimentalised talk interaction "constitutes a temporary community within which norms are cooperatively defined through a painstaking process of negotiation and consensus"[14]. Thus, children's sex talk should be studied within the concept of folkloric performance, using an "ethnography of speaking"[15]. Bauman, offering a sketchy account of the American childhood case[16], argues that "folkloric speech acts show the child's acquisition of ability to manipulate his communicative environment". In this respect, the child's introduction to "bad" language can be conceptualised as "a profoundly important linguistic and psychic experience"[17].

The above perspective has proven its utility for activist (feminist, gay theorist) entries to language as the hallmark of power-mediated juxtaposition of social strata. This use has pervasively politicised discussions of interactions within age-stratified gender communities.

4.2 Delineating Sex Language: Ethnographic Observations [up] [Contents]

4.2.1 The Grid of Non-Communication: Social Geographies [up] [Contents]

Taboo terms act as barriers or dividers, separating men from women, adults from children, or class stratum from class stratum[18]; hence the designation "pas devant"[19]. Variations being noted for all categories, in most cultures there are definite generational[20], gender[21] and kinship[22] barriers for sexological communications. Rulings along these three lines limit and direct the possibility and probability of acquisitions of sexuality narratives, and describe the geography of the sexual sphere as a communicative 'socioscape'. Thus, sexual language signals and contributes to stratification dynamics pertaining to age, gender[23], and kinship.

As becomes apparent from the Dogon case[24], societies may try to control sexual maturity applications be means of redefining its essence via the technique by which it is cultivated (regulated): language. The Dogon sexual curriculum is a linguistic curriculum, and sexual maturity equals linguistic maturity[25]; language identifies, structures and curricularises sexuality. African societies have been noted to include "obscene" chants as a part of ritualised pubescence[26]. Girls, particularly, are instructed with songs of an explicit character[27], the transmission of data being regarded as a most central part of the rite, both the identity of the teacher and the curriculum formalised. The use of songs establishes the social uniformity and historical continuity involved, as well as providing a vehicle for integrating sexual mores in the (often sudden) moral/legal transformation of puberty. Beside this formalised recognition of language, African childhood sexual learning traditionally depended in crucial ways on the dripping down of data through adult folklore (Lallemand, 1985)[28]. This may particularly be the case where music has a less central place in the organisation of communal identity and coherence[29].

The use of "dirty" profanities is predominantly interpreted within a developmental perspective[30]. Murray[31] argues that "dirty", nicknames[32] used in Greek and U.S. sororities, "beyond revealing the usual adolescent preoccupation with sex, serve at least one important psycho-social function in the Greek socialization process, to bind together members of a particular secondary group". Stenstrom[33] argued that (sexual) swearing "serves a social purpose among teenagers", possibly as a way to "establish group identity".

4.2.2 The Grid of Non-Communication: Body Geographies [up] [Contents]

Of the limited amount of studies addressing early development of the erotological/sexological lexicon[34], most reports deal with North-American and European (Dutch) samples. Language curricularises awareness of (and thus operationalises) the body as a morally compartimentalised geography and instrument, as explored elsewhere[35]. Specifically, although hardly researched, children may lack any vocabulary to discuss sensations, such as orgasm, whether experienced personally or not. Fisher (1989:p1-38)[36] discusses at length the specific "genital lag" of the "body image", resulting from the genital problem in anatomical education.

The limitation of sexual representation through the restriction on linguistic representation is organised through "word taboos" and "taboo words"[37]. As such, the genital may be wholly dissociated from the public sphere[38]. Sexual lexicon development in children has been demonstrated to be gender biased (Gartrell and Mosbacher, 1984)[39] on retrospective survey. As a probable exponent, females, more than males, have more stringent limitations on their sexual vocabulary repertoire[40]. Names were found to be derivative, euphemistic and pejorative. The authors remark that the fact that a child has a unique name for her genitalia renders sexual communication and exploration with peers difficult, since other children do not share her vocabulary. Indeed, this sensitises the relevance of invitations for sexual interactions[41]. Gartrell and Mosbacher concluded that "[t]he long-term ramifications of denying a child's sexuality on her/his self-image, as well as on her/his subsequent sexual and emotional development have yet to be determined". Indeed, the associations between developmental sexual terminology and sexual experience are not clear (e.g., Waning, 1983)[42]. Jaffe, however, found differences in outcome measures of adult female sexuality, particularly regarding genital self-concept, sexual anxiety, sexual openness, and current and preferred frequency of sexual relations.

4.3 Erotic Lexicon and Curricularisation: Cross-Cultural Patterns [up] [Contents]

Like any aspect of childhood sexual "sub"cultures, linguistic and rhetoric competence in sexual matters is in variable degrees subject to curricularisation and age / phase stratified censorship (Stephens, 1971:p407; 1972:p11-2, column 4[43]; Broude and Greene, 1976)[44]. The establishment of a childhood verbal subculture may not require this degree of openness. Stephens (1971) found the sexual vocabularies of children being discussed by ethnographers for six cultures, of which none were described as practicing sex talk before children.

Verbal competence is a lateral curriculum in most cases[45], that is, horizontal, or laterally vertical. The acquisition may be stimulated for stylised purposes[46]. Attitudes toward childhood sexual expression and the provision of 'correct' terminology are correlated (Wurtele, 1993; Jaffe, 1985), and seem to be part of a system of information control (see Fraley et al., 1991). This has not been examined for the cross-cultural record.

4.4 Language and Segmentalisation of Sex [up] [Contents]

Attempts to study obscene subcultures retrospectively most probably turn out to be "wholly abortive because adults unconsciously censor such verses and reproduce them in mutilated form" (Borneman), which compromises the chronology of events. Goldman (1990)[47] recognises four types of "sexual languages" in children and early adolescents: clinical, common usage, family traditional, and erotic. Whether explicit songs are used or consumed by children with an erotogenetic intent is not clear, though it seems reasonable to speculate on its universality at least northern of the equator[48]. Folkloristic examples of age-identified or age-stratified scatology/obscenity were collected and analysed for European (German, Austrian, Swiss, French, Bulgarian, and Nordic) and Russian samples, reports spreading over the period of 1906 to the later 1990s. Adult reactions to the phenomenon are varied[49] and an established element of Western pedagogicized (Foucault) sexualities.

Talking sex may embody the predominant mode of erotic transference in early life. Verbal intercourse takes different forms between, as well as within, cultures. The use of profanities, for instance, seems to be a cultural trait (no cross-cultural studies are done in the development of swearing behaviour). In industrial societies, if anything, it serves as an important though optional means of sexological study, organised in a verbal subculture carefully (although perhaps not perfectly) censored from parental and researchers' ears. Expressions as well as insights are used to demonstrate rebellion, to organise a vertical order, to reinforce affinity or even intimacy, to establish a shared "psychobiological" circle, and to exchange useful tips on a variety of "adult" topics. Indeed, it may, by principle, include anything that adults choose to define "adult".

