Now let us assume that we are past the initial impression stage and things are beginning to progress. Based on first impressions a woman might think, ‘He’s a bit thick but I fancy him, so I’ll pretend to be thick too so he won’t be put off. Armed with the ‘knowledge’ that Western men do not like their women to be brighter than they are themselves, she puts herself down because he seems unintelligent. The man will unconsciously alter his behaviour to come into line with what he feels she expects and the charade gets off the ground.

Many men think that women most respect and enjoy the company of dominant men and one survey found that girls certainly are attracted to competent men. But if men tried to overcome their incompetence by being dominant, the women found them more unattractive. The most appealing men were those who were competent and dominant. It does seem to be the case that men who have power and are good at what they do are very attractive to women.

So now our two individuals are talking and eyeing each other up. The main thing they are doing is making character and personality judgements, but they are also trying to find out if the other likes them. Similarly, nods, eye-to-eye contact and positive body language all help to build up a positive or negative picture. Some people are good at reading these tell-tales and build on them at once but others are very bad at it. If a girl finds a boy attractive there are common give-aways. She may, for example, tend to look into his eyes momentarily and then look away, she may blush, or she may giggle at the slightest joke or teasing.

The way we interpret these signs varies according to our mood from day to day. Studies have shown that aroused men (who had just read some sexy material) were more likely to see a girl as sexually attractive and receptive than were unaroused men. So we could meet someone on one day and be unaffected by them and then meet them again in a different and more receptive mood and really hit it off.

*24\164\2*

Late adolescence ends around the age of twenty to twenty-one in girls but not until twenty-three in boys and for some well beyond that. It is succeeded by young adulthood. In this stage young women usually become less apprehensive about themselves, probably because of the confidence gained as a result of earlier successes (even if the relationship did not last) with men. They appear, in general, to be more philosophical and more capable of taking a long-term view of the future. In general, too, their relationship with their mother improves and most mothers appear willing to accept their daughter as an autonomous person.

Poor relationships between a father and his son can reach crisis proportions in late adolescence and early adulthood, as the son begins to feel more self-assured. Where it continues at a vicious level it is often found that Oedipal factors are still at work in the son and that his relationships with women are often disturbed.

As a part of the late-adolescent process, the individual changes his or her relationship with society. Criticism and idealism may find expression in political or religious activity but also in good works towards others. The childhood tendency to divide the world into goodies and baddies still recurs and may cloud judgement, but it recedes throughout adolescence except in the politically disturbed fraction of late adolescents and young adults. In the main there seems to be a working out — or not working out – of childhood grievances which are usually unconscious and elevated to some point of political principle which then has to be imposed on the whole community if possible.

Romanticism is still rife in late adolescence but it is to be hoped that it is tempered a little by reason in early adulthood. Equally, it is to be hoped that it is never lost.

*19\164\2*

The first sign of puberty is nearly always the development of the breasts, often one, the left, before the other. At about the age of eleven but sometimes as early as eight or as late as thirteen, mounds appear and the areola, the pigmented area around the nipple enlarges. Up to this time the sensitivity of the area is roughly equal in boys and girls but in girls it now begins to increase. Full breast development takes about two and a half years. Depending on her personal and family attitudes and those of her friends, a girl will either welcome or conceal these changes.

Pubic hair development normally starts a few months after the breasts begin to develop but can start before. A few girls, perhaps because of guilt about masturbation, believe that hair growth is a sign of abnormality or even a sign of changing sex and so may cut it or shave it off. Around this time the vagina starts to produce an increased amount of whitish, acidic fluid.

Coinciding with, or just before, these changes, the girl experiences a physical growth spurt. This reaches a peak soon after the pubic hair begins to appear, and then the rate of growth begins to slacken. About two and a half years after the first signs of breast development, menstruation first occurs.

Many women say they were never warned in advance about their periods starting, but most mothers say they prepared their daughters. This apparent contradiction can be explained. Because the subject concerns sex and because the mother has unwittingly inspired anxiety in relation to sex over the childhood years, her daughter does not want to know and banishes the information from her consciousness even though she has in fact been given it.

