Deconstruction of Childhood Sexuality

Just as deconstructing Freud’s views on incest provides opportunities for new interpretations of sexuality, so does Kenneth Plummer’s (1991) deconstruction of current conceptualizations of childhood sexuality. Plum­mer presents a model that explores how a biological potential becomes scripted as the child develops a sense of self. Plummer recognized that sexuality has a physiological and behavioral base, but “nothing automati­cally translates itself for the child into sexual meaning” (p. 237). He cites as an example the physiological change called orgasm. The meaning of that experience would be quite different for a 5-month-old baby, a 5-year — old child, a 15-year-old adolescent, and a 50-year-old adult. He proposes that sexuality is scripted in childhood by caretakers, peers, the media, and the child’s own earlier acquired meanings. He then identifies four common themes in contemporary Western culture’s sexual scripts for children: the scripting of absences (i. e., much is left unsaid); values (mainly negative, especially guilt); secrecy (i. e., not a matter of public discussion); and the social uses of sexuality (i. e., to challenge authority, to control others, as play, or an expression of anger). He concludes that “the issue of whether the child is sexual or not need not be of concern. What matters is how the child interprets sexuality” (1991, p. 240). His deconstruction of child­hood sexuality, as does the deconstruction of Freud’s theories, suggests that sexuality is a process developed through interactions.