Postman[50] suggested that the sexological status of "childhood" was related to the invention of print media, and reconceptualised by electronic ones. Language barriers provide the main structuring factor of discourses as segmentalising the sexological society. The existence of "erotic grouping" in childhood is a regular feature of Euro-American sexual histories, and was described as early as 1922 (Hermann)[51]. What goes on may be primarily verbal exchange, where scatology and information as indistinguishable. This may be true for children's play groups in every continent. Even "good" boys engage in "dirty" play (Fine, 1986)[52], and sex talk is a semipublic expression of this (p84-5). "Obscenity", thus, represents a semi-public format of agonism / antagonism that might address what cannot be addressed as effectively in another format: aggression, approach, request, response. Outside a psychoanalytic framework (Borneman), these possible functions have not been verified, and it is not clear how cultural factors shape the curricular practice of sexology. This, however, is an interesting subject regarding the cross-culturally universal importance of peer education.

4.5 Sexual Communications, Power Dynamics and Shaping of Curricular Masculinities [up] [Contents]

Langford (1997)[53] observes how "adults" incorporate "childish" personae within the private microculture of dyadic intimacy. Conversely, one may explore how childhood language represents, or is instrumentalised, to incorporate "grown up" styles of doing sex.

4.5.1 The Dirty Dozens [up] [Contents]

"Playing the dozens" or "sounding" (Berdie, 1947; Golightly and Scheffler, 1948; Bruhn and Murray, 1985)[54] has been identified as typical for African (Igbos of Nigeria, Ghana) and Afro-American adolescence. A report by Ortony et al. (1985)[55] concluded that the use of figurative language in sounding did enhance Harlem's elementary school children's ability to understand the more literary uses of metaphor and simile encountered in the classroom. In adolescents, it is suggested that it served as "an outlet for repressed impulses of sex and aggression in groups lacking recreational outlets" (Golightly and Scheffler, 1948)[56]. According to 1966 data by Stromberg, as adapted by Schulz (1969:p66)[57], the average age of beginning to play the dozens was 10.8. Chimezie[58] concludes that "dirty" Dozens involve boys "around the puberty stage" (p416), and Lefever[59] as well as Dyck[60] situates the usual Dozens in adolescence. Lefever details seven functions for the Dozens, among these educating the participant. States Schulz,

"The Dozens […] functions to inform both sexes of some of the aspects of sexuality at an early age. These verbal contests acquaint children with many details of sexuality, often before they are otherwise aware of them. They are a kind of primer imparting information about the sex act, sexual deviance, sexual anatomy, and mores which serve as basic guidelines for children who are exposed to sexuality early and completely without being reared in a home where the matters of sex are commonly talked about".

Competitions in verbal abuse ("cussing", "blowing") occur in boy subcultures, covering sexist, sexual, and racist discourses (Kehily and Nayak, 1997:p72-4)[61]. The Dozens demonstrate how sexuality is operationalised to shape and inform inner-group control and status mechanisms. Language becoming "the stage for the performance of masculinity" and producing heterosexual hierarchies, it instrumentalises and rehearses categories of sexual agency and identity within the curricular subdomains of the semipublic discourse of sexuality. Specifically, verbal humour was identified as "a regulatory technique, structuring the performance of masculine [specifically, heterosexual] identities".

4.5.2 "Homophobic" Masculinities[62] [up] [Contents]

From elementary school on, children's alleged romantic inclinations are the focus of gossip and teasing, marking social hierargies. The loading is heterosexual, and predominantly male homophobic (Thorne and Luria, 1986)[63]. In one study[64], 377 14 and 15-year-olds listed the pejoratives they heard at school and identified the ones they considered most taboo. As some of the most vitriolic items reported, homophobic pejoratives accounted for 10 per cent of the 6000 items generated. Homophobic terms have a rich developmental history and play a central role in U.S. adolescent male peer-group dynamics. Starting from fourth, or third[65], grade a very powerful use of homophobic terms occurs prior to puberty, which would, Plummer argues, rarely carry "sexual connotations" [sic][66]: "[f]ar from being explained as indiscriminate use of homophobic words, the early use of these words is powerful, highly meaningful and precisely targeted—even when not targeting sexuality". Sexism, homophobia, and harassment were said to make American schools "a highly sexualised site" (Epstein, 1997)[67]. Antihomoerotic narrative enters the pervasive "heterosexual" discourse of grade school together with discourses of imagined futures, traditional rhymes, sexist/sexual harassment, assays into the world of "going out", and gossip networks (e.g, Epstein, 1996)[68]. Thus, the (performance of) homophobia both polices and constructs heterosexual masculinities in schools[69].

The above observations conceptualise "homophobic" narrative as a structuring device in the larger design of performed sexualities. Redman[70] understands boys' antilesbian/-gay talk and behaviour in terms of the "local and dialogic performance of heterosexual masculinities", but continues with arguing for "forms of analysis capable of addressing the unconscious and the social as intersecting and mutually constitutive dynamics". As with the Dozens, males are typified as construing masculinities on the basis of a contrasting process using flattened, negativised social counterimages: females and homosexuals. This explains the dominance of feminist and gay activist theorising concerning the matter.

4.5.3 The Heterophobic / Heteromysic / Hetero-Erotophobic / Sexist Performance[71] [up] [Contents]

Anecdotal material suggests children may go through a phase were they display an opposition to the mere concept of engaging in "erotic" or heterosexual genital / orificial activities. Specifically, there seems to be a recurrent theme of dislike for opposite sex's genitals. The origin of this curricular antagonism, or curricular hetero-erotophobia is not known[72]. The American girl, at some date, turns "boy crazy"[73] after a puellomisic period. "Developmental" crossgender-antagonistic attitudes are predominantly discussed in the negative terms of "sexism", sexual "prejudice", sexual "stereotyping", and more positively in terms of sexual preference for playmates and authority figures[74]. 1970 and early 1980 American awareness of "sexism" has raised issues in matters of education, children's literature, and child rearing (TV, theatre, etc.). According to some authors, the solution to the basic mistrust between the sexes, probably more typical of some periods in history and of some cultural settings, would be to avoid negative conditioning in childhood[75]. One study[76] suggested that boy-girl antipathy of the intermediate school grades is more a product of girls changing attitudes toward boys than vice versa. Children's sexist cultures mimic "historical cultural adaptations, producing minireplicas of both sexist and egalitarian social systems"(Goodenough, 1990:p228)[77].

Campbell (1939)[78] found that "[t]here is at first an undifferentiated social relationship with the opposite sex until about the age of eight years, then a rising preference for children of the same sex, until puberty, when hetero-sexual feelings begin gradually to develop". Martinson (1973:p88-9, 121-3; cf. 1981:p90-1) clearly describes how the curricular relationship between the sexes is subject to historical developments. Specifically,

"[c]ross-sex antagonism during preadolescence has been explained as partly due to the efforts of individuals to identify themselves more closely with their own sex and as a result of parents and others instilling into children the difference between boys' and girls' roles. These differences are diminishing. In the last generation the sex roles have become more flexible and now overlap in many areas. The contents of the two sets of expectations are becoming more similar as women have achieved many prerogatives previously regarded as exclusively masculine and men have begun to share many traditionally feminine responsibilities. As these roles converge and the experiences and values of the two sexes become more similar, cross-sex hostility becomes less appropriate. Rejection of the values of the opposite sex loses much of its purpose when values are similar. Similarly, as the social status of the two sexes approaches equality, many boys appear to feel less need to defend a shaky claim to superiority".