Whatever the explanation, a girl’s first period can be a shock which leads to fears of injury or illness. Depending again upon environmental attitudes some girls welcome their first period while others are ashamed. All girls probably worry to some degree about their lack of control over the event. Earlier, hard-won mastery over the other body functions in childhood now seems to be partly lost and many worry about the shame they might feel if they ever leaked blood, making their period obvious to others.

The average age at which a girl’s first period occurs is probably one measure of the affluence of a society, and in the West it has been falling for centuries. The link with affluence is food. The better nourished a population the earlier the girls start to menstruate. In fact girls that are over-nourished start even earlier. This is a good case for staying slim. The decline has reached its lowest limit so far in the generation of girls born in the years immediately after the Second World War. The first period now usually occurs at about thirteen years, but may be as early as eleven or as late as fifteen and still be quite normal. Various factors can affect the age of onset, blind girls tending to start early, whereas girls living at a high altitude or those who have younger brothers usually start late.

A girl can become pregnant before her first period but most girls are infertile for the first year or so of having periods because they are not yet ovulating (producing eggs). After this there is a slow build-up towards maximum fertility in the early twenties.

Early periods may be prolonged, heavy or irregular. Signs that a girl is becoming fertile are regular and predictable periods, especially if they are accompanied by premenstrual symptoms such as breast tenderness or pain and painful periods.

Hair usually begins to appear in the armpits at about the time of the first period. The onset of all these changes of puberty varies from girl to girl and any one girl may not follow the usual sequence. The whole process can take from one to five years to complete.

Along with these specific sexual changes, fat is deposited under the skin, making a girl’s contours more plump and rounded. This makes her body sexually attractive to men. At this stage many girls are confused by their feelings. They have impulses both to show and to conceal their bodies but by the end of early adolescence they have usually come to terms with their emerging sexuality. Under hormonal influences their interest in sex heightens. A girl’s desire to grow up and be treated as a woman is exciting to her but also fear-inspiring, giving her a simultaneous desire to remain in, or regress to, childhood as a form of escape from the realities of impending womanhood. Other contradictions arise from the fact that she has a need to be seen by males as desirable whilst at the same time fearing she might not be acceptable to them or that she may appear brazen or cheap.

As a result of these feelings early adolescence is often stressful for a girl. Unlike the early adolescent boy, her entry into the sexual arena is dramatic and swift. Because her biological drives are so strong, her parents are often concerned and this can lead to family conflict towards the end of early adolescence. Her earlier good relationship with her father may worsen as he tries to control her comings and goings but the cruellest battle is often fought with her mother. In some families these rows can become very bitter with the father physically punishing the girl and the mother accusing her of being a whore.

Many, perhaps most, girls openly rebel at some stage and tell their mothers that they hate them. If the parents ‘win’, the girl’s subsequent development may be impaired, but the greater danger is that the girl may feel she can win by running away or having early intercourse simply to spite her parents. Many experts in this field believe that girls who behave like this are simply seeking love from a man to replace the parental love they have lost but others believe that much more often it comes about because a girl wants to punish her mother.

So the answer for parents of early-adolescent girls is to try to understand their desires and fears and to do all they can to cope with the situation without reaching a stage of open warfare. The best plan is simply to keep the channels of communication open.

With her many conflicts and bodily changes it is easy to see why the early-adolescent girl can be so moody and changeable. It is also fairly obvious why many girls fail in the tasks of early adolescence. The origins of a lot of mental ill health in women can be traced back to early adolescence as can an inability to cope with the female role. Some girls opt out by becoming fat or by developing anorexia nervosa, thus regressing, Peter Pan-like, to childhood, ceasing to menstruate and losing their breasts. Others become over-devoted to academic work, to religion, or to animals. Some girls act out their distress and become sexually delinquent and other try to seduce an older man who is sometimes the exact opposite to their father. Others, especially those who had a poor relationship with their mothers in early childhood, may secretly wish to return to childhood and ‘solve’ the problem but over-react in the opposite direction and rush into ‘adult’ pursuits such as sex and drink.

