"At the age of twelve he learned the secret from his friends and peers, and in the same year he began a sexual life in the company of these companions and girls in the meadow." This information was provided by a participant in a survey conducted in 1903 at the Warsaw University of Technology. Only one out of one hundred and forty ...
Professor Zbigniew Lew-Starowicz warns:“Young people mature biologically earlier. Hormonal acceleration also means that there is an earlier interest in sex as well. Press comments from recent years, both those written by laymen and professionals, suggest that we are dealing with an exceptional situation in Polish history.
Children's games of doctor
Apparently, in the past, "most people starting their sex life were in their twenties or older," and late sexual initiation was an eternal standard. This is not true - at least for men.
In the interwar period, the subject of the beginning of sexual life was dealt with, among others, by Albert Dryjski . He collected information from a total of six hundred and eighty students attending secondary schools in the first years after independence. 75% of respondents said they had sex for the first time before their 18th birthday.
Three-quarters of the students interviewed by Albert Dryjski stated that they had undergone sexual initiation before the age of 18 (source:public domain).
These results can be compared with a very similar study conducted by Zbigniew Izdebski in 2004. A sexologist interviewed students of the 2nd grade of upper secondary schools. Only 40% of them admitted that they were behind them for the first time. The decrease is almost two-fold. And no wonder. Middle school students interviewed by Albert Dryjski are a breakthrough generation. Recent years still affected by 19th-century morality, giving young men the right to complete freedom (read more about this in our other article) .
This is clearly visible in the number of declarations about a very early onset of sexual life. As many as 15% of respondents said that they had started having sex before their fourteenth birthday. Today such a number would be completely unthinkable.
According to a 2004 study, 10% of the surveyed students admitted to initiation before the age of fifteen