Children get information from many different sources, much of it contradictory. They use this information to construct a sexual script (Plummer, 1991). The sexual script can have different themes, depending on the sexual ideas and values communicated to the child by the culture and his or her specific environment.
Sexual scripts refer to explicit things we communicate to children, such as “Sex is dirty” or “Save it for someone you love,” or they can be subtle, such as what Plummer (1991) calls the scripting of “absence.” Because of the reluctance parents have about talking frankly about sex, children may have gaps of knowledge and of vocabulary and may have to create these words or ideas for themselves. Another example is the “script of utility,” or ways in which sexuality can be used in a social context. For example, chil-
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