<< Homosexual Play >>

On the whole, the homosexual child play is found in more histories, occurs more frequently, and becomes more specific than the pre-adolescent heterosexual play. This depends, as so much of the adult homosexual activity depends, on the greater accessibility of the boy’s own sex (Table 26). In the younger boy, it is also fostered by his socially encouraged disdain for girls’ ways, by his admiration for masculine prowess, and by his desire to emulate older boys. The anatomy and functional capacities of male genitalia interest the younger boy to a degree that is not appreciated by older males who have become heterosexually conditioned and who are continuously on the defensive against reactions which might be interpreted as homosexual.
 
Table 26. Sex of companions of pre-adolescent boys
Companions of Pre-adolescent Boys
At Subject’s Age 10-11 1
Classification Total U.S.
Population %		 Educational Level
0-8
%		 9-12
%		 13+
%
Males predominate 72.3 73.8 69.2 80.7
Males many, females some 36.0 32.7 34.3 49.4
Males many, females none 32.8 37.1 31.4 29.0
Males some, females none 3.5 4.0 3.5 2.3
Males equal females 23.0 22.8 24.8 16.7
Males many, females many 17.6 17.4 18.8 13.7
Males some, females some 3.3 2.0 4.3 2.3
Males none, females none 2.1 3.4 1.7 0.7
Females predominate 4.7 3.4 6.0 2.6
Males none, females some 0.3 0.0 0.6 0.1
Males none, females many 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.1
Males some, females many 4.0 3.0 4.9 2.4
Cases 4311 820 633 2858

1 A record of the boy’s associates, in his play and social activities,
when he is 10-11 years of age.

About half of the older males (48%), and nearer two-thirds (60%) of the boys who were pre-adolescent at the time they contributed their histories, recall homosexual activity in their pre-adolescent years. The mean age of the first homosexual contact is about nine years, two and a half months (9.21 years) (Table 28, Figures 25, 26).

Pre-adolescent sex play with other girls was recalled by about the same number of females as had recalled pre-adolescent sex play with boys. Although this sort of play seems not to have been particularly sexual among many of the females in the sample, it had either directly or indirectly taught a number of them how to masturbate. A few (5 per cent) of the girls had had their preadolescent homosexual contacts carry over into adolescence as more mature homosexual activity.

Only a fraction of one per cent of the females in the sample recalled that they had had sex play with other girls as early as three years of age (Table 11f, Figure 5f). Some 6 per cent recalled such play by five years, and 15 per cent by seven years of age. The percentages who had ever had such experience (the accumulative incidence figures) then steadily rose, reaching a level of about 33 per cent by the onset of adolescence.

The number of girls who were having some sort of sex play with other girls at each age (the active incidence figures) similarly began at a fraction of one per cent in ages two and three, rose to 6 per cent by age five, and to 9 per cent by age nine (Table 14f, Figure 6f). Again it is to be noted that the actual occurrence of such activity was probably much higher than the adults in the sample had recalled. As with the heterosexual play, the active incidence of the homosexual play had declined as the girls approached adolescence.

Just as with the heterosexual play, the pre-adolescent homosexual activity had been confined to a single year, and in many cases to one or two experiences, for 61 per cent of the females who had had any such play (Table 15f). Another 17 per cent had had the play extend into two years, and 8 per cent had had the play extend for five years or more.

Psychologic reactions or physical contacts with other girls were, in a few instances, the sources of sexual arousal at three years of age. About 3 per cent had been aroused by other girls by eleven years of age, and 6 per cent by thirteen years of age. Reactions to or contacts with boys had brought similar arousal in a fraction of one per cent at three years of age, but in about 7 per cent of the sample by eleven, and in 12 per cent of the sample by thirteen years of age.
Sources of sexual arousal in pre-adolescent girls are also cited in: Schbankov acc. Weissenberg 1924a:9 (among 324 Russian females). Hellmann acc. Weissen-berg 1924b:210 (among over 100 females who had been aroused, 19 per cent from a homosexual source, 13 per cent from a heterosexual source). Dück 1949 (among 31 females, 39 per cent aroused by girl schoolmates, 10 per cent by boy playmates, 16 per cent by older persons, 3 per cent by animals).

Tables 27, 16f. Techniques in pre-adolescent sex play
Educ.
Level		 Cases Any Heterosexual Play,
% of total population		 Techniques in Pre-adolescent Sex Play
% of active population
Heterosexual Play
Exhibition Manual Coital Oral Vaginal
Insertions
Among pre-adolescent boys
Total 1843 39.6 99.6 81.4 55.3 8.9 49.1
0-8 270 30.0 99.6 91.7 74.4 17.0 59.3
9-12 295 44.0 99.7 80.0 52.4 5.8 49.8
13+ 1277 43.0 99.0 64.8 25.7 3.4 24.4
Among pre-adolescent girls
Total 1822 30 99 52 17 2 3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Educ.
Level		 Cases Any Homosexual Play,
% of total population		 Homosexual Play
Exhibition Manual Anal Oral Urethral
Insertions
Among pre-adolescent boys
Total 2102 44.0 99.8 67.4 17.0 15.9 6.0
0-8 341 38.0 100.0 66.7 17.5 13.3 4.8
9-12 298 45.0 99.7 67.4 16.7 16.8 6.9
13+ 1463 53.0 99.5 69.2 16.9 17.7 5.3
Among pre-adolescent girls
Total 1934 33 99 62 3 18

In order to determine the percent of the total pre-adolescent male population
which has experience with any particular technique,
multiply the figure in Column 3 (which shows the percent of the total population
which has any kind of heterosexual or homosexual experience)
by the incidence figure for the particular technique under consideration.
“Educ. level 0-8” are the males who never go beyond grade school.
“Educ. level 9-12” are the males who enter high school but never go beyond.
“Educ. level 13+” are the males who will ultimately go to college.

The order of appearance of the several homosexual techniques among pre-adolescent males is: exhibition of genitalia, manual manipulation of genitalia, anal or oral contacts with genitalia, and urethral insertions (Table 27). Exhibition is much the most common form of homosexual play (in 99.8 per cent of all the histories which have any activity). It appears in the sex play of the youngest children, where much of it is incidental, definitely casual, and quite fruitless as far as erotic arousal is concerned. The most extreme development of exhibitionism occurs among the older pre-adolescents and the younger adolescent males who have discovered the significance of self masturbation and may have acquired proficiency in effecting orgasm. By that time there is a social value in establishing one’s ability, and many a boy exhibits his masturbatory techniques to lone companions or to whole groups of boys. In the latter case, there may be simultaneous exhibition as a group activity. The boy’s emotional reaction in such a performance is undoubtedly enhanced by the presence of the other boys. There are teenage boys who continue this exhibitionistic activity throughout their high school years, some of them even entering into compacts with their closest friends to refrain from self masturbation except when in the presence of each other. In confining such social performances to self masturbation, these boys avoid conflicts over the homosexual. By this time, however, the psychic reactions may be homosexual enough, although it may be difficult to persuade these individuals to admit it.

Table 28. Age of first pre-adolescent sex play
Age First Pre-adolescent Sexual Experience
Total U.S.
Population 1		 Educ. level
0-8		 Educ. level
9-12		 Educ. level
13+
% Cumu-
lat. % 1		 Cases % Cumu-
lat. % 1		 Cases % Cumu-
lat. % 1		 Cases % Cumu-
lat. % 1
Any Sex Play
5 16.1 16.1 65 15.2 15.2 62 15.3 15.3 401 20.9 20.9
6 13.9 30.0 56 13.1 28.3 58 14.4 29.7 260 13.5 34.4
7 11.5 41.5 46 10.6 38.9 49 12.1 41.8 215 11.2 45.6
8 14.5 56.0 67 15.7 54.6 55 13.6 55.4 298 15.5 61.1
9 8.0 64.0 38 8.9 63.5 30 7.4 62.8 166 8.6 69.7
10 15.1 79.1 68 15.9 79.4 60 14.9 77.7 270 14.1 83.8
11 8.1 87.2 26 6.1 85.5 38 9.4 87.1 145 7.5 91.3
12 8.5 95.7 35 8.2 93.7 37 9.2 96.3 129 6.7 98.0
13 3.4 99.1 19 4.4 98.1 13 3.2 99.5 33 1.7 99.7
14 0.9 100.0 8 1.9 100.0 2 0.5 100.0 4 0.3 100.0
Cases 2753 428 404 1921
Mean 8.81 years 8.93 years 8.84 years 8.45 years
Median 8.59 years 8.71 years 8.61 years 8.29 years
Heterosexual Play
5 15.4 15.4 39 14.4 14.4 42 14.1 14.1 292 22.8 22.8
6 13.2 28.6 34 12.5 26.9 39 13.1 27.2 194 15.1 37.9
7 13.5 42.1 34 12.5 39.4 43 14.4 41.6 153 11.9 49.8
8 14.9 57.0 44 16.3 55.7 41 13.8 55.4 206 16.1 65.9
9 7.4 64.4 21 7.8 63.5 21 7.0 62.4 105 8.2 74.1
10 14.1 78.5 41 15.1 78.6 41 13.8 76.2 166 13.0 87.1
11 8.8 87.3 19 7.0 85.6 31 10.4 86.6 86 6.7 93.8
12 9.2 96.5 26 9.6 95.2 30 10.1 96.7 62 4.8 98.6
13 2.7 99.2 11 4.1 99.3 7 2.3 99.0 17 1.3 99.9
14 0.8 100.0 2 0.7 100.0 3 1.0 100.0 1 0.1 100.0
Cases 1851 271 298 1282
Mean 8.81 years 8.91 years 8.91 years 8.20 years
Median 8.53 years 8.66 years 8.62 years 8.01 years
Homosexual Play
5 12.4 12.4 47 13.7 13.7 33 11.1 11.1 208 14.2 14.2
6 12.0 24.4 43 12.6 26.3 36 12.1 23.2 153 10.5 24.7
7 10.5 34.9 37 10.8 37.1 31 10.4 33.6 145 9.9 34.6
8 13.5 48.4 51 14.9 52.0 37 12.4 46.0 217 14.9 49.5
9 9.1 57.5 29 8.5 60.5 27 9.1 55.1 146 10.0 59.5
10 16.9 74.4 56 16.4 76.9 51 17.0 72.1 257 17.6 77.1
11 10.2 84.6 23 6.7 83.6 36 12.1 84.2 156 10.7 87.8
12 9.5 94.1 29 8.5 92.1 30 10.1 94.3 138 9.4 97.2
13 4.7 98.8 18 5.3 97.4 15 5.0 99.3 34 2.3 99.5
14 1.2 100.0 9 2.6 100.0 2 0.7 100.0 8 0.5 100.0
Cases 2102 342 298 1462
Mean 9.21 years 9.10 years 9.31 years 9.06 years
Median 9.18 years 8.87 years 9.46 years 9.06 years

1 The cumulated percentages (ogives) are based on the total number of individuals
who ever have such sexual experience (the active population).
They do not represent percents of the total population.

“Educ. level 0-8” are the males who never go beyond grade school.
“Educ. level 9-12” are the males who enter high school but never go beyond.
“Educ. level 13+” are the males who will ultimately go to college.

Figure 26. Age of first pre-adolescent sexual experience

Each curve an ogive, where 100 per cent is the total number of boys
who ever have such experience.


Exhibitionism leads naturally into the next step in the homosexual play, namely the mutual manipulation of genitalia. Such manipulation occurs in the play of two-thirds (67.4%) of all the pre-adolescent males who have any homosexual activity (Table 27). Among younger pre-adolescents the manual contacts are still very incidental and casual and without any recognition of the emotional possibilities of such experience. Only a small portion of the cases leads to the sort of manipulation which does effect arousal and possibly orgasm in the partner. Manual manipulation is more likely to become so specific if the relation is had with a somewhat older boy, or with an adult. Without help from more experienced persons, many pre-adolescents take a good many years to discover masturbatory techniques that are sexually effective.

Anal intercourse is reported by 17 per cent of the pre-adolescents who have any homosexual play. Anal intercourse among younger boys usually fails of penetration and is therefore primarily femoral. Oral manipulation is reported by nearly 16 per cent of the boys (Table 27). Among younger boys, erotic arousal is less easily effected by oral contacts, more easily effected by manual manipulation. The anal and oral techniques are limited as they are because even at these younger ages there is some knowledge of the social taboos on these activities; and it is, in consequence, probable that the reported data are considerable understatements of the activities which actually occur.

For 99 per cent of the females in the sample who had had any pre-adolescent homosexual play, the contacts had involved genital exhibitions and examinations, and for a third of them it had involved nothing more than that (Table 16f). For 62 per cent the play had involved some manual manipulation of the genitalia of one or of both of the girls. It is interesting to note that genital manipulations between girls in pre-adolescent play had occurred in a larger percentage of the cases than genital manipulations between boys and girls in heterosexual play.

In the homosexual play, mouth-genital contacts were recalled by 3 per cent of the females who had had pre-adolescent play with other girls. Objects (at least fingers) had been inserted into the vaginas of the girls in 18 per cent of the cases—compared with 3 per cent receiving vaginal insertions in the heterosexual play.
Additional data on pre-adolescent homosexual activity in the female are found in: Moll 1899:545-566 (ages 6-12, manual and oral techniques). Krafft-Ebing 1924:482-516 (ages 5 to 12, manual and oral techniques). Hamilton 1929:493 (10 out of 100 females with homosexual play before age 11; chiefly breast stimulation and thigh contacts with genitalia).

Table 29. Continuity of pre-adolescent sex play with adolescent activity
Population Continuity of Pre-adolescent Sex Play
% of active populations
Heterosexual
Petting		 Heterosexual
Coitus		 Homosexual
Play
Cases % with
Con-
tinuity		 Cases % with
Con-
tinuity		 Cases % with
Con-
tinuity
Total (U.S. Correction) 1227 64.9 628 54.7 1412 42.1
Educ. level 0-8 243 77.0 196 73.5 243 50.6
Educ. level 9-12 221 67.4 147 53.7 207 42.5
Educ. level 13+ 763 29.8 285 18.6 962 22.5
“Educ. level 0-8” are the males who never go beyond grade school.
“Educ. level 9-12” are the males who enter high school but never go beyond.
“Educ. level 13+” are the males who will ultimately go to college.

Pre-adolescent homosexual play is carried over into adolescent or adult activity in something less than a half of all the cases (Table 29). There are differences between social levels. In lower educational levels, the chances are 50-50 that the pre-adolescent homosexual play will be continued into adolescence or later. For the group that will go to college, the chances are better than four to one that the pre-adolescent activity will not be followed by later homosexual experience. In many cases, the later homosexuality stops with the adolescent years, but many of the adults who are actively and more or less exclusively homosexual date their activities from preadolescence. In a later volume these data will be examined in more detail, in connection with an analysis of the factors involved in the development of a heterosexual-homosexual balance.


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