Sexual development and fantasy from infant to adolescent: A social and cultural setting

Afsana Begum Orthy

3rd Year, 6th Semester Department of Women and Gender Studies University of Dhaka

It is unmistakable direction to humankind forever not to ignore the mystery of co-existence of various creations. Here comes the density of population in a certain territory which brings the concept of reproductive knowledge and sexuality. It is not a by-born knowledge, one have to learn this. People sometimes learn by nature and sometimes by different indicators. Ever and anon the learning results as better sexual development and intervals as wrong conception. It happens because of the parental behavior. Infant to adolescent is the most sensitive period. Parents should give their children extra care and our culture need to fold the provocative conservation from its nature for a better sexual development for all. An infant is a great asset for a husband and wife and an adolescent is for the society. So the sexual development of them is necessary. An infant sexuality is normally understood to mean the precursors and parallels to adult sexuality. According to the Freuds sexuality development theory, first sexual pleasure is an oral phase during the first two years of life, when the oral sensations of pleasure are dominant. When the mother breast-feeds the child, the child experiences oral pleasure and subsequently sucks his or her finger in order to recover this pleasure. The nature of the breast-feeding determines the kind as well as intensity of oral sexuality. Second is the anal phase, in the third and fourth year, when the pleasurable sensations of the intestinal zone dominate. Anal sexuality is primarily linked to the pleasurable excitation arising through defecation and rectal hygiene and secondarily linked to pleasure associated with playing with excrement. Third is the phallic or infantile genital phase, during the fifth year, when the genitals become central, though they are still lacking any procreative function. During the socalled latency period, which lasts until puberty, sexuality is less apparent, as its immediate

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expression is repressed or sublimated. It has, however, been pointed out that no sexual latency period is found in cultures without a restrictive sexual upbringing. Sex education is instruction on issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse or other sexual activity, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, and birth control. Common avenues for sex education are parents or caregivers, formal school programs, and public health campaigns. Research on sex knowledge shows that, female vocational students of 17-18 year olds was done to assess future needs in sex education. Main points in the research were sex upbringing and education received, peer groups, couple and contraceptive behavior and attitude to family and family planning. Socioeconomic factors, parents occupation, and size of residence were considered. Results showed, 70.4% had some kind of sex upbringing before age 12, 24.5% after age 12. Whereas up to 80% wanted sex education from parents, only about 55% actually received this, 80% of actual sex information came from books and TV. Peers proved closer to the girls in confidence than parents. Although teachers were 3rd in line to provide actual sex education they were last as persons desired by the girls to provide this. Nearly 60% of the subjects desired more information in the areas of love and marriage, sex in adolescence, effects and side effects of the pill, general contraceptive methods and sex behavior. Its a crying need to start sex education at an early age and extend it into adolescence and beyond, it should be direct, continuous and goal-oriented. Teenagers desire interpersonal dialogue with concerned adults. There should be cooperation in sex education between parents, teachers, and youth organizations. Teachers are insufficiently prepared to assume the role as sex educator. Teenagers need more factual information on conscious family planning and contraceptive methods. As one grows up, one experiences many changes. There are changes in the body, in the way one behaves and the way others expect one to be. There are also changes in interests and preoccupations. All of this is normal. It is part of growing up, but growing up is not easy. This is a time when one has many questions and hardly any answers. It is difficult to talk about the things upper-most in your mind. Why is my body changing? Why do I get an erection? Why do I feel attracted to the opposite sex? Many older people are not willing to discuss these issues openly. As a result friends, television, films, magazines and imagination become the sources of information. There is a cartoon about the sexual feeling above,
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Adolescent is the period when friends are the most closer to one then family. They feel shy to share their problems with family members. Rather feel free with friends. In most of the cases, girls chose girls as friends and boys chose boys as friends to share all pores and corns. Adolescent is the time when they get in touch of orgasm feeling. For that they watch XXX. A research shows that 87% of people watch XXX in their adolescent period. Boys collect sexual booklets (known as Choti in Bangladesh) for pleasure. They provoke their orgasm through reading sexual booklets and watching XXX. Friends exchange their booklets and videos among them. This is actually happen because of parents conservative behavior. Yes, it is good to be in touch of sex education but friends are not a very good source. Sometimes they get the wrong concept of sexuality and these become the causes of sulfuring in future. Parent child communication is one dimension of the social construction of sexuality and an understanding of its nature may provide some guidance for the development of cultural appropriate sex education. While parents are seldom the predominant source of sex education for children, the style of parenting may have an important impact on the sexual risk behavior of young people. Inter-general relationships hold particular significance as the majority of young people continue to live with their parents until marriage. Parents are primary agents of socialization. They have enormous influence on childrens sexual development. This should look at the pattern of parent child communication across all social and economic classes and also include the prevalence of poor communication and its effect on safer sex practice and the sexual health o f the young people and the adult population. A long standing patriarchal system based on a fusion of cultural values determines the nature of gender role and the boundaries of acceptable behaviors for young people. Parents introduce these boundaries to their children. Sexual pleasure by son is a silent topic in our society. While sexual intimacy carries some moral censure, parental disapproval as it is not a harsh as it is for daughters. Once a boy or girl get in touch of sexual pleasure indicators, they cannot control themselves. So after that anyone who is a possible sexual partner is unacceptable as a danger for social mixing. This category includes friends of opposite sex, relatives of the opposite sex, men of the same age and older for female and younger women for males. Physical closeness such as hugging, kissing or even sitting close to any male including ones own father and brothers is

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considered to be shameful and unacceptable. Social mixing with friends after college hours should control. Marriage is a central pillar in the social construction of sexuality in Bangladesh. Many social norms and expectations regarding sexual conduct stem from the concept of an ideal marriage. In which a virgin women enters the extended family of an older and economically established man. In this context, increased social mixing of young women and men, as a result of coeducation at the tertiary level and the trend towards delayed marriage are new phenomena. The combined effect of education, global media and gender advances are gradually changing expectations of male female relations and are starting to exert a profound impact on sexual behavior among unmarried young people. Young people exhibit a striking lack of awareness of their personal sexual health risks and safer sex practices. While at present the majority are not at risk. A small sub group faces a high risk of negative sexual health consequence, specifically some young men, who have unprotected sexual intercourse both with sex workers and with romantic partners and abuse drugs at the same time. For that they have a great risk of HIV as prostitutes have been identified as the groups that engage in risky sex, which promotes HIV transmission. Adolescent is an important period of life, but adolescent boys and girls need are often ignored in our society. A number of major NGOs including UNICEF, are working to address the needs of adolescents all over the world. 20% of the total population of the world consists of adolescents and most of them are from the developing world. Thousands of adolescents are facing problems like poverty, poor education, abuse, war, social unrest racial and gender discrimination, which leaves a negative impact on their development. We all have to preserve the rights of adolescent to avoid these as adolescent rights are human rights.

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