# Little Kids and Crushes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 3, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469 "2011-10-03T19:37:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/21 "2011-10-04T03:39:38Z")
I had crushes as a child. I definitely think there is a sexual component. My sexuality as a kid certainly wasn’t like an adult’s- I had not concept of any of that. But kids have the ability to…yearn? ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/22 "2011-10-04T04:14:09Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I don’t think people before puberty feel _sexual_ attraction, specifically. This doesn’t mean you can’t think someone is “cute” though. I remember liking some of the girls and wanting to be like some of the boys in public school, but sex was just an incomprehensibility that I didn’t think much about. I am absolutely certain that _kids_ (meaning pre-puberty kids) do experience sexual attraction. They certainly dont understand exactly what it is but they _do_ experience it. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/23 "2011-10-04T05:18:22Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > I was probably 10 when I developed this huge crush on Ryne Sandberg (Hall of Fame second baseman for the Chicago Cubs for the non-baseball fans). Geez it makes me sad that someone wouldn’t know who Ryne Sandberg was. This is really embarrasing to admit, but I was molested by a babysitter (for a couple years until we moved) as a kid so sex was on my mind A LOT. I had a dream about Shaun Cassidy (crush at the time) where we worked at a fast food restaurant (lol) and one day he asked if I wanted to go back to his place and “mess around” and I TOTALLY knew what he meant and was absoluetly titilatted by it. So I think under certain (unfortunate) circumstances the sexual aspect does apply. I will regret posting this tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/24 "2011-10-04T05:19:08Z")
Let me try to remember who I crushed on when I was five: Susan and Joanie from “Eight is Enough”, Donna Pescow, Bonnie Franklin (don’t laugh), the brunette from “Too Close For Comfort”. The funny thing is I totally remember being infatuated by these women but never even dreaming of meeting them. If you grew up in a small town in those days places like LA and New York might as well have been on Jupiter. At this age I knew there was something men and women did called “sex”, but knew absolutely nothing about the mechanics of it and also knew not to ask adults about it. As far as real life girls there were a couple of classmates I though were cute, but at that age I was never attracted to them the way I was attracted to distant celebrities. I guess they were too “real” to feel that way about them. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/25 "2011-10-04T05:51:17Z")
I remember touching myself as a child to a mental concept of going up a staircase, with the understanding that the goal was to get to the top. I certainly didn’t understand the partner component or mechanics of adult sexuality, but the physical and to lesser extent emotional feelings were there. I also have distinct memories of being aroused by stuff related to what has, in adulthood, become my preferred kink. I didn’t understand it, but certain ideas or images would make me want to masturbate. I don’t think any of this was ever connected to my crushes, however. By the time I started thinking like that, I better understood the mechanics of things. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/26 "2011-10-04T10:04:29Z")
I remember my childhood quite well, and while I had crushes, they were not sexual at all. Yeah, they were on girls. So what? I didn’t want to have sex with them. I didn’t want to touch myself after seeing them. I just wanted to be around them. That’s not inherently sexual. As a kid, I just never associated liking girls with that feeling you get when you play with yourself. The feelings were just so different. And if I had to pick the one I would call sexual, I would pick that one, not the feeling of having a crush on someone. At least, not until I got old enough for my hormones to “kick in.” That is, unless you are still calling someone a kid after they have started puberty. I was 10, and I hear most girls hit it younger than that. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/27 "2011-10-04T10:05:12Z")
I had, & to a degree still have, a crush on Mary Tyler Moore. From age 3 onwards. She’s so darn cute! And I love that smile. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/28 "2011-10-04T12:30:54Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > When I was a little kid in the early '70s, I had a major crush on Willy Wonka, as played by Gene Wilder. Oh _hell_ yeah. But Barry Manilow was first. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/29 "2011-10-04T14:59:52Z")
When I was on the younger end of grade school, I had a crush on Bonnie Tyler. Or, more specifically, Bonnie Tyler’s picture on the cover of the album “Faster Than The Speed Of Night”. In retrospect, I have to wonder what my younger self was thinking but I seemed pretty content with the whole thing. I don’t remember any sexual thoughts though. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/30 "2011-10-04T15:27:32Z")
My earliest crushes were the guy who played ‘‘Tackleberry’’ in _Police Academy_ and Bill Murray in _Ghostbusters_. I couldn’t have been more than four or five. Yes, my attraction to dorks has a long and storied history. Kids can definitely have sexual feelings/thoughts though it’s not as comprehensible and straightforward as when you get older. But those boys made me swoon. Physical attraction is hardwired into us from a young age. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/31 "2011-10-04T15:39:54Z")
Question for guys that didn’t have sexual crushes: Did you ever get erections? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/32 "2011-10-04T15:46:20Z")