Sexual antagonism is related to another problem of "informal" versus formal curricular separation by gender, as explored in preliminary reviewing[79]. Sexism (Francis, 1997)[80] is a curricular species of gender performance (Epstein, Tobin, Francis, Kehily and Nayak). Authors have demonstrated the continual use of sexual innuendo in teasing as an aspect of girl-boy interaction (Best, 1983:p129; Goodenough, 1987:p433; Clark, 1990:p38-46)[81]. The situation is performed in a cross-culturally stereotypical fashion: "petty altercations" (Kibbutz), insults that provoke real quarrels" (Korea), "pulling girls' breasts and then running away" (Brittish Guiana). As Martinson illustrates, " "[r]omances" at [preadolescence] often involve rough play, teasing, hitting, hurting, and at least feigned pain, disgust, and anger" (1973). In later childhood, "[…] teasing becomes part of a preromantic type of interaction that reaches a peak among twelve- and thirteen-year-olds, particularly among girls. Purported romantic liaisons are matters of public notice and widespread rumor and teasing. Sexual and romantic teasing marks preadolescent social hierarchies" (1994). Even below the threshold of romantic affliction, boys' and boy-girl socialising operates on a rough-housing physical level including throwing, wrestling, pushing, fooling and stage-acted fighting routines. The main theme advocated here is that issues operate in spite of antagonistic initiatives of adults:

"[…] although the school appeared to be fairly successful in getting rid of the conception of gender-appropriate jobs and games, it made very little headway in modifying the salience of gender in the children's interactions. Although teachers made valiant efforts to prevent gender dichotomisation, the children determinedly sorted themselves by sex (Jordan, p72)".

The quasi-aggressive format of initial courtship leaves room for speculation on the ethological or sociological origins, as it mimics closely the play fighting of boyhood[82] and at times is minimally separated from the antagonism-based expression of hostility. Aldis[83] observes that "immature sexual behaviour" and agonistic play or play fighting are sometimes confused by the inexperienced observer, and that they may alterate, usually in a disruptive fashion.

In most human societies, play sexuality is a "polymorphous" arena where coitus is either absent or eccentric due to information and (subsequent) attitudinal barriers. This dismisses extensions to the human case (Aldis, 1975:p147-55, 246-7; Lancy, 1980:p485)[84] that "play sexuality" is phenomenologically and functionally peripheral because of the absence for a need to practice such simple behaviour as intromission. The notion of "sex play" should be extended along the lines of "gender play" (Thorne), a discourse in which "sexuality" is (progressively) "gendered", and in which sex does not occur outside gendered playgrounds and curricula. Sexuality, for instance, follows thoroughly gendered institutions: from quasi-institutionality (pretend marriage), to pseudo-institutionality (dating, going steady), and semi-institutionality (rooming in) and other pre-institutional configurations (engagement) (cf. chapter 15).

4.5.4 The Humour Performance [up] [Contents]

The conceptualisation of "childhood sexuality" as a joking coping mechanism reactive to a barred and scary future economy can be demonstrated by observing the phenomena of the "sexual" joke in children (Zumwalt, 1976; Borneman, 1985; Sutton-Smith and Abrams, 1976; 1978; Wolfenstein, 1954)[85], including sexually violent jokes[86]. Judging from a brief look at the research[87], humour development is a science not taken seriously. Humour, however, is a multi-facetted, multidimensional social strategy in which phases can be recognised, and distinct age dynamics are operative (Bariaud, 1988)[88]; as such, it serves distinct adaptive functions[89]. A sense of humour contributes to Humour Identity, identified by Humour Phases. One might hypothesise that the ambiguous nature of humour allows children "to explore sensitive issues like sexuality without having to reveal explicitly the extent of their actual knowledge in this area" (Sanford and Eder, 1984:p235)[90]. According to some studies, it provides a forum for sexual curiosity[91]. As sexuality, it can be conceptualised as the ability to understand and reproduce socially significant patterns of communication, and as providing an arena for antagonism and abreaction. The association of humour and sexuality in a developmental (phaseological) perspective is a virgin field of research[92].

Kehily and Nayak (1997)[93] argue that

"[…] humour is a technique utilised for the regulation of masculinities and the negotiation of gender-sexual hierarchies within pupil cultures. Bodily practices were prevalent in the interchanges , playing a part in the contestation and production of differentiated heterosexualities. Humour was an organising principle, deployed to position pupils within differing dominant and subordinate peer group sexual cultures".

Humour was seen as "a regulatory technique, structuring the performance of masculine identities", thus victimising those who did not "circumscribe to the [dominant] hyper-heterosexual practice of masculinity" [94]. In folklore, sexual "transgressions" involving children can be sold through humour[95].

4.5.5 Sexuality, Subversion and Environment [up] [Contents]

Sexual graffiti has been a subject of study since the early 20th century (Luquet, 1910)[96]. It is known that adolescents in ancient Greece wrote "soliciting" graffiti on walls of the agora. Whatever its incidence, even "sexual symbolism" (implicitness) in children's drawings has not been investigated systematically, although frequently used in child psychoanalysis.

In a wonderful Dutch video program (Van Heelsbergen, 1985)[97] boys were demonstrated to provide excellent alternative interpretations of sexual (or is it?) drawings on a neighbourhood basement wall when questioned alone, while the pornographic implications were readily enumerated in the company of friends [penis becomes aeroplane, sword].

Wilhelm Koch (1979, 1980, 1984, 1986)[98] since 1972 collected more than hundred "erotic drawings" on neighbourhood walls, children's playgrounds, etc. Koch argued that such "spontaneous" art forms and graffiti done by children and adolescents would provide for schools the opportunity to thematise sexual feelings, and offer an insight to children's day dreaming. Not referring to Koch, Lucca and Pacheco (1986)[99] collected 672 instances of graffiti from bathroom walls in 10 elementary schools in Puerto Rico. The graffiti reflected a wide variety of content related to the children's immediate life experiences such as concerns with their self-identity, interpersonal relations, cultural understandings, sexuality, and religious and political beliefs. Girls produced more graffiti than boys, but boys produced twice as many graffiti with "sexual" content.

4.6 Locating Narratives: Mapping Sites, Media and Technospheres [up] [Contents]

Eysenck and Nias (1978)[100] summed up 24 published experiments since 1956 measuring immediate and short-term correlates on childhood graphic exposure to violence; to my knowledge, no equivalent study exists on exposure to visual erotica. Apparently, American-European clinical pedagogy is more open for what she recognises as "aggression" than for what she defines as "eroticism".