Early adolescence is the time when a girl accepts, or fails to accept, that she is a sexual being. This involves much more than simply realising that she will eventually have intercourse and possibly babies. She has to accept that she has sexual interests, wishes, desires and pleasures and that her life will never be the same again. She has now entered the sexual arena and has to take her chances with the rest of us.

*14\164\2*

If all goes well with the anal stage, anal interests and pleasures slowly become secondary to phallic pleasures, around the age of three years. This is the phallic stage. In this stage the clitoris or penis increasingly becomes the predominant source of body pleasure. More or less deliberate masturbation usually starts now. Most parents say either that their child did not masturbate or, if the child did so, that they accepted it. Clinical evidence suggests that this is usually not true.

The phallic stage is in one sense the start of heterosexual love and an early childhood step towards independence from the parents but it is nearly always suppressed, if not by direct prohibition and punishment then by disapproval and distraction. Very few parents are sufficiently at ease with their own sexuality to be able to watch their young child play with his or her genitals. In some families the genitals are never mentioned or even acknowledged as existing. Anything without a name probably does not exist for a child of this age, so simply by not talking about a child’s genitals as you would about any other part of the body you are expressing a negative attitude which undoubtedly influences the child’s future feelings and behaviour. This is unmentionable sex and girls particularly suffer in this way.

In most families the genitals are given names — often of a comic type. Playing with the genitals can be condemned in the same way as was the interest in bowel motions and sex then becomes dirty sex. Religiously inclined families may suggest that God does not like this genital play and sex becomes sinful sex. Direct punishment can associate the phallic stage with fear and so sex becomes fearful sex. Some children are still warned of physical ill effects from genital touching and so sex can become unhealthy sex. Girls especially are rebuked on the basis that such practices are not ‘nice’ in girls and so sex becomes nasty sex.

Similar techniques are sometimes used to turn sex into a matter of shame, extreme privacy and embarrassment. This is shameful sex. To a greater or lesser extent everyone in our culture encounters all these reactions, if not from their parents then from other sources, and if not in the phallic stage, then later. These attitudes are continuously reinforced, however unconsciously, throughout childhood and adolescence in most families.

Somewhat surprisingly, clinical evidence strongly suggests that most of these suppressions are put over to the child in unconscious ways by parents, who are therefore not being consciously untruthful when they say they did not suppress their child’s sexuality. What was taught to them, the parents, in this way in childhood they in turn pass on to the next generation. The child stores the information away, mainly in the unconscious mind, so the transaction is between the unconscious of the parents and the unconscious of the child. This accounts for our cultural conservatism over sexual matters.

The results of sexual suppression in the phallic stage seem to be more serious for girls. This may be because they are more heavily suppressed. Mothers are generally much more indulgent towards genitality in boys than in girls. This subject is considered in more detail. Here it suffices to say that clinical experience seems to prove that the difficulties of a wide section of the adult female population in experiencing full sexual pleasure originates at this stage.

Before the phallic stage is reached a child has learned to distinguish between mummy and daddy and later between women and men. When very young he or she will have seen both parents and any brothers or sisters naked because few adults think such matters register on a young child. The young child may even have been present in the room when his or her parents were having intercourse and if so, according to some people, his or her behaviour over the next few days may show signs of disturbance. Later, witnessing or hearing intercourse can lead to the notion that sex is an aggressive and sadistic act and many children fear that their father is hurting their mother, especially if she is noisy when she has an orgasm. This is why it is probably best in our culture not to let children of any age see their parents having intercourse. Some phobias are thought to be triggered off in susceptible children who repeatedly witness or overhear parental sexual acts after the age of about two or three.

Parental nudity, which has always been more widespread amongst

the better educated, is of much less significance, especially if the child’s friends are being reared in the same sort of way, though a few psychosexual experts think that it is best for a boy not to see his mother naked after the age of four or so and for a girl not to see her father naked from about a year. Children whose friends are used to seeing their parents naked will probably be unaffected but children can be very cruel, even this young, and will tease children who seem to be brought up in ways that are contrary to the way they know. As children discuss this sort of thing at school it is probably best not to subject your child to experiences at home that will make them feel odd among their friends. They may believe that they have odd parents if their friends say so and this could be harmful to them.