When I was in kindergarten and first grade, I had a crush on a girl in my class by the name of Tracy. (She moved away with her family to Florida at the end of first grade, and that was pretty much the end of that crush.) I distinctly remember lying in bed one night, as a five- or six-year-old, and thinking about Tracy, and having this very strange (but very pleasant) feeling. It was only years later that I realized that I was experiencing an erection. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/33 "2011-10-04T15:55:15Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Question for guys that didn’t have sexual crushes: Did you ever get erections? Sure, but then so does my infant son and I’m pretty sure he’s not hiding a picture of Bonnie Tyler in his crib. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/34 "2011-10-04T18:29:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, given that most of these fascinations are with members of the opposite sex, and that most people are heterosexual, it seems to me that a sexual component of some sort is pretty likely. A test for this would be whether the childhood “crushes” of homosexuals were disproportionately of the same sex. There is [some evidence](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/09/when_do_gay_kids_start_acting_gay.html) that this is the case: > [@](#): > > When do gay children start exhibiting telltale signs? > > In early childhood, in some cases. A hefty pile of research shows that boys as young as 3 years old who break from traditional gender roles have a high likelihood of becoming gay adults. Predictive behaviors include playing with Barbie dolls, shying away from roughhousing, and taking an interest in makeup and women’s clothing. > > * * * > > Some researchers think gender nonconforming children use their toys to rehearse for a gay adulthood. Little girls play with Barbies, high heels, and makeup because they’re practicing the role of wife. Gay 3-year-old boys can’t verbalize their desire to be with a man when they grow up— **although many such children exhibit crushlike behavior toward adult men** —but they may be trying to learn the behavior that will later attract a male partner. Psychiatrists also point out that these boys don’t typically play with baby dolls or mimic maternal behaviors the way many little girls do. These attempts to explain the basis of gender nonconforming behavior, however, are somewhat speculative. (Emphasis added.) This pertains primarily to gender nonconforming boys, and the correlation is much more attenuated for gender nonconforming girls (_i.e._, tomboys). Anecdotally, I can add that my own childhood crushes and those of my gay friends’ were directed to men (usually male teachers or childhood friends’ older brothers and fathers). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/35 "2011-10-04T20:44:51Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > When I was a little kid in the early '70s, I had a major crush on Willy Wonka, as played by Gene Wilder. I was 5 or 6 so I don’t think there was a sexual component to it per se, but I thought he was interesting looking and very, very cool, and I have no doubt that he influenced my taste in men over the years (I like very intelligent, slightly (harmlessly) daffy guys with wicked senses of humor and highly developed sarcasm skills). Similarly I seem to have imprinted upon the 1981 BBC production of H2G2’s version of [Ford Prefect](http://www.comedy.co.uk/news/story/00000527). I saw it when I was very, very young, and since then I’ve had a special place in my heart for Ford in all his incarnations (barring the ghastly 2005 H2G2 in name only movie), not to mention The Doctor and all other British alien men a long way from home. Watching it again recently I noticed that if you add a few pounds, a beard, and an American accent, he’s almost entirely my husband. (my husband is color blind, which if you look at Ford’s costume you will understand) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/36 "2011-10-04T21:07:53Z")
Have I just been a slut my entire life? I remember being elementary school aged and feeling tingly around certain boys. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/37 "2011-10-04T21:34:42Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Question for guys that didn’t have sexual crushes: Did you ever get erections? At around 8 years old on.. yeah… but I though that was the end goal. Like “fantasy fantasy fantasy”–erection. Okay time to go play with my GI JOES. For me it was Sorsha from the movie “Willow.” Not necessarily Joanne Whalley (sp?) but her AS Sorsha. Ye-gods I had such a huge crush on her. I had the promotional magazine for the movie and I think I rubbed away the ink on her profile page from handling it so much. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/38 "2011-10-05T01:54:23Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Let me try to remember who I crushed on when I was five: Susan and Joanie from “Eight is Enough”, Donna Pescow, Bonnie Franklin (don’t laugh), the brunette from “Too Close For Comfort”. The funny thing is I totally remember being infatuated by these women but never even dreaming of meeting them. If you grew up in a small town in those days places like LA and New York might as well have been on Jupiter. At this age I knew there was something men and women did called “sex”, but knew absolutely nothing about the mechanics of it and also knew not to ask adults about it. > As far as real life girls there were a couple of classmates I though were cute, but at that age I was never attracted to them the way I was attracted to distant celebrities. I guess they were too “real” to feel that way about them. One of my first crushes was on Donna Pescow too! I first saw her on a soap opera my grandma watched, then _Angie_. I just checked and she was on _One Life to Live in 1977 so I would have been seven years old but I can still see her in my mind. I don’t know what it is that I found so attractive at the time. She later played a lesbian on All My Children_ and I assumed all these years she was one in real life. Nope. Also Andy Gibb. I don’t think either was really sexual as much as romantic. I’m kinda still like that with crushes as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/39 "2011-10-05T09:56:05Z")
Wow, speaking of Angie I had a crush on the girl at 29 sec. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/gBEVNgaBG3I/hqdefault.jpg "Angie Season 1 Opening Credits") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEVNgaBG3I) ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469/40 "2011-10-05T13:30:40Z")
I was maybe 5 the first time I saw the ‘Star Trek’ with Teri Garr. Stopped. In. My. Tracks. “Whose that?” “I dunno.” “Is she new on the ship?” “I dunno.” “I hope so…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-kids-and-crushes/598469.md?page=3)