Beside mere content analysis studies, authors have argued that "doing", and not merely acquiring, gender/sexuality follows self-construed "styles" as inspired by peer-shared (colloquial) consumption of media-generated images and narratives: television[101], music[102], magazines (vide infra), cartoons, movies[103], internet[104], etc.[105]. Dynamics of these media are located in the extent of their being available, authorised, interactive, and indeed peer-shared. Judging from the available literature, U.S. culture greatly appreciates to locate what sexualities are found where. In the interesting study by Kelley et al. (1999) it was observed how

"children's talk about sex on television serves as a means of defining identities in terms of age and gender. […] 'talking dirty' [discussing explicit television] is one of the strategies that children employ in reproducing and policing gender identities, and in enforcing a form of compulsory heterosexuality".

The author's recommend that "we need to develop a more nuanced understanding of the range of identities that television makes available to children. As well considering what children do with television, we also need to consider what television does for children".

Data suggest children's erotic and gendered playgrounds are progressively widening, or rather, organised within a world in which opportunity and fantasy become separate units of realism, separate spaces, perhaps requiring dual identities. By altering space, subjectivity as well as communication, "sexual" interactions take on divergent forms and meanings.

An example delineates the extent of written and "read sexuality" as a formative discourse:

4.6.1 Magazined Sexualities [up] [Contents]

Magazines provide a tool to monitor society's tolerance for portraying preadult sexualities[106], and to monitor material sexual cultures. "It is in listening to and hearing the voices and experiences of young women that we can begin to understand how teenage [!] women are shaped as sexual beings in a culture of patriarchy", Van Roosmalen[107] argues. These women will tell the researcher that it is magazines that shaped them. Magazines aimed at an adolescent female market can be seen as a cultural resource for teaching and learning about sexuality[108]. This medium is a potential educator in for instance the U.S.[109], China[110], Sweden[111], Germany[112], Brazil[113] and most probably the larger part of the literate world (e.g. Canada, Spain, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Mexico [explicit mags], India, and (South) Africa). The curricularising aspects are implicitly present in the (historically variable) ages for which they proclaim to be intended[114], and the topics covered.

Feminists, particularly, have questioned the way magazines (and other media, such as movies)[115] shape femininity, and curricular feminine sexualities. It could be suggested that "teen magazines limit females' sociality and sexuality within narrowly defined heterosexual norms and practices"[116]. Clearly, the sources form an alternative to adult interference[117]. Exploring "cross-cultural" differences, coitarche can be made "more appealing and feasible"[118]. However, it should be clear, authors argue, that the magazine sexuality discourse is an active colloquial one[119]. Collateral reading confirms that (dirty) magazine reading is a process of acquisition, hiding, collecting, discussing, interpreting, etc., and comparable to children "doing" any school or non-school reading[120].

Apart from their importance for the performance of enculturation, these works provide a clue to how sexuality is represented (cf. children's literature)[121], marketed and translated for curricularised audiences. Children's books, for instance, currently are being colonised by abuse prevention efforts[122].

4.7 Narratives that "Space": Empty, Ambivalent and Bogus Salient Spaces [up] [Contents]

By verbalising discursive material, narratives establish interpersonal "salient spaces" for sexual behaviour to take place, or to be prevented. In some cases, however, salient spaces are created without an initial reference to sexual behaviour. Girls, particularly, are socialised at an abstract level at which they do not grasp their situation, but nevertheless are rigidly controlled / situated.

An Ovimbundu mother "[…] will teach her daughter saying, A girl does not play with boys, for boys are sharp ones[123]. Don't play with them. This advice is because of sex, although the child may not understand it at the time. But when the boys call her, she will remember the advice of her mother and may quickly reply, saying, My mother says, Don't play with boys: they'll hurt you. Thus she has taken to heart what her mother has told her and may go ahead in the same way". Pauw states that among the urban Xhosa of East London menarchal girls are told the possibility of pregnancy. "Other mothers only gave a vague warning not to play or laugh with boys, because they are "dangerous", "mischievous", "cruel", or "rough". A few girls claimed that they did not realize the significance of their condition when they became pregnant". In the West Indies, menarchal girls were told, apart from hygienic instructions, not to "play" or "mess" with boys. Among the Tebu, girls are not instructed in sexual matters, but are frequently warned against sexual relations. Contemporary Kikuyu girls are told the negative consequences of "running around", but "the actual sexual activities […] are indirectly prohibited are not detailed" (Worthman and Whiting, 1987:p160). In a study on Spanish-speaking people of San Jose, Clark (1970:p135) noted: "Parents avoid sexual discussions with preadolescent children except for giving them general instructions to "stay away from the boys" or "leave the girls alone". On Jamaica, Greenfeld (1966) documented that "[r]epeated admonitions about "staying away from boys", young informants complained, never include a discussion of "what to stay away from".

The cross-culturally stereotypical technique creates ambivalent spaces:

A Puerto Rican informant for Alvarez (1988) stated girls are told that "God forbid that some boy should touch you, because "I'll beat you up". But they wouldn't tell you why; then you don't know any better".

In other cases, mothers employ devious rationalisations for preventing association with boys.

After toddlerhood, Iranese children are explicitly discouraged from playing together by the warning that they might transform into the opposite sex. An autobiographical account (Dyk, 1938) reveals that seven or eight-year-old Navaho boys may be told girls will bite their genitals off, or have vaginae dentatae (p44-5). Kgatla menerchal girls are told that "if you now play with boys you will get a baby" (Suggs, 108).

The most widely use of bogus salient spaces is effected through medical arguments (cf. §11.1.2). These have to be distinguished from cases where such spaces are part of the genuine fabric of gender space:

"Sambia" "boys would be polluted and their growth blocked by sexual play with girls […] (Herdt, 1993:p199).

Globally, linguistically construed spaces can be characterised by the degree of definition (empty/full) and the fabric of their content (dualistic, nosological, …).

4.8 …But I Didn't Even Know What it Was About: Reconstructed and Pedagogic Erotic Biographies [up] [Contents]

Numeric accounts of sexual autobiographies (e.g., Kinsey) are not suitable for constructionist approaches. A limited number of papers and monographs present the sexual histories of North-Americans at a descriptive level[124], data not paralleled for the majority of western and non-western cases (e.g., Simmons[125] [Hopi], Sekaquaptewa[126] [Hopi], Enry [Ruanda[127], Zaire[128]], Bloom[129] [Zambia], Rotkirch[130] [Russia, Finland], Amin[131] [Egypt], Crapanzano[132] [Morocco], Dyk[133] [Navajo], Barton[134] [Philippines], Villanueva[135] [Puerto Rico], Shostak[136] [!Kung], Ellis [Britain][137]). Particularly interesting is the work by Ribal providing a transatlantic challenge of American and Scandinavian (Swedish and Danish) narratives. These can be analysed in addition to parental accounts[138] providing pedagogic constructions of the early "sexual" situation. Most of the material is fragmentary insofar as it does not generate complete descriptive autobiographies.

These works explore what is culturally, methodologically or personally demarcated as "the sexual" factor, or element, as producing "the sexual" space, trajectory and curriculum. Autobiographical narratives clarify how activities/experiences are retrospectively temporalised (curricularised), theorised, reassessed, and situated within this "sexual" sphere / trajectory / curriculum. Such narratives (Martinson, 1973; Ribal, 1973; etc.) suggest that in autobiographies people predominantly reconstruct their "sexual" ontogenesis as an active process (contemplation, acquisition and application), whereas in pedagogical accounts there is more representation of passive "sexualisation" ideologies (cf. Straver).

