Gallery Carre
When Finding Out About Sex Was a Lot More Fun
Oct 15th, 2006 by Jessica Gold Haralson
Some things really make you feel old, and how you initially found out about the mechanics of sex is chief among them. If you’re under 20 and don’t live in a cave, we can safely assume that the internet was your first port of call as a teenager. If you’re under 30, television and the advent of relatively explicit weekly magazines probably helped you along.
But if you’re 40 or over, had a sheltered upbringing, and read magazines such as Bunty or Jackie — more ponies and macramé than “position of the week” — then the story is quite different. Chances are you educated yourself by leafing through books, any books, hunting desperately for the enlightening parts, and then sharing them with your girlfriends.
I spent the earlier part of this year compiling an anthology of the kind of stuff my friends and I passed round furtively at my all-girls’ school — the “dirty bits”, which became more dog-eared with each breathless reading. Some of the books had, in their time, been banned, or burnt, or both — Lady Chatterley’s Lover being a prime example. Twenty-five years ago we still thought those books were wildly exciting, and that we were wildly exciting too for familiarising ourselves with them.
(Read more…)
I found about sex from Loveline on MTV, sex blogs like Naked Loft Party, and that old standby, Judy Blume. Perhaps I’m from the multimedia generation?
I found out about sex at maybe age 16 from reading ‘A Man and A Maid’ which was on one of my parents’ friends’ bookcases !!!
And then ‘The Pearl’
WOW.
But so innocent way back then. In my day, almost all of us waited until we were in college (after 18) to have sex !
I kind of miss that gradual transition to adulthood. The kids grow up wayyyyy too fast these days. They aren’t ready for the intimacy that sex implies…
Have a great Sunday, Viviane !
Sincerely,
Anne Elizabeth
You have no idea how cool it is to hear you actually learned about sex from me.
I think it’s also possible that gradual transition to adulthood is occuring at a younger age today. What’s transition today used to be a vague idea of intimacy before for me.
But I also miss that gradual transition…
Best,
Tom