(I’m happy to report that “Dee’s nuts” remains as funny today as it did 30 years ago, when I first heard it.)Īt 12, he’s yet to announce what kind of person excites him and said as much directly: “I’m not sure what turns me on.” While the repressive Catholic school environment I experienced meant my peers mocked one another about jerking off, my son’s friends laugh and talk about all the usual tweenage topics-balls, boners, boobs-without a patina of shame. And in a science unit on sex and reproduction, he learned that mutual masturbation is a low-risk sexual activity for STDs. In advisory, for instance, he was taught not just about vaginal intercourse but about oral and anal sex. While in some states, schools are being forced by anti-LGBTQ bills and prudish cultural attitudes to curb this kind of discussion, my son is fortunate to receive instruction at middle school that supports our talks at home. The experience was like calling a sex helpline.
Orgasm isn’t always tops, or it doesn’t have to be anyway. Then he answered my son’s questions and explained that it’s OK to feel all sorts of things while masturbating. On speaker phone, his uncle said that was indeed true.
