Learning one’s own parents engage in sex triggers horror and repudiation

Evidence

One night later I heard take place what I had thought was impossible, and, yes, I was ashamed, I was ashamed of my parents. All of this made of me another being. I went through horrible moral suffering. I considered myself a deeply depraved creature because I was now aware of these things. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 728 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

You can control and censor a child’s reading, but you can’t control her interpretations; no one can guess how a message that to adults seems banal or ridiculous or outmoded will alter itself and evolve inside the darkness of a child’s heart. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1028 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Objections to this system always imply respect for sexual taboos; but it is useless to try to inhibit curiosity and pleasure in children; this only results in creating repression, obsessions, and neuroses; exalted sentimentality, homosexual fervor, and the platonic passions of adolescent girls along with the whole procession of nonsense and dissipation are far more harmful than a few childish games and actual experiences. What would really be profitable for the young girl is that, not seeking in the male a demigod—but only a pal, a friend, a partner—she not be diverted from assuming her own existence; eroticism and love would be a free surpassing and not a resignation; she could experience them in a relationship of equal to equal. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1977 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Weaning from the mother’s body coincides with the child’s first attempts to seduce others — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 677; Children perceive sex as excremental dirtiness that adults scandalously embrace — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 718; Learning the truth of sex transforms the child into another being marked by shame — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 728 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Learning the truth of sex transforms the child into another being marked by shame #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 728
• Children interpret adult messages in unpredictable and deeply internalized ways #exemplifies (0.80) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1028
• Repressing childhood sexuality produces neuroses more harmful than sexual play itself #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1977
• Censorship avoidance can mask as parental responsibility while withholding essential information #expands (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 919
• Learning one is not anomalous relieves sexual anxiety and can alter behavior #complicates (0.72)