GCT Review: Show Mc Yours — Understanding Children's Sexuality

Abstract

pages, $7.95 USA, $14.95 Australia. RonakI and Juliette GoUman have pro vkled the educational community with an important and far reaching study. Every ed ucator and parent should read their book.Three facts moved this writer and are worth repeating here. First, the authors point out that in the absence of adequate and accurate explanations of sexuality, chil dren will invent their own. Second, what is known about sexuality is, by far, dominated by pathology rather than normaky. Thirdly, what children think and experience sexually is not a matter for guesswork. The Goklman's book is an attempt to correct this un acceptable perspective arxl provkie ade quate and accurate explanations of child hood sexuality. This book is for adults, not because chil dren coukln't understand it, but because adults need it more. The aduh population suffers as much from ignorance, perhaps more so due to their age, than children. It can be suggested that until adults recognize or remember what it is that kkls experience, they will be acting on and perpetuating false informatk>n.In an attempt to learn about their sexual ity, RonakI and Juliette Goldman inter viewed almost 1000 chiklren aged 5-15 in five countries -Australia, the U.S., Canada, England, and Sweden. A second study was conducted on 1000 Australian adolescents asking for retrospective reports on their childhood and sexual experiences. This book is a synthesis and analysis of these two studies. The book isdivkled into three parts: What Chiklren Think About Sex; Chiklren's Sexual Experiences; and What Does It All I^n ?Part One -"What Chiklren Think About Sex" is a delightful section. It poses the re searcher's interview questnns and presents the children's answers. While the authors chose typk:al responses to represent the majority of answers or themes, they dki not exclude atypical responses. This lent a hum orous and human note to this subject. When asked about pregnancy, one thoughtful 11 year old boy replied: "I think women must have two stomachs." (Why?) "Cause the food the mother eats would 8k>sh all over the baby."For ease of understanding, the chiklren are often categorized by age or type of re sponse such as the realists, the reporters, the miniaturists, and the ogncu/turist. Also, the types of questk>ns, their answers, and their analyses are often insightful and sur prising. They range from chiklrens' under-statKÜng of intercourse to hostility tovwird the opposite sex.Part Two -"Chiklren's Sexual Experi ences" brings out the authors' anger and frustration at the abysmal way whkh sex educatkin has been handled and the obvk>us lack of much-needed informatkm the chil dren must have in order to know what is go ing on. The authors uncover the ultimate irony that the person with the cbsest relatk)nship to the chiki, the parent, is the one least likely to be confkled in because of a fear of punishment or reprimand. This sectron covers a wkle range of topks from mas turbation anxiety, the false stereotype of sexually active male and sexually passive fe male, incest, and chi...