In my extended family, many younger folks sought info from their older sibs and cousins. This didn’t always work out well.
Cousin Roy (age 17): “Look at that babe over there! Damn, I’m sportin’ wood now!”
Cousin Ian (age 10): “Roy, what does “sportin’ wood” mean?”
Cousin Roy: “Um, it means you’re excited.”
A few days later, Aunt Ida talks to her son, Cousin Ian.
Aunt Ida: “Ian, we’re going to go see the new Disney movie tomorrow. Are you excited?”
Cousin Ian: “You bet, Mom! I’m sportin’ wood!”
That’s hilarious!
I remember having a conversation with a girl about the same age who was obviously embarrased enough to describe a penis as “the front of his butt.”
The first edition of “Our Bodies, Ourselves”, a feminist women’s health guide that was first published in the early 1970s, has instruction on how to wash and reuse condoms. They were thick enough to be reusable, and actually designed for that purpose. (GROSS)
p.s. Jay Leno also had, in his “Headlines”, a vintage ad that included a testimonial from a woman who “restored harmony to my marriage” by using - are you ready for this? - LYSOL. Some women douched with it as a proto-method of birth control, and doctors also used it to treat STDs, for both men and women. (YEEEEEEE-OWTCH!)
A Scottish Soldier, in full dress uniform, marches into a pharmacy.
Very carefully he opens his sporran and pulls out a neatly folded cotton bandana, unfolds it to reveal a smaller silk square handkerchief, which he also unfolds to reveal a condom.
The condom has a number of patches on it. The chemist holds it up and eyes it critically.
"How much to repair it?’ The Scot asks the chemist. “Six pence” says the chemist. “How much for a new one?” “Ten pence” says the chemist.
The Scot painstakingly folds the condom into the silk square handkerchief and the cotton bandana, replaces it carefully in his sporran, and marches out of the door, shoulders back and kilt swinging.
A moment or two later the chemist hears a great shout go up outside, followed by an even greater shout.
The Scottish soldier marches back into the chemists and addresses the proprietor, this time with a grin on his face.
“The regiment has taken a vote,” he says. “We’ll have a new one.”
And you have inspired me to seek out my Girl Scout Handbook.
Which apparently I got used; it has, rather confusingly, the name of a male neighbor of ours stamped in the front, and is dated 1947, although I would have been using it about 1960.
Now, I have not re-read all 504 pages of it in detail. But I say with some confidence that, although there is an astonishing amount and breadth of interesting stuff in those 504 pages (Morse code, train whistle codes, points of a horse, parts of a bicycle, the shape of snake eggs, architectural symbols, how to make a camp stove out of a tin can, why one shouldn’t be racist, et very cetera); and there’s a discussion of the importance of having exactly one bowel movement a day, and trying to do so early; as well as a mention of the fact that a doctor’s exam may include a urinalysis; and there’s several pages on how to take care of a baby including the importance of registering the birth –
– there is not a word on how one gets a baby, (let alone on how not to!) There is not one word on the subjects of sex (whether mechanical, social, or desire); reproduction; genitals male or female; puberty; let alone masturbation. There is not one word on the subject of menstruation – this in a book specifically aimed at girls ages 10 to 14, which discusses at some length how to keep clean and stay healthy.
Figures. < spits >
It’s been a while since I’ve looked at my Boy Scout Handbook from the 1980s, but I’m pretty sure that it likewise said nothing at all about sex. I’d have remembered if it had: I was the sort of kid who read all of the relevant dictionary and encyclopedia entries (and also the sort of kid who read the Boy Scout Handbook cover-to-cover).
Odd way to talk. In second grade we used the word, because all the boys were familiar with erections. Hell, I understand that male infants get them. That was how we used “boner” – apparently this is a different usage.
And it was kind of funny when our 7th grade math teacher (who, I swear, looked exactly like Paul Drake) was telling stories from his USAF days and “… (this one guy) really pulled a boner …” the tension of everyone in the room trying not to snort or just break out laughing was almost audible.
But think of the kittens!
It’s amazing how many of these are online. As you described, the versions I looked at provides lots of information about a lot of topics, but steadfastly avoid any discussion of a woman’s biology.
There is, however, an entire section on how to be more appealing.
This is literally my favorite joke.