A practical aspect of this stage in relation to boys is that only about 4 per cent of boys have a fully retractable foreskin at birth and 50 per cent by one year. Forcible attempts at retraction by some mothers, to clean underneath, to see whether circumcision is necessary or just to stretch it, may account for some late adolescent boys and men with tight foreskins who react with great alarm at any attempt at retraction. Their reluctance leads them to masturbate with the foreskin in the forward position and its development does not keep pace with the increase in size of the penis at puberty.

Little boys’ penises need nothing done to them at all. If the foreskin will not pull back completely by the age of five, see your doctor for advice.

As children begin to look at the genitals of children (and adults) of the opposite sex, boys may come to see girls as being boys who have had their genitals removed, perhaps as a punishment for touching them. Some fear a similar punishment themselves. Girls sometimes conjure up the idea that they really have a secret penis or seem, perhaps, to blame their mothers because they have not got one. The difficulty in such speculation is that children rarely say how they feel and their reactions can only be guessed at from their behaviour.

*9\164\2*

No. It’s a articles that, by increasing your insight and understanding of the whole subject of sexuality and love, should help you understand your own and your children’s complex emotions and feelings in situations as different as birth and breastfeeding; dealing with your pubertal daughter;-influencing your teenage son; wondering what to do about your child living with his or her boyfriend or girlfriend; reassessing marriage in general and your own in particular; sex problems within your marriage; worries about old age; and much, much more.

No one has the right to tell people what to do when it comes to bringing up their children but there are many errors that people make in this area. Clinical experience of dealing with these problems enables us to help the reader because he or she can learn from thousands of other people’s mistakes — hopefully before they make them themselves. It’s easy to say that there are no absolute rights or wrongs about family sexuality and that whatever you do your children will turn out all right but this simply isn’t true. None of us can hope to bring up perfect human beings but we can do our very best to reduce negative influences by a little informed thought – and care. Whatever happens in the formal world of sex education the majority of influences on a child (and therefore on that person as an adult) come from his or her parents. Because of this we owe it not only to our children but also to their spouses and children to get things as right as we can in the first twenty years or so of their lives.

*4\164\2*

As we grow and explore our body parts, we need words to describe them. It is important to learn the proper, scientific names of the part of the body.

The proper names for body parts are the same names used by scientists and health care workers. The proper names, such as “testes” and “vagina,” are technical terms just like “liver,” “lung,” “leg,” and so on.

However, we often learn the slang terms instead. Slang names are words that people use instead of the proper scientific names. Slang name; may also be real words that are used incorrectly. Certain slang words are made by using a word we know in place of one we don’t know.

For example, when people speak of the testes, they may use the slang term “balls.” Another slang word for testes is “huevos,” which means “eggs” in Spanish. Because the testes are round, they may remind us of balls or eggs. Balls or huevos may seem more familiar, easier to remember, and easier to pronounce than “testes.” Another example is that of the slang words “tits” or “titties”—for women’s breasts. An animal’s nipples are properly called “teats.” “Teats” was changed to “tits” and “titties.” Other slang words seem to make no sense. For example, a penis is sometimes called a “Johnson.” We do not know who or what a Johnson is. Or having vaginal intercourse for the first time is often called “losing one’s cherry”—for both women and men. Obviously, there is no cherry or any other fruit inside our sex and reproductive structures. Yet “cherry” has become slang for “hymen.”

Slang is handed down from generation to generation. New slang terms are also created by the pop culture or media in each generation. Slang in one family or community is often different from the slang used in another family or community.

Some women and men agree to use slang during sex play to express and increase their excitement. Otherwise, the slang names of the sex and reproductive organs can create communication problems between men and women, people of different ages, cultures, and economic classes, and people of different professions. There are more slang terms for the sex organs and the sex acts than for any other body part or function. For example, it’s difficult to think of slang terms for “finger,” “toe,” or “elbow.”

Imagine being a doctor or nurse. To understand your patients, you may need to understand all of the slang terms that your patients use. Imagine being a patient who doesn’t understand the words the health care worker is using. A confusing situation for both people! Slang can be a real communication problem.