Reading adult recalls of childhood erotogenetic events one is stunned by the vigour by which some defend their ignorance or impotence regarding the nature of phenomena. A case of Martinson (1973) relates:

"All I really noticed about them [erections when seven or eight years old] was that they occurred when I thought about a young girl I felt romantically inclined toward. Also, they made it very difficult to roll over in bed. I never knew the purpose of the arousal, but I was aroused".

Early sexuality becomes conceptualised within the negatively formulated realm of not-knowing, not-realising, not-associating, etc.: "I could have performed sexual intercourse that day [early childhood] with a total lack of knowledge, desire, or instinct for reproduction" (M., 1973:p37). The following account includes rationalisation and biologisation of transitions, negotiation of "sexual" content and motivation, and theorising of the sexual situation:

"[Until eleven] I was so busy getting into trouble in other ways that I probably did not have much time to think about sex […]. From the ages of eleven to fourteen, I began to have something happen in my sexual ego […] Perhaps they [Boyscout "sexual games"] were only half-sexual games […] I do not remember feeling that it was more than a game that we were playing […] We told these stories [fucking, girls] to each other as substitutes for our own powerless experience […]" (Ribal, p82-3).

The following accounts demonstrate how the early "sexual" situation is retrospectively contextualised within diverse spaces, including knowlegability, biophysiology, the allosexual realm, and essentialistic categories (Ribal):

"Our own attempt to do this [parental coitus] was very simple and even innocent" (p36); "There was something exciting to me about having another's hands on my body (p48)"; "It [masturbation] was a joy like many other joys. I did not connect this stimulation with the other sex. I did not connect it with sexual living in any way. That came later" (p62); "I probably regarded it [masturbation] as a natural thing to do because I enjoyed it" (p66).

Narratives provide curricularised interpretations of whether "sexual" activities arise from a personal social ("sexual") orientation, situated opportunities, such "protoerotic" drives as curiosity, seduction, or discursive contextualisations such as peer-pressure, or love commitment.

4.9 Preliminary Conclusions [up] [Contents]

Children's social-sexual curricula, bodies and agenda are shaped, operationalised and redirected through language, and conversely, utilise language to shape, expand on and regulate social-sexual interactions. Language is used to represent, facilitate, prevent, order and categorise sexual behaviour. Language acts as the structural substance, or "grid", of "social" and "personal" spaces, which are "provided" through the socialisation curriculum but also maintained and elaborated upon. Sexual "development" can thus be conceptualised by the ways in which sexual meanings are progressively embedded in sustainable uses of space-structuring and space-structured communications.

Notes [up] [Contents]

[last updated]

[1] For a more comprehensive treatise and referencing, see preparatory material collected in Children's Dirt Talk and Obscene Arts: Childhood Erotic Folklore.

[2] Pavlovic, J. M. (1973) Folk Life and Customs in the Kragujevac Region of the Jasenica in Sumdaija. New Haven, Conn.: HRAF, p245

[3] Appadurai, A. (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. As cited by Gatter, Ph. (Febr., 2001) Global Theories and Sexuality. Online paper.

[4] Arango, A. C. (1989) Dirty Words: Psychoanalytic Insights. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc.

[5] Stoller, R. J. (1976) Sexual excitement, Arch Gen Psychia 33,8:899-909. Stoller writes: "Sexual excitement depends on a scenario the person to be aroused has been writing since childhood. The story is an adventure, an autobiography disguised as fiction, in which the hero/heroine hides crucial intrapsychic conflicts, mysteries, screen memories of actual traumatic events and the resolution of these elements into a happy ending, best celebrated by orgasm".

[6] Plummer, K. (1991) Seksuelle historier: Fra moderne fortaellinger til senmoderne fortaellinger [Telling sexual stories: From modern to late modern narratives], Nordisk Sexologi 9,3:135-62; Plummer, K. (1994) Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds. London: Routledge; Plummer, K. (1995) Telling Sexual Stories in a Late Modern World, Stud Symbolic Interaction 18:101-20; Plummer, K. (1997) Telling Sexual Stories, Zeitschr f Sexualforsch 10,1:69-81

[7] Sears, R. R., Maccoby, E. E. & Levin, H. (1957) Patterns of Child Rearing. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson; Gagnon, J. H. (1965) Sexuality and sexual learning in the child, Psychiatry 28:212-28; Gagnon, H. G. (1989) Sexuality across the life course in the United States, in Turner, Ch. F., Miller, H. G. & Moses, L. E. (Eds.) AIDS, Sexual Behavior and Intravenous Drug Use. Washington, DC: National Academic Press, p500-36

[8] Senchea, J. A. (1998) Gendered Constructions of Sexuality in Adolescent Girls' Talk, DAI-A 59,5, Nov, 1399-A /University of Iowa. Cf. Senchea, J. (Febr., 1999) Gendered Constructions of Sexuality in Adolescent Girls' Talk. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Speech Communication Association, Vancouver, Canada

[9] E.g., [?] (1998) Bodytalk: Discourses of Sexuality among Adolescent African American Girls, in Hoyle, S. M., & Adger, C. T. (Eds.) Kids Talk: Strategic Language Use in Later Childhood. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press Inc.

[10] Christian-Smith, L. K. (1993) Texts of Desire: Essays on Fiction, Femininity and Schooling. London: Falmer Press

[11] E.g., Walker, B. M. (1997) 'You learn it from your mates, don't you?': Young people's conversations about sex as a basis for peer education, Youth & Policy 57:44-55

[12] Cit. infra

[13] Blair, H. A. (2000) Genderlects: Girl Talk and Boy Talk in a Middle-years Classroom, Language Arts 77,4:315-23; Blair, H. (1998) They left their genderprints: The voice of girls in text, Language Arts 75,1:11–8

[14] Eckert, P. (1990) Cooperative Competition in Adolescent "Girl Talk", Discourse Processes 13,1:91-122

[15] Bauman, R. (1977) Linguistics, Anthropology, and Verbal Art: Toward a Unified Perspective, with a Special Discussion of Children's Folklore, Georgetown Univ Round Table on Languages & Linguistics 1:13-36. See also Roemer, D. (1983) Children's Verbal Folklore, Volta Rev 85,5:55-71

[16] As excerpted: "In white American children, peer group folklore is first encountered & learned from ages five to eight in the form of riddles, "knock-knocks", and other verbal routines called 'solicitational' routines. When the five year old first begins to interact with peers, he adopts the descriptive routine, mimicking the syntactic form of riddles; however, the content is neither traditional nor learned, but invented. The question is purely descriptive, not meant to represent covert or tricky information. At the next stage, the child begins to use the power and control aspects in potent elicitations, where he understands that riddles are puzzling, but can't yet comprehend their ambiguity. He gives them arbitrary answers, not allowing the listener to guess correctly. Next, the child constructs riddles in order to entertain on the same arbitrary format, often using taboo terms. The ensuing shift is to more extended descriptions which may be guessed, and this is followed by introduction of the first note of ambiguity. At age seven, the child learns that riddles are traditional and readymade routines and, finally, they are correctly performed".

