A Gay Puberty

[Camy]

A Gay Puberty

by Camy

Hard in hand

Strokes

Explodes with joy...

...then the guilt rolls in.

[DesDownunder]

That's the moment you should run from religion, if you haven't already done so.

Your poem sums it up perfectly Camy.

[Cole Parker]

Funny, but I never experienced any guilt. However, Des could be right; I wasn't raised in a religious atmosphere and so missed may have missed that message.

I understand embarrassment and guilt are common results of this practice, or used to be, but I can say from personal engagement with the activity, it's a taught sentiment rather than a naturally occuring one. A question begs to be asked, however. We now have pretty universal sex education in schools, and I've heard they teach that masturbation is a normal and frequent procedure for both boys and girls. This sort of open talking about something that wasn't talked about much at all when I was a lad has to have taken the shame and guilt out of it, hasn't it?

I never had a sex education class in school, but I'm sure a lot of people here have. My question is, if you've had sex education and understand all boys do this, does that remove the shame and guilt, or are those feelings kept alive through religious doctrination?

[DesDownunder]

Psychologists have reported it is a natural to feel guilt or at least a feeling of having broken a body part at the moment of the first orgasm. It is this uncertainty of what is going on with your pee-pee that gives rise to what the hell is happening to me. The religious know this happens and will tell you it is sinful, if you should dare ask a priest about it. This means fear of god and sex is intrinsically linked in the mind of the young person with the result that the religion has a great deal of control over the young person.

Combining sex and fear (of God) is a powerful mechanism to control people.

This explains why so many religions condemn the teaching of sex at an early age. If the ignorance about the body and its sexual functions are maintained until puberty then the religion or culture, gains control over the teenager. Even if the teen rebels and becomes an atheist, he will have to combat the feeling of guilt, sin and fear of God for the rest of his life. It is really a formidable task to maintain one's independence from religion on a daily basis. Even atheists of long standing have been known to revert to god on their death beds.

This analysis confirms why we need to take the mystery out of human sexuality at early age so it will not be used to manipulate the child or corrupt natural intellectual development.

[Gee Whillickers]

Though my parents were rather old-fashioned, and I knew they didn't exactly condone the activity, it was rarely brought up as a subject for discussion. And, I had an older brother. So the activity itself was never guilt inducing for me. However, what I thought about while engaging in said activity most definitely was. That was the crux of the issue. Not for religious reasons, but simply because I knew it wouldn't be accepted by those closest to me.

The sex-ed I had received at the time, which was actually fairly enlightened considering it was the seventies, did explain that it was fine, healthy, and normal. Not a word though, back then, about homosexuality.

[DesDownunder]

From 1967 HAIR gave us this song which really upset the religious as it released thousands if not millions of people from the clutches of sexual repression.

[bi_janus]

My experience is much as Cole's. I recall that recognizing shame in some of my playmates was puzzling. I don't think we feel shame except in the context of disappointing some standard or authority, and Des is right -- where sex is concerned, the standard is usually religious. I am sorry that the feelings of shame or guilt attending young people's expressions of sexuality sometimes persist for such long time.

[DesDownunder]

Thanks bi_janus, I have to agree that I am right where sex is concerned...sex is all right with me.

[colinian]

I was also raised like Cole in the sex-ed sense, even though we were raised Catholic. My dad sat me down when i was in the sixth grade and explained everything. Including what 'gay' meant.

Colin

[Chris James]

Gay puberty was not a conflict for me. Like some of you I was raised a Catholic and was filled with the absurd dogma which included guardian angels. But I had this image of my guardian angel as a beautiful young man with wings, it was inspiring and I hoped he was watching as I lay in bed stroking myself. Yeah kid, you're gay...so much for religion and the guilt trips.

I ran across this on the Wiki site under male masturbation:

"The Sambia tribe of New Guinea has rituals and rites of passage surrounding manhood which lasts several years and involves ejaculation through fellatio often several times a day. Semen is valued and masturbation is seen as a waste of semen and is therefore frowned upon even though frequent ejaculation is encouraged. The capacity and need to ejaculate is developed or nurtured for years from an early age but through fellatio so that it can be consumed rather than wasted. Semen is ingested for strength and is considered in the same line as mothers' milk."^[

So why is it this group of people, who some would consider extremely primitive, have such an open view of puberty in their society? This ode to male-centric physiology embraces sperm as the life force within a man and celebrates that early production. Yes, our modern society would find fault with this but I imagine their cultural beliefs predate "the civilized world." Perhaps the ancient Greeks would understand, but not the Puritan ethic of our forefathers. No, they are not gay...well some of them may be, and I would be curious to see if any of them feel guilty about it.

With the incursion of Islam in that part of the world I can see this rite of passage fading away and being replaced by older men marrying pre-pubescent girls. Tisk, tisk...did I just offend Islam? I hope so.