Respect is another reason to use the correct scientific names of our sex and reproductive organs. The person using a slang term may feel that the word is the right one to use, but the person hearing the term may be offended or hurt. For example, one person may think that “balls” is the right word to use for the testes. Another person may feel that “balls” is a very rude word. Slang names often cause strong negative emotions because many people find them rude, impolite, hurtful, or disrespectful of our own and each others’ bodies.

If using slang creates difficulty in communicating and risks the disrespect of others, why do people still use it?

Slang begins at home when parents and relatives teach a child that a “рее-pee” is a penis, “boobies” are breasts, and a “vaginy” is a vagina. These slang terms may seem harmless at the time. The terms may even seem easier for a young child to say. But learning and using slang continue as a child grows. Soon the child becomes an adult who is using a whole vocabulary of slang expressions that she or he passes on to another generation.

It is important for parents to know that children can easily learn the proper names at an early age. When they grow up, they will hand down to their children the correct names of the sex and reproductive organs. Using proper language can help people better understand their sexuality.

If everyone used the proper names for body parts, there would be fewer problems communicating with each other. No matter what family or community, age, sex, or culture, each person would be using the same terms. More important, when we use the proper names, we are showing respect for our bodies, others’ bodies, and both genders—male and female. Of course, when we use the correct names, we should use them correctly. Many well-educated people, for example, use the word “vagina” when they really mean “vulva.”

Positive Talk and Proud Bodies

The many reasons we have slang tell us something about ourselves. It shows that many of us are not comfortable talking about our bodies—especially our sex and reproductive parts. Slang shows that we may not even know much about our bodies. We create slang to hide our embarrassment. But embarrassment keeps us ignorant. Ignorance keeps us from becoming comfortable with our bodies.

A body is an incredible, fascinating structure. It is normal to want to learn about it. It is normal to ask questions about it. It is normal to be proud of it. Parents, relatives, and friends can help promote greater self-esteem among young children and teens by using the proper names of the sex and reproductive organs.

Talking to children positively about their bodies, puberty, and sexuality helps them develop a positive sexuality. Positive talk replaces embarrassment with pride. It replaces ignorance with knowledge and gives us comfort instead of discomfort. Positive talk also helps children learn to respect the sexuality of others.

*51/155/5*

Primary Sex Characteristics

From the first day of our lives, as newborn babies, we have all the major sex organs and structures that we have as adults.

A baby has the same internal and external sex and reproductive organs that an adult does. These characteristics are called primary sex characteristics. We will have the primary sex characteristics with which we are born for the rest of our lives.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

As our bodies grow, our sex organs grow, too. As girls and boys grow, changes will happen to their bodies that make girls look more like women and boys look more like men. These changes happen during puberty and affect our secondary sex characteristics.

Changes That Occur in Puberty

Puberty is a time when hormones stimulate change in all parts of the body. The changes affect what happens to the body on the inside—girls begin to menstruate, and boys begin to produce sperm and ejaculate. The changes affect our bodies on the outside as well. Girls develop breasts, and boys develop facial hair. Every person goes through puberty, but when and “how quickly” puberty and secondary sex characteristics develop are different for every person. Puberty generally lasts for a couple of years.

Puberty doesn’t happen at the same time for girls and boys. Very often, girls begin puberty between the ages of eight and 14. Boys usually begin puberty about two years later, between the ages of 10 and 15.

During puberty, young people of the same age may look very different. In a group of three friends, all age 13, the first may be almost done with puberty, the second may just be starting puberty, and the third may not yet have started. These three people have very different secondary sex characteristics, and they will all be normal. The time puberty begins does not indicate whether children will be bigger or smaller than anyone else when they are adults.

Puberty may be embarrassing for young women and men. The numerous changes our bodies go through may feel awkward. Erections or periods may happen at unwanted times. Breasts may make one feel self-conscious. Sweat may be produced in large amounts. Body odor becomes stronger than it was in childhood. Acne—pimples on the face caused by bacteria and trapped oil—may make one feel unattractive.