[17] Gray, P. (1993) Oaths and Laughter and Indecent Speech, Language & Communication 13,4:311-25

[18] Haller, J. M. (1976) Like a Very Drab, Am Speech 51,1-2:25-34; Foote, R. & Woodward, J. (1973) A preliminary investigation of obscene language, J Psychol 83,2:263-75. See also Holzknecht, S. (1988) Word Taboo and Its Implications for Language Change in the Markham Family of Languages, PNG, Language & Linguistics in Melanesia 18,1-2:43-69

[19] Nash, W. (1995) Fair Words and Foul, in Svartvik, J. (Ed.) Words: Proceedings of an International Symposium, Lund, 25-26 August 1995. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie & Antikvitets Akademien, p23-38

[20] African sexual educations were traditionally provided by grandparents (Kamba, Bemba, Shona, Makonde, Hambukushu, Hehe, Nambyans, Gusii, Meru, Luguru and Zaramo). The generational gap often represents a moral obligation (Xhosa, Hehe, Gusii, Zulu, Luguru, Bena, Gogo; provisionally for Mongo, Baluba and Bahungana; also Majuro [Marshall Islands]). In a study by Lallemand (1975) it was noted that insults addressed to children as opposed to those addressed to adults made no reference to sexual organs, but concentrate exclusively on the head, including its part and secretions, the belly, the foot, and the derrière. Russians were known for their use of obscenity, states Krupyanskaya (Benet, 1970). This is significant since in Russia obscene actions between adults in the presence of youth and children [were] punishable" (Brupbacher, 1949).

[21] Obscene language is freely permitted in most Kurdish households, except in the presence of the older males. One, for example, heard a mother call her daughter a "prostitute", and a little girl, who could scarcely appreciate the meaning of the word, addressed her sister in the same fashion" (Hansen, 1961:p261-3)

[22] Peters (1990:p249-50) sketches how sexual education among the Northern Libian Bedouin is a problematic item in parent-child socialization: "The subject of marriage between proximate generations is disallowed. Between father and son, avoidance of anything relating to sex or marriage is strictly observed. Only one male, the mother's brother, is free to discuss these matters and present a case for marriage to a father on behalf of a son. Men also have access to their fathers through their sisters, who are free to discuss any matters relating to male-female relationships with their mothers, and the latter, in turn, press fathers to marry off their sons".

[23] Sharp (1934:p430) marks for the North-Eastern Yir-Yoront that "[t]he sex dichotomy begins early in life [as seen in] obscene and abusive language […]".

[24] Calame-Griaule points out that "[t]he Dogon express the idea of sexual maturity in two ways: [...] "he who knows speech" and [...] "he who knows shame". Mastery of speech and decent behaviour are prerequisites to marriage according to Dogon rules. This is why the child's acquisition of language, particularly that of the little girl, is supervised so carefully". This also relates to verbal sexual instructions. A puberty, the girl receives her "hidden speech" or "speech of the bedroom". Later, when she goes to the "house of the old woman", the girl receives another education called "outside speech".

[25] However, "[t]he sexual importance of the initiation is lessened by the fact that boys and girls are circumcised a few years before sexual maturity, that even before, children already play sexually with one another, and that sexual activity is taken seriously only when it can lead to propagation" (Parin et al.).

[26] Akan, Nupe, Bovale, Venda, Thonga, Makonde

[27] Kikuyu, Zulu, Matabele, Makonde, Hehe, Kaguru, Bena, Subiya

[28] Lallemand, S. (1985) L'Apprentissage de la Sexualité dans les Contes d'Afrique de l'Ouest. Paris: Editions L'Harmattan

[29] Lapps have a liking for sexual jokes which function as sexual education for the young (Delaporte and Roue, 1973).

[30] Murray, Th. E. (1990-5) Swearing as a Function of Gender in the Language of Midwestern American College Students: Who Does It More, What Do They Say, When and Where Do They Do It, and Why Do They Do It? Maledicta 11:139-52

[31] Murray, Th. E. (1998) The Other Nicknames of American Greek-Letter Organizations, Names 46,2:113-32

[32] 5% of U.S. adult recollections of nicknaming within the school setting carried a "sexual connotation. Crozier, W. R. & Skliopidou, E. (2002) Adult recollections of name-calling at school, Educ Psychol 22,1:113-24, at p120

[33] Stenstrom, A. B. (1995) Taboos in Teenage Talk, in Melchers, G. & Warren, B. (Eds.) Studies in Anglistics. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, p71-9

[34] Conn, J. H. & Kanner,. L. (1947) Children's awareness of sex differences, J Child Psychia 1:3-57; Kreitler, H. & Kreitler, S. (1966) Children's concept of sexuality and birth, Child Developm 37,2:363-78; Roiphe, H. & Galenson, E. (1972) Early genital activity and the castration complex, Psychoanal Quart 41,3:334-47; Lerner, H. E. (1976) Parental mislabeling of female genitals as a determinant of penis envy and learning inhibitions in women, J Am Psychoanal Assoc 24,5, Suppl.:269-83. See also Lerner, H. G. (1988) Women in Therapy. New York: Aronson; Ash, M. (1980) The misnamed female sexual organ, in Samson, J.-M. (Ed.) Sexualité et Enfance. Montreal: Éditions Études Vivantes, p386-91; Van den Ende-de Monchy, C. (1980) Exploratief Onderzoek naar de Lichaamsbeleving bij Kinderen van Vier tot Zes Jaar. Dissertation, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; Jaffe, J. J. (1985) "Down There": The Relationship Between Childhood Home Environment, Childhood Genital Labels, and Adult Sexuality in a Middle-Class Female Sample. University of Southern California; Schor, D. & Sivan, S. (1989) Interpreting children's labels for sex-related body-parts of anatomically explicit dolls, Child Abuse & Negl 13:523-31; Fraley, M. C., Nelson, E. C., Wolf, A.W. & Lozoff, B. (1991) Early genital naming, Developm & Behav Pediatr 12:301-4; Wurtele, S. et al. (1992) Preschoolers knowledge of and ability to learn genital terminology, J Sex Educ & Ther 18:115-22; Wurtele, S. (1993) Enhancing children's sexual development through sexual abuse prevention programs, J Sex Educ & Ther 19,1:37-46; Butson, S. L. (1996) Responses of young children to questions concerning sexuality: An exploratory study, DAI-B 57(1-B):719; De Marneffe, D. (1997) Bodies and words: A study of young children's genital and gender knowledge, Gender & Psychoanal 2,1:3-33; Cheung, M. (1999) Children's language of sexuality in child sexual abuse investigantions, J Child Sexual Abuse 8,3:65-84

[35] See chapter 12.