[DesDownunder]

Chris wrote:

I had this image of my guardian angel as a beautiful young man with wings, it was inspiring and I hoped he was watching as I lay in bed stroking myself.

That's the best counter to Catholic indoctrination, I've ever heard. You should write that into a story, or at least put it into a How to Enjoy Masturbating As a Catholic manual.

[Camy]

I ran across this on the Wiki site under male masturbation:

"The Sambia tribe of New Guinea has rituals and rites of passage surrounding manhood which lasts several years and involves ejaculation through fellatio often several times a day...

"Get dat dam smelli ting outa ma bouch."

"Na maan, sur-keet sloooow. Is de milk a da gawds. 'sides me likum."

"Yuk ... ummm ... salti!?"

Actually, the Sambia seem quite an interesting people. Not that they have an awful lot to do with a four line poem about pubescent angst.

Your poem sums it up perfectly Camy.

Thank you, Des.

[DesDownunder]

Camy linked to the Sambia article, and it set me to thinking that their fellating traditions may well be what has caused the New Guinea natives to be regarded as Head hunters.

More seriously, as we are dealing with an obvious early culture, unaffected by Western or Eastern civilisations, might we not consider the ancient Greek mentoring culture, between older and young adolescents, as a development from similar beliefs, or variations thereof of the Sambian traditions.

Anthropologically, it would make sense for an older male to teach the younger males how to hunt and gather food, build shelters and provide for, and protect the women and children. In addition it isn't that far-fetched to extend this mentoring to sex rituals that are male oriented; the exact nature and manifestation of such rituals and mentoring being a natural evolution of the various cultures' developments.

If so, then Kinsey's idea of a sliding scale between homosexuality and heterosexuality takes on an even more positive and natural role of nurturing, whilst accommodating the genetic influences at the extremes of the scale.

It is always somewhat difficult to differentiate between our nature, and our thoughts of what we should be. Once religious morality is introduced into our regard for our sexual expressions, then we can see how easy it is for the way we think about sexuality to be corrupted. This actually means that, as occurs between other life forms, sexual activity between humans is perfectly natural, regardless of gender.

[Chris James]

I am sorry, Camy, for having contributed to the wanderlust that has occured under this topic, but it just shows you never know where the minds in this forum will go once aroused. A...hem, perhaps that is an inevitable statement here.

Fictional angels and Catholicism aside, I will impart a very real conversation I had about sperm:

She was a doctor in a very well established sexual disorders clinic when we first met, I cannot name the place for obvious reasons but they are huge in the medical industry. Dr. P and I met at an author's convention about twenty years ago and I had read one of her books on sexual disfunction. (yeah, I'm a medical nerd on occasion).

We ended up spending the afternoon together and she was more than willing to discuss her work. This whole subject of puberty rites was a part of her lexicon of study and she told me the most fascinating case she had ever encountered involved a man in France who claimed to be a vampire. Only in this instance he did not feed on blood but the semen of young men.

The man was sixty-four years of age but looked to be in his early thirties and was in remarkable physical condition. The circumstances of his life allowed him unfettered access to young men and boys from ages 13 to 25 and he had committed fellatio on thousands of them. A physical exam revealed he had never had any major medical problems, was free of disease, and in fact had no dental problems either. He credited all that to the ingestion of sperm.

Dr. P's study was on the means of predatrory behavior this man displayed, and yet she said he was the least predatory individual she had ever encountered. Whenever the man wanted to commit fellatio on a subject all he did was ask for it, something he claimed to do on a daily basis. He told them their sperm would keep him young and in good health...his fountain of youth...and he needed it to live forever.

Okay, I was fascinated but I have never used this in a story because I consider it too volitile. Maybe the Frenchman knows something we don't, but at least the tribe in New Guinea would probably understand. Sorry again, Camy...I'm bad

[Cole Parker]

Can we call it an old wives' tale? Somehow, that doesn't seem to fit.

You do recognize, I'm sure, that this is anecdotal science. There's no evidence relating sperm ingestion to health. There could be any number of reasons for the man's delayed aging. I'd guess sperm would be the least likely cause.

I've read about the effects of such ingestion, and about the protein it contains, but there's nothing there to make anyone assume it has fountain-of-youth properties.

I guess it doesn't hurt anything to try this elixir, however.

C

[Merkin]

Cole, your attempt to inject reality into this discussion is totally uncalled for.

[Lugnutz]

Dumb it down for the wrench turner.

[Camy]

I am sorry, Camy, for having contributed to the wanderlust that has occured under this topic...

Worry not! What matters the odd divergence of topic in the fullness of time?

Besides, I'm so glad you posted that last conversational snippet:

"Fangs a lot," the French 'vampire' said

to the youth whose sperm graced his lips.

"It's so much tastier than other juices,

and a great deal nicer than sucking tits."

[Chris James]

Oh WOW...methinks our Emu Extraodinaire should get a gold star for his poetic verse.