*47/155/5*

The penis gets a great deal of attention for several reasons:

• It is the most obvious sex organ because it extends out from the body.

• It gets handled often. Every time a boy or man urinates, he handles his penis. The penis is the organ through which urine passes out of the bodies of boys and men.

• The penis is the most sexually sensitive organ in boys and men. From the first moments of sexual excitement, the penis begins to enlarge and stiffen—become erect.

At the height of sexual excitement in adolescent and adult men, a fluid called semen spurts out of the penis.

The penis has two parts: the shaft and the glans. The shaft is the largest part of the penis. It is shaped like a tube. At one end, it is connected to the body; at the other end is the glans— sometimes called the head or tip of the penis. The glans is made up of softer, fleshier tissue than the shaft. It is highly sensitive and can be a source of sexual pleasure. It is equivalent to the clitoris of a woman. There is a small opening at the tip of the glans called the urethral opening. Urine and semen pass out of the man’s body through this opening. The sensitive area of skin that attaches the underside of the glans to the foreskin is called the frenulum.

At birth, all penises have a loose tube of skin called the foreskin that covers the glans. The foreskin protects the glans. Shortly after birth, the foreskin is removed from the penises of some boys. The operation to remove the foreskin is called circumcision. A penis that has no foreskin is called a circumcised penis, and one that has not had the foreskin removed is called uncircumcised.

Circumcision was popularized in the United States during the early part of this century in a misguided effort to decrease masturbation among boys. Religious and cultural beliefs and hygienic concerns are the reasons that parents now have their sons circumcised. The other common reason for circumcision today is that fathers want their sons to look like them.

The foreskin can easily be pulled back to allow a boy or man to urinate or clean himself. It is important to clean under the foreskin; otherwise, smegma forms. Smegma is a sticky, white substance that often has an unpleasant smell. It is formed by oils produced by the body and bacteria that feed on the oil. Proper cleaning of the glans and shaft of the penis is important.

The inside of the penis is made up of the urethra and two tissues called the corpus spongiosum and the corpus cavernosa.

The urethra is a very versatile structure within the penis. It is involved with both functions of the penis—urination and ejaculation. It is a long tube that passes from the bladder, through the center of the penis, to the urethral opening. Urine flows from the bladder through the urethra during urination. The male urethra is also connected to the reproductive system. It carries semen through the penis. The spurting of semen from the urethra is called ejaculation.

The shaft of the penis is formed of tissue called the corpus spongiosum and corpus cavernosa. These tissues form caverns and spongy areas. Normally, blood passes through these tissues and around the caverns and spongy areas, which remain empty. During sexual excitement, however, tiny muscles in the tissue relax and open, allowing the caverns and spongy areas to fill up with blood. As these tissues fill with blood, the penis becomes “tumescent.” It gets longer and thicker and becomes less flexible and more stiff. This is called an erection.

When sexual stimulation ends, the muscles close off the emptied caverns from the bloodstream, the erection ends, and the penis softens into its normal flaccid state.

Boys and men are often concerned about the size and shape of their penises. There is no standard penis size, shape, or length. Some are fat and short. Others are long and thin. There is no truth to the idea that a bigger penis is a better penis.

Size has little to do with any reproductive or sexual function. It is true that some people prefer that their partners have a certain size penis. Preferences for penis size can be compared to preferences about height—there are just about as many people who want tall lovers as want short lovers.

*43/155/5*

The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s

The 1960s were marked by enormous political and social upheavals. President John F. Kennedy and civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were assassinated. The Civil Rights Act was passed, the antiwar movement led to mass protests across the country, and the Equal Rights Amendment for women was debated in statehouses across the nation. The increasing availability of contraception allowed women and men to seek sexual pleasure with decreased fear of unintended pregnancy. A new “singles” culture developed among young people, and marriage was no longer seen as the only option in women’s lives.

Second-Wave Feminists: The Women’s Movement of the 1960s and 1970s

Since the beginning of the century, women had gained the right to vote, they were more competitive in the workplace, and they had made many strides in gender equality. But American culture remained dominated by men. Women’s share in positions of political and economic power was still small. In 1966, Betty Friedan founded the National Organization for Women to support the Equal Rights Amendment, end sexist discrimination in the workplace, and make abortion safe and legal.