[36] Fisher, S. (1989) Sexual Images of the Self. Hillsdale, JJ [etc.]: L. Erlbaum, p1-38

[37] Keller, R. (1987) Worttabu und Tabuwörter, Sprache & Lit in Wissensch & Unterricht 18,2(60):2-9

[38] Among the Amhara (Ethiopia) , "[i]t is impolite even to mention the names of genitals and reproductive organs, such as k'ula for penis, and […] for vulva, so they are merely whispered about". In Nigeria, children would not be allowed to mention the names of sex organs (Uka). Euphemisms and phase-specific terms were widely used in Ghana, as detailed by Kaye (1960:p384-5; 1962:p122), but here this turned out to be variable.

[39] Gartrell, N. & Mosbacher, D. (1984) Sex differences in the naming of children's genitalia, Sex Roles 10,11/12:869-76. Cf. Langfeldt, Th. (1981a) Sexual development in children, in Cook, M. & Howells, K. (Eds.) Adult Sexual Interest in Children. New York: Academic Press, p99-120, at p108-10

[40] Simkins, L. & Rinck, Ch. (1982) Male and female sexual vocabulary in different interpersonal contexts, J Sex Res 18,2:160-72; Sanders, J. S. & Robinson, W. L. (1979) Talking and not talking about sex: Male and female vocabularies, J Communication 29,2:22-30

[41] In Russian Reindeer Chukchee's children's games, "a class of […] songs represents the act of copulation, with a rather queer dance and even with imitative sounds. The dance often ends in two girls lying on the ground imitating sexual intercourse. Frequently young boys also take part in the performance" (Bogoraz-Tan, p269). Unwin (1934:p153), on the Amazulu, stated that "a special term existed, u(lu)ngqoyingqoyi (lit., "delicious food") which small girls, when out alone and seeing a boy, called out to him, the words being intended as an enticement to him to come to them for sexual purposes".

[42] Waning, A. van (1983) Seksuele terminologie en beleving, Tijdschr Psychia [Dutch] 25,1:40-55

[43] Stephens, W. N. (1971) A cross-cultural study of modesty and obscenity, in Technical report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Washington, US : Government printing office. Vol. 9, p405-51; Stephens, W. N. (1972) A cross-cultural study of modesty, Behav Sci Notes 7,1:1-28. The author stated that for sixteen (1972: N=13) cases in the sample (N=91), it is reported that adults talk and joke about sex freely and openly in the presence of children.

[44] Broude, G.J. & Greene, S.J. (1976) Cross-cultural codes on twenty sexual attitudes and practices, Ethnology 5,4:409-29. The authors found that in a sample of 186 societies (SCCS), sex talk habits were described for 67. In 19 of these (28.4%), there is no inhibition whatsoever to talk in front of children; in another 3 (4.5%), it is free except in front of children.

[45] Of Kogi six to twelve-year-olds it is said that they "still do not know anything concrete about the sexual life of the adults. At times they may have heard an obscene word or seen a suggestive gesture, but their imagination in this regard is based principally on the fragments of songs and myths which they have heard in the ceremonial house" (Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1951).

[46] Hopi children learned by observation, and "jokes which we would consider obscene were taught to small boys to be used when they performed as ceremonial clowns (Oswalt, [1973:p425])

[47] Goldman, J. (1990) The importance of an adequate sexual vocabulary for children, Austral J Marr & Fam 11,3:136-48

[48] For comments on the phenomenon, see Berges E. T. et al. (1983) Children & Sex: The Parents Speak. N.Y.: Facts on File, p161-91; Harrison (1968) When children use obscene language, Med Asp Hum Sex 2,12:6-11; Lieberman, J. (1967) On obscenity in childhood and youth, Sexology 34,3:156-7 / Obscenity in childhood and youth, in Rubin, I. & Kirkendall, L. (Eds., 1970) Sex in the Childhood Years. New York: Association Press, p107-8

[49] Sherman and Weisskopf's (1995) Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts, a collection of traditional children's rhymes from Canada and the United States, caused outrage among Ontario parents who wanted the book removed from the public library. Stating they are racist, homophobic and sexually explicit: "We don't feel that it's suitable for general reading in the children's section. My feeling is that the children are reading this book and just skipping over the commentary which is quite adult in nature. And they may think the verses are OK to repeat". To these people, the selection by Goldings (1974) would prove a more placid digest. Goldings observes "easy regression to pregenital themes and issues", while only some rhyhmes "give "practice" to the girl's fantasy of her future fortune and heterosexuality (as older folklorists would have predicted)". See Sherman, J. & Weisskopf, T. K. F. (1995) Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood. Little Rock, AR: August House; Goldings, H. J. (1974) Jump-rope rhymes and the rhythm of latency development in girls, Psychoanal Study Child 29:431-50

[50] Postman, N. (1987) The Blurring of Childhood and the Media, Religious Educ 82,2:293-5

[51] Hermann, I. (1922) Geheime Gesellschaften der Kinder und die Sexualität, Archiv f Frauenk [etc.] 8:175-7. See also Nagy, L. (1926) A sexualitas hatasa az ifjak tarsas eletenek kialakulasara [The influence of sexuality upon the development of social life in youth], A Gyermek [The Child] 19:65-76

[52] Fine, G. A. (1986) The dirty play of little boys, Society, Nov/Dec:63-7

[53] Langford, W. (1997) "Bunnikins, I Love You Snugly in Your Warren": Voices from Subterranean Cultures of Love, in Harvey, K. & Shalom, C. (Eds.) Language and Desire: Encoding Sex, Romance and Intimacy. London: Routledge, p170-85

[54] Berdie, R. F. (1947) "Playing the Dozens", J Abnorm Soc Psychol 42:120-1; Golightly, C. & Scheffler, I. (1948) "Playing the dozens": a note, J Abnorm Soc Psychol 43:104-5; Johnson, C. S. (1941) Growing Up in the Black Belt. Washington: American Council on Education, p184-5, 228; Schulz, D. A. (1969) Coming Up Black: Patterns of Ghetto Socialization. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, p67-9; Abrahams, R. D. (1962) Playing the Dozens, J Am Folkl 75:207-20

[55] Ortony, A. et al. (1985) Cultural and Instructional Influences on Figurative Language Comprehension by Inner City Children, Res Teach English 19,1:25-36

[56] Golightly, C. & Scheffler, I. (1948) "Playing the dozens": a note, J Abnorm Soc Psychol 43:104-5

[57] Schulz, D. A. (1969) Coming Up Black: Patterns of Ghetto Socialization. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall

[58] Chimezie, A. (1976) The Dozens: An African-Heritage Theory, J Black Stud 6,4:401-20

[59] Lefever, H. G. (1981) "Playing the Dozens": A Mechanism for Social Control, Phylon 42,1:73-85, at p73

[60] Dyck, G. (1969) "Talking the dozens". A game of insults played in a group of adolescent boys, Bull Menninger Clinic 33, 2:108-116

[61] Kehily, M. J. & Nayak, A. (1997) Lads and laughter: humour and the production of heterosexual hierarchies, Gender & Educ 9,1:69-87

[62] Cf. Appendix, III.4.

