Repressing childhood sexuality produces neuroses more harmful than sexual play itself

Evidence

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

Categorization

• SEED: A contrarian essay angle on how moral objections to childhood sex education actually defend repression and produce the very pathologies they fear.
• XREF: connects to: Learning one’s own parents engage in sex triggers horror and repudiation; Learning the truth of sex transforms the child into another being marked by shame — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 728; Adult punishment of childhood sex play can trigger lasting somatic symptoms (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-loathing over repressed homosexual impulses can transform into antihomosexual hostility #expands (0.85)
• Sex guilt paradoxically correlates with both low sexual behavior and sexual aggression #expands (0.80) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 389