Foreword
There are many words of the English language which in themselves may be phonetic and even pleasant to the ear, but which have ugly connotations. One of these is surely pedophilia. The general definition of the word, according to the infallible Webster, is "Sexual desire in an adult for a child." More than that, however, it implies that those adults who are drawn in their sexual ambitions and longing towards under-aged boys and girls are motivated by compulsion.
As a psychiatrist, I can extend this definition even further, but that would be to enter the pathological field, often beyond the layman's comprehension. It is sufficient for the purposes of this work that you, my faithful and patient reader, follow with me, from my own files as my knowledge of actual case histories, the tendencies in adults which fall short of perhaps actual criminal assault as the court knows it, yet pose as a moral corruption which may well affect the victim in later life.
It is true that the average person regards the pedophile with a kind of loathing and horror, picturing him as a man who may actually fornicate with and savagely ravish young girls and even babies because they feed his craving and lust for gratification.
It is true that such horrifying and sickening acts do exist, and those who perpetrate such sexual acts are almost invariably psychopathic. We are not concerned with them in this volume, but far more with the less common and less brutal, yet still more prevalent form of pedophilia which is focused on women who are urged by their own ardent natures to seduce young boys in order to achieve their own selfish sexual fulfillment.
We do not read about such cases in the newspapers. We do read about brutal rapes, horrible homicides and mutilations, and of the sexual psychopath who is driven to kill because of his hatred rather more than his lust. But as I have said, this is the work of a psychopath. We do not read very much about cases involving mature women who cold-bloodedly (or, you may say just the reverse, warm-bloodedly!) go about seducing very young boys. Such cases are usually hushed up in the newspapers, and sometimes even the boy's parents are not aware of what has taken place. Only the boy himself in later life may show the final signs of those early initiations in a way that proves how definitely the mature seductress channeled his life.
On the basis of extensive studies, I am convinced that there are far more cases of female than male pedophilia. To begin with, statistics alone will prove this. Every year, the police department of every major metropolitan area releases crime statistics showing actual rapes reported. These involved men with girls and women. There is physical evidence of the rape if it is reported at all-and at least two cases of rape which go unreported for every one which finally reaches the courts. But there are thousands of unreported incidents throughout the nation involving mature woman or young women and very young boys. We are more aware of the male rapist whose warped nature leads him to use the immature body of a young girl child as his sexual partner, and when such assaults take place, there is pain, traumatic shock and perhaps permanent emotional damage to the young victim.
But what, you may well ask, of the male victim of the female pedophile? In most instances, as we shall see, he leaves the experience looking forward eagerly to a renewal of it with some other generous, mature female who will accord to him the forbidden and hitherto unknown delights he has come to desire.
Even before they reach puberty, boys are generally aware of the exciting differences between the male and the female. The male is strong, authoritative, dominant. The female is soft, gentle, and her body is interestingly different. The boy sees the swell of breasts through clothing and wonders what they would look like if unveiled. The boy perhaps has seen the hairless pussy of his little sister or he has learned about how girls have a "hole to wee-wee with" where the boy has a "cock." As he associates in school with his fellows, he acquires the vernacular and the vulgarisms of our contemporary speech. These direct, four-letter words intensify his interests in the difference between the sexes.
If he is observant at all, when he goes in public, rides a public vehicle, sits in a restaurant with his parents, walks up a stairway, he becomes conscious of the short dresses and the caressing nylon hose or pantyhose which cling suggestively to seductively curved calves and thighs of the female. This will lead to arousal.
It may in most instances lead to nothing more than secretive masturbation at night when he conjures up what he has seen and remembers how it stirred him then. But what should happen, let us ask, when a pleasant, sympathetic woman takes an interest in him and asks him to look under her dress and see what she is like?
The boy may have looked at lingerie in store windows, or on clothes lines, and perhaps even in the drawers of his mother's or sister's dresser. When he comes upon nylon stockings, panties, girdles, and bras tightly encasing the palpitating flesh of an attractive grown woman, these embellisliments take on a highly stirring nature.
Then again, through these "forbidden" garments which made part of the difference of the sexes, the boy may become fetishistically led to appreciate the feel of nylon, silk and satin, to the final point where the texture of warm female skin overpowers him and arouses him Then he will be conditioned to long for the sexual liberties which the seductress allows him to take with her.
If the situation arises where the mature female will lead him to fucking, frenching, gamahuching or any other sexual activity, the boy becomes more and more excited and his mind is filled more and more with the thoughts of sex.
Generally, if he is old enough to reason for himself, he will hardly tell his parents that some pretty lady has taken him into her room and let him put his hands under her dress, or taken off her clothes and let him touch and see her titties and pussy and bottom. Such boys know that in many instances their parents would accuse them of making up stories and scold them or spank them. Or again, the parents would be more vigilant and keep such a close watch over the boy that he could not again have this delicious, startling new opportunity.