[63] Thorne, B. & Luria, Z. (1986) Sexuality and gender in children's every daily worlds, Social Problems 33,3:176-90

[64] Thurlow, C. (2001) Naming the "outsider within": homophobic pejoratives and the verbal abuse of lesbian, gay and bisexual high-school pupils, J Adolesc 24,1:25-38

[65] Voss, L. S. (1997) Teasing, Disputing, and Playing: Cross-Gender Interactions and Space Utilization among First and Third Graders, Gender & Society 11,2:238-56, at p245; Mac an Ghaill, M. (1994). The making of men: masculinities, sexualities and schooling. Buckingham: Open University Press, p94, 165; Thorne, B. (1993) Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick, NJ.: Rutgers University Press, p154; O'Conor, A. (1995) Who gets called queer in school?, in Unks, G. (Ed.) The Gay Teen: Educational Practice and Theory for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth. New York: Routledge / High School J 77,1-2:7-12; Rofes, E. (1995) Making our schools safe for sissies, in Unks, G. (Ed.) The Gay Teen: Educational Practice and Theory for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth. New York: Routledge, p79-84, at p82 / High School J 77,1/2, 1994, 37-40

[66] Plummer, D. C. (2000) The quest for modern manhood: masculine stereotypes, peer culture and the social significance of homophobia, J Adolesc 24,1:15-23. Cf. Plummer, D. (1999) One of the Boys: Masculinity, Homophobia and Modern Manhood. New York: Haworth Press; Plummer, D. (2001) Policing manhood: new theories about the social significance of homophobia, in Wood, C. (Ed.) Sexual Positions: An Australian View. Collins, Melbourne: Hill of Content; Plummer, D. (March, 2000) Girls Germs: Sexuality, Gender, Health and Metaphors of Contagion. Paper, NSW Chapter Scientific Meeting. From http://www.acshp.org.au/sexual_health/transcripts/girls_germs.htm

[67] Epstein, D. (1997) Boyz' own stories: masculinities and sexualities in schools, Gender & Educ 9,1:105-15

[68] Epstein, D. (1996) Cultures of Schooling, Cultures of Sexuality. Paper presented at the 77th Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association. New York, April 8-12

[69] Nayak, A. & Kehily, M. (1997) Masculinities and schooling: why are young men so homophobic?, in Steinberg, D. L., Epstein, D. & Johnson, R. (Eds.) Border Patrols: Policing the Boundaries of Heterosexuality. London: Cassell, p138-61

[70] Redman, P. (2000) "Tarred with the Same Brush": "Homophobia" and the Role of the Unconscious in School-Based Cultures of Masculinity, Sexualities 3,4:483-99

[71] Cf. Appendix, III.5

[72] An informant told Herdt that "Sambia" boys are feared for sexual intercourse with women by men (Intimate Communications, p108-9).

[73] Greydanus, D. E. (1985) The teenage girl who is "boy crazy", Med Asp Hum Sex 19,8:120-4

[74] It turns out that few if any of these studies addresses the important relationship between developmental social preference and developmental erotic preference.

[75] Horney, K. (1930) Des Misstrauen zwischen den Geschlechtern, Psychoanal Bewegung 2:521-37; Maccoby, E. E. (1998) The Two Sexes: Growing Up Apart, Coming Together: Cambridge, MA: Belknap

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[77] Goodenough, R. G. (1990) Situational stress and sexist behaviour among young children, in Sanday, P. R. & Goodenough, R. G. (Eds.) Beyond the Second Sex. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p227-51

[78] Campbell, E. H. (1939) The social-sex development of children, Genet Psychol Monogr 21:461-552

[79] Opportunity, Sexuality and the Life Span: Segregation, Antagonism and Mobility.

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[81] Best, R. (1983) We've All Got Scars. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; Clarck, M. (1990) The Great Divide : Gender in the Primary School. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporat ion; Goodenough, R. G. (1987 ) Small group culture and the emergence of sexist behaviour: a comparative study of four children' s groups, in Spindler, G. & Spindler, L. (Eds.) Interpretive Ethnography of Education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

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[84] Lancy, D. F. (1980) Play in Species Adaptation, Ann Rev Anthropol 9:471-95

[85] Zumwalt (1976) Plain and fancy: a content analysis of children's jokes dealing with adult sexuality, Western Folklore 35:258-67; Sutton-Smith, B. & Abrams, D. M. (1976) Psychosexual material in the stories told by children, in Gemme, R. & Wheeler, C. C. (Eds.) Progress in Sexology. NY: Plenum Press, p491-504; Sutton-Smith, B. & Abrams, D.M. (1978) Psychosexual material in the stories told by children: The Fucker, Arch Sex Behav 7,6:521-43; Wolfenstein, M. (1954) Children's Humor. Glencoe: Free Press, p63-91

[86] McCosh, S. (1977) Aggression in Children's Jokes, Maledicta 1,2:125-32

[87] See Reference List, Childhood Humour Development. Available from the author.

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[94] This stress on hierarchical dimensions, and the apparent normalisation of "adult" heterosexual discourse as a measure for hypermascilinising adolescent discourses is illustrative of the concern for female and minority participation ("subordination") in male positioning.

[95] Mulhern, Sh. (1990) Incest: A Laughing Matter, Child Abuse & Neglect 14,2:265-71; Mathews, F. (1994) What's So Funny about the Abuse of Boys and Young Men? J Emotional & Behav Problems 3,1:15-9; Gartner, R. B. (1999) Cinematic depictions of boyhood sexual victimization, Gender & Psychoanal 4,3:253-89

[96] Luquet, G. H. (1910) Sur la survivance des charactères du dessin enfantin dans das grafitti à indications sexuelles, Anthropophyteia 7:196-210+ill.

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[102] Emerson, R. (2002) Hot Girlz, Shorties and Divas: Exploring the Responses of Teenage African-American Girls to Representations of Black Female Sexuality in Music Video. Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin. Cf. Emerson, R. (2002) "Where my girls at?" Negotiating Black womanhood in music videos, Gender & Society 16,1:115-35; Janus, S. S. & Janus, C. L. (1985) Children, sex, peers, culture: 1973-1983, J Psychohist 12,3:363-9; Fisher, G. A. (1997) Kids, Culture, and Courtship: The Acculturating Effects of Popular Music. Paper for the American Sociological Association

[103] Strover, Sh. (1991) Popular Media and the Teenage Sexual Agenda. Paper presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association. Chicago, IL, May 23-27

[104] Stern, S. (2002) Sexual selves on the World Wide Web: Adolescent girls' home pages as sites for sexual self-expression, in Brown, J. D. & Steele, J. R. et al. (Eds.) Sexual Teens, Sexual Media. LEA's Communication Series. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, p265-85; Loftus, J. (1999) "Let's Talk about Sex, Baby": Discourses of Female Adolescent Sexuality in Cyberspace. Paper for the American Sociological Association; Bay-Cheng, L. Y. (2001) SexEd.com: Values and norms in web-based sexuality education, J Sex Res 38,3:241-51

[105] E.g., Durham, M. G. (1999) Girls, media, and the negotiation of sexuality: A study of race, class, and gender in adolescent peer groups, Journalism & Mass Communication Quart 76,2:193-216

[106] O'Donohue, W., Gold, S. R. & McKay, J. S. (1997) Children as sexual objects: Historical and gender trends in magazines, Sexual Abuse 9,4:291-301

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