Re: What is Sex?

Thanks for this post 28. I very much agree with what you said. And if it helps clear things up, I did mean sex in the general form, not just straight intercourse. There are many "sexual" activities that don't involve intercourse that can be very enjoyable for both parties. I also agree that intercourse is probably too dangerous for a pre-pubescent child to participate in without a high risk of physical harm.

However, as for any other sexual activities, as you said, even toddlers "play with themselves" because it feels good. Those feelings are built into us from birth, not at the magical age of 18, or 13. And you're absolutely right that most parents would tell off a child they caught doing that. For so long, anything sexual or intimate becomes "gross" and "bad". And yet at the same time, kids joke about it amongst each other, secretly play games like "doctor", and at the very least have sexual thoughts cross their minds now and then. It's secret, because they fear what adults would say or do if they found out. Not all kids are like this, but I'm sure nearly everyone has experienced times in their childhood when they fantasized about sexual things or even participated in some kind of sexual activity (on their own or with another).

Adults often think back to their childhood and remember only certain parts. Many adults have this vision of childhood as the climax (sorry the pun) of innocence and purity. But there is no way that's true for a moment. It's a fantasy they wish to be true, or they've simply forgotten what it was really like. Or they'll remember the relevant bits, but be embarassed by them and still hold that fear of, "I can't let anyone know I thought that. I'll get in trouble, or people will think I was sick." Then comes the other types, who remember their childhood all too clearly, and remember so much pain and hurt. They hold this hope that they were one of the unlucky minority, and they want to do everything in their power to make sure every kid they can protect has a better childhood than they had. It's a very noble idea and cause, but such a crusade doesn't always work, especially when human emotion and thought are involved, because everyone is different. The real problem of child abuse and emotional hurt is just that, someone causing hurt. It's not the act(s) of sexual intimacy. The ideal of sex was abused just as much as a true victim is abused. Except sex is an action, an idea, not a person with feelings and thoughts.