But what is the sort of woman who seduces a boy, you may ask? My answer is that she is so divergent and so varied and so many that we cannot catalog her into individual groups. Generally, there are some major categories into which we may put certain prototypes, and you will see this in future chapters.
The maid, governess, or nursemaid who is left alone in the privacy of the house with a young boy has almost unbridled opportunity to engage in sexual play with him. If she is careful in her approach, if she gets his confidence and makes him devoted to her, she may continue these practices without ever being caught.
On occasion, she may experiment with the boy out of sheer boredom or curiosity. Again, she may try to exact some form of revenge to repay her for a real or fancied grievance against her employers.
Teachers and nurses have special opportunities because of their proximity to the child. I hasten to say that most members of these professions are honorable, decent women who would be horrified at the mere thought of pedophilia, but every profession has its exceptions.
Then, we must not overlook the flourishing group of babysitters. Usually these are teenage girls who are either just slightly experienced themselves in sexual play or inexperienced and curious. They may see a boy peeking under their skirt as they sprawl carelessly on the couch. Naturally this flatters their young egos to see the boy excited, so they may show more and more of themselves until finally it comes to the stage of undressing.
Then, as a lark, the teenaged babysitter may let the young boy who is her charge fondle her naked body. It may so excite him that she will "go the limit," or else, being told by her chums that gamahuching is one of the most exciting phases of sex, urge the boy to do this to her as payment for her letting him see her naked charms.
Then we must consider the mature women who suffer from rejection by the male. In this category we find the wife whose husband has lost interest in the sexual side of the marriage, out of either engrossment with his work, boredom because marital sex has become routine and predictable, or perhaps involvement with another woman. His wife feels rejected, believes she has lost her sexual attractiveness as well as her powers. And then one day on a bus or in a restaurant or in a park, she suddenly perceives a boy is looking at her with admiration ... sexual admiration. It is a new thrill for her, the more so because the admirer is so young. She may consciously or unconsciously raise her dress slightly higher, or cross her legs to let him glimpse still more of her thighs.
If his interest grows, she feels the excitement of what she had believed was forever past, something she had perhaps even given up hope of experiencing again. And so, with this contrast fresh within her, if she has the determination and can find the opportunity, it is not surprising that she may well encourage the boy to see more of her body and finally do things to her which her husband either does not do at all or else does so uninterestingly.
We must also consider as potential seductresses of boys those women who, because nature has not been overly kind to them, are generally unattractive to men. If a boy shows a sexual interest, it is readily understandable that they will be quick to develop that interest all the way to the final phase of seduction simply because they are grateful for being observed and noticed and desired.
We shall see in some of the case histories in this book how a seemingly normal and conventionally brought-up wife has heard about gamahuching or frenching, but has never experienced it. Either she doesn't dare suggest it to her husband for fear of shocking him, or indeed does suggest it and shocks him. There is, alas, far too much marital disharmony because of past backgrounds which bring both married partners to the bridal bed with inhibitions, puritanical withdrawals, and even "hang-ups" about this or that concept of sexual behavior.
So if such a woman can find the opportunity to have a boy satisfy her longing and curiosity, it is not so surprising that she will try to do so. Then if she finds enjoyment, she will try to repeat the experience.
But what again, we ask, of the boys involved? You may think that they receive an early sexual initiation and are perhaps better off than the average boy who has to struggle through the tormented adolescence and may in some instances never have sex with a woman until he marries at the age of perhaps twenty-five. The economy of our society imposes a kind of unnatural continence upon the young male.
The fact is that a boy who has tasted the joy of sexual pleasure with a mature woman will want to repeat it. Man is not a monogamous animal, nor is a sensitive and perceptive boy. But what, let us ask, should happen to this boy if his opportunities are not granted again? Suppose the woman who initiated him thinks that it was just a lark or a one-time occasion and has no intention in letting him take such liberties again?
The desire will remain. It will not die that simply. There is one chapter in this book which, as you will see, will treat this kind of aftermath.
You already begin to see, my readers, the ramifications of this subject. Indeed, it would take many volumes to cover the entire topic. I have therefore made the most honest effort possible to provide as much enlightenment as I can. Rather than bore you with medical observations, I have taken from my file actual case histories, even having recorded the conversation between those patients and myself or writing down verbatim their comments to me of their own past and present experiences
Let us then together, you and I, study the chemical view of pedophilia as it pertains to the mature woman and the young boy. Remember, these are not statistics, but people, people of flesh and blood, hopes and dreams and sorrows, emotions and disappointments like ourselves. We may not condone what they do, but we should at least attempt to understand. We cannot treat a problem, either by the psychiatrist or the physician, unless we know the symptoms, the signs, and sometimes the aftereffects.