h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm trying to remember why I giggled about sex straight up through 13 years old or so. I suppose it's because everyone else did - at some point when I was young there must have been someone who knew what sex was, or who had an older sibling who giggled about it, or something like that, and the nervousness was passed round. Of course, we didn't have any sort of sex education in school until a very rudimentary explanation of puberty and how women get pregnant at the age of 11. I wonder if children for whom sex ed begins at an earlier age grow up with less of a "giggle factor".

Even with the explicitness of sex in the media today, I suspect that there is still a giggle factor when related to 'real people'.
It's one thing to read about ideal sex in magazines, or watch glossy actors simulating intercourse on TV, but quite another to imagine your friends & relatives in the act.

Ah - of course: peer pressure.

Good point about leaving the giggling stage at different ages. I wonder if it's natural, healthy and A Good Thing to go through the pseudo-embarrassed giggling stage at all? (I say "pseudo" because half the group probably doesn't even really know what they're embarrassed about).

Or is it better to be sensible and open about everything and not ever give your kids cause to go through that giggling phase. And if you do succeed in doing that, how will they know when it is not appropriate to bring the subject up?

My kids seem to have caught on to this - possibly just common sense. Or a natural sensitiveness to people's feelings.

For example, they have absolutely no problem with the fact that when they stay with my parents (their grandparents) and have their girlfriends with them, no way will they be allowed to sleep in the same room.

And is it desirable to remove the taboo on sexuality in polite conversation? (Just think how many jokes and comic films would lose their punch if it was not embarrassing any more to keep quiet on the subject when in company)

Wouldn't it spoil the magic a bit if everyone teated sex talk like they swap recipes or where they spent their holidays?

Or may I present the daring hypothesis that doing away with taboos would eventually reduce the rape and child-abuse statistics because people would no longer develop neuroses about their sexuality, and would be able to have more normal relationships?

Or am I deviating too far from the talking point and should I shut up?

I guess that people will always differ in their attitudes towards issues like sex & nudity. I remember that a school friend of mine was somewhat unhibited & happily walked around the house nude. This was OK within the family, but very embarrassing for her elder sister's boyfriend.
Good point about the lost humour if there's no taboo.

I suspect that if we swapped sex talk like recipes, there'd be a similar tendancy to exaggerate & outdo each other!

Looking at other societies could give us a clue as to whether or not openness spoils the magic. Some societies are very open about celebrating the onset of menstruation & becoming an adult is a great ritual.

I believe that child abuse and molestation are more apt to happen in a "climate" of taboo and secrecy. If your child knows what sex is and when it is appropriate, and knows that they can talk to the adults around them about what is happening to them, the molester loses her/his power to control the child. And a similar thing happens to abusers.

"were there any complaints from parents" Not that I was aware of.

I think I must have been 14 and my sister 11 when I at one point grew quite frustrated with her for being "grossed out" by sex. But my mother seemed to think that it was a good thing for my sister to be weirded out at that age, because it meant she wouldn't be trying anything herself.

For the past couple years, though, it's been my goal in my conversations with my peers to desensitise and demystify sex, something which our school sex ed programme does nothing about.

I guess I see a similar conundrum to TC, though. It would be great to think we could all (especially young people) be open about sexuality - which might even result in less prejudice and that sort of thing - but then what would be the point in innuendo?