Women began to meet in consciousness-raising groups to talk about sexism, gender roles, and the oppression of women. Out of this work came the understanding that “the personal is political”—that the sexual double standard, motherhood, and marriage had become elements in a system of gender roles that made women subordinate to men.

Women of the 1960s demanded the right to control their own bodies and broke the silence that concealed the crimes of rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. Hundreds of women’s groups and organizations were formed focusing on issues from pornography to prostitution, from lesbian rights to sexual pleasure, from child support to domestic violence.

Black Feminism

African-American feminists found unacceptable levels of sexism in the often male-centered civil rights, Black Nationalist, and Black Panther movements. Many also felt excluded from the mainstream women’s movement. In 1973, Audre Lorde and other black feminists formed the National Black Feminist Organization to address the combined effects of oppression related to race, gender, class, and sex-al orientation. In recent years, the black feminist movement has generated a variety of organizations that address specific concerns of the African-American community.

Third-Wave Feminists

For many young women, the term “feminist” has become suspect. Many, however, still speak out for increased gender equality and for the recognition of the many other problems women yet face in our culture. The 1990s ushered in a new era of young feminists. Rebecca Walker founded an organization for young feminists called Third Wave. Diversity is the hallmark of this chapter in the history of the women’s movement. It addresses the dynamics of ethnic, racial, class, and sexual diversity.

*38/155/5*

Soldiers, away from home, want sex. That’s why sex workers flock to military camps. During World War I, sexually transmitted infections among soldiers were viewed as undermining the efficiency of the military. At home and abroad, soldiers lost nearly 7 million days of work as sick days because of sexually transmitted infections. Infection was also seen as a moral issue.

The Committee on Training Camp Activities was formed a few days after Congress declared war in 1917. It provided recreation to keep off-duty soldiers busy so that they would not succumb to sexual temptations. The committee also provided sex education for the soldiers. The teachers used fear tactics and advocated abstinence. Condoms were not discussed. Of all the soldiers in Europe during World War I, Americans had the highest rates of infection. They were the only ones who were forbidden the use of condoms.

Social hygienists volunteered to aid the committee’s moral reform effort. They urged soldiers to avoid infection for the good of their country and to protect the virtuous women at home from infection.

A law enforcement division of the committee was also formed to clear prostitutes out of cities near military camps. Most cities in America had “red-light districts” of brothels in which sex workers entertained customers. The committee closed these districts all across the country. Despite the shutdown, rates of infection remained unchanged. Sex workers simply moved to other neighborhoods. As brothels were closed, working the streets became common, and the risk of violence against prostitutes increased.

Although prostitutes were working-class women with few other employment options, many were stigmatized and blamed for the spread of infection and moral decay Men who hired them, however, were neither arrested nor blamed.

As brothels near military bases closed, soldiers turned to young women who were hanging around looking for excitement, adventure, and love. Soon these young women were being called promiscuous and blamed for infection rates among the soldiers. Public health campaigns were mounted that suggested it was women’s responsibility not to arouse the passions of men. Health messages suggested that “easy” women were usually infected and were not trustworthy.

Treatment centers, called prophylaxis stations, were set up in the camps to kill any infection a soldier might pick up before it got into his bloodstream. The social hygienists disapproved. They thought prophylaxis encouraged soldiers to have “illicit” sexual contacts.

Soldiers were supposed to be treated within three hours of sexual intercourse. Unsanitary conditions, long waiting lines, and embarrassment discouraged many of them. A man had to urinate, then wash his genitals and have them inspected by an attendant. The attendant injected a liquid solution into the penis that the man had to hold in his urethra for five minutes. He wasn’t to urinate for four or five hours after expelling it.

To encourage prophylaxis, men were threatened with court-martial if they became infected. Their pay was docked as well.

*34/155/5*

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• GENITAL ANATOMY: SCROTUM
• PROSTATE CANCER
• MALE ANATOMY: PENIS
• BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA (BPH)