The version I know has the Sergeant Major marching off after the first encounter with the chemist and returning the next day to announce the regiment’s decision. Which greatly increases the effort involved in the regiment saving or spending fourpence.
In any version, it’s a fine classic joke.
I’m not so much freaked out that the Girl Scout version for 10 to 14 year olds said nothing about sex as that it said nothing about menstruation. While a menstruating 10 year old would have been quite uncommon in 1947, it must have been not unusual even then to start by 13 or 14; and the book discusses defecation and mentions urine calmly and clinically – the former at some length – and has a good deal to say about how to keep oneself clean. They could have fit in a brief mention of menstruation without discussing sex, and even without saying “vagina” – something like ‘your bodies may start changing as you start into your teens. Older girls may find that they start to bleed periodically; this is normal. Hygiene supplies are made for this purpose.’
True; I don’t really have the frame of reference to say whether I would have expected any given reference to talk about menstruation. I suppose that the closest male equivalent would be nocturnal emissions, but that’s not a very close equivalent, and I can see that menstruation would be more worrisome to an uninformed girl than nocturnal emission would be to an uninformed boy (especially since, by that age, children of both sexes have very thoroughly learned that “when you’re bleeding, that’s a bad thing”).
Ah yes, the average teen boy has a very active sex life. It just doesn’t involve anyone else.
I’m thinking that by the 1960’s there was a decent amount of information for anyone who cared to dig deep and long to find it - buried in libraries and such. However, the general state of knowledge was word of mouth from older peers, often sadly distorted.
A prime example was the state of knowledge about being gay. I remember in th mid-60’s there was still the theory that gayness was caused by a domineering mother and/or wimpy or absent father. (Male, that is. Lesbianism was not much discussed) Along with the stereotype of mincing and lisping behaviour, was a complete confusion of homosexual, transsexual and cross-dressing/drag. It was assumed anyone who was gay secretly wanted to be a woman and couldn’t wait to get surgery to do so. Even more disturbing was the assumption that all gay men were child molesters. The adult large hairy-chested muscular male body type (presumably their type) is the complete opposite of children’s appearance. A person bent on preying on children was highly unlikely to present themselves as a member of a stigmatized and ostracized group.
Generally, in these sorts of topics, critical thinking was not part of the logic train.
Another point - the principal at our high school was an ex-priest, and at one time mentioned as a priest he’d counseled a number of families where the teen daughter was pregnant although technically a virgin. This suggests the teens knew generally what to avoid to not get pregnant, but either had an “oops” or didn’t understand the complete details. As he said, “Close counts in more than just horseshoes.”
Sounds a bit like Roald Dahl in The Twits:
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
The principle was NOT well informed about human reproduction then. While it’s possible for impregnation to occur from ejaculation on the vulva, it’s not very likely at all. If artificial insemination is excluded, over 99.99% of pregnancies do NOT have the woman still being technically a virgin.
This wasn’t in Bethlehem, was it…?
Our family once heard a sermon in a Baptist church entitled “Jonah and His Three Boners”. All of us were absolutely pissing ourselves laughing, but trying to be quiet. “Jonah’s first boner was when he decided to disobey God”, etc. And at the end, the whale “belched” Jonah onto the shore. Best sermon ever!
I didn’t exactly expect it. But then, I didn’t expect a discussion of bowel movements or urinalysis either; and those were in there. It’s partly that context that disturbs me – but being disturbed by the lack doesn’t really mean that I would have expected the information, either. There are a lot of information gaps that disturb but don’t surprise me, even now.
I was a girl scout in the 60s and 70s. And while the handbook said nothing about menstruation, the girl scouts did show a movie about menstruation and pregnancy every year, to which all the girls in the public school were invited (whether or not members of the troop.) It gave good enough information about menstruation (that it happens, about when, that there are sanitary supplies, that it’s a normal part of growing up) and accurate, if limited information about pregnancy. That part featured a cartoon about Mr sperm and Miss egg. Mind you, it never told you how Mr sperm might be introduced to Miss egg, but it did give enough information about pregnancy that i think a girl could have figured out the basics. (I mean, i grew up with guinea pigs, and i knew how Mr sperm got there, so i might be wrong.)
That girl scout movie was the primary “sex ed” for girls in my town, until the high school health class that was way too late.