Education: Boys and Sex

The sexual experiences of growing boys have not had much detached study. But Indiana University’s Glenn V. Ramsey has lately made some unusual inquiries. He asked frank questions of 291 middle-class boys in “a Middle Western city,” got apparently frank answers. Findings:

> What sorts of stimuli, Psychologist Ramsey wanted to know, have the most erotic effect on boys? Very young boys (under 14) responded most to talk about sex, older boys to seeing a naked girl. Next to these ranked daydreams, obscene pictures, movies, burlesque. Music, jazz or otherwise, was at the bottom of the list. Half of the group reported being aroused (notably between the ages of ten and twelve) by experiences that have no obvious connection with sex, such as seeing a big fire, hearing the national anthem, fast car driving or bicycle riding, reciting in class, watching marching soldiers, finding money, being late to school, seeing their own names in print.

> Sex play began as early as the age of five. By early adolescence (14), two-thirds of the boys had engaged in erotic play with girls; nine out of ten had masturbated; more than a third had had a homosexual experience; one in ten had experimented with animals. By 18, the boys showed a wide range in sexual experience and moral attitude. While a fifth had virtually no experience, nearly half had had sexual intercourse. Some had had intercourse hundreds of times. Most such experiences were with girls of the boys’ own social group, but one in five of the 18-year-olds had visited a prostitute.

From these findings Psychologist Ramsey drew no moral but, by comparison with studies of “an older generation,” he was inclined to think that boys today get (or admit) much more sexual experience than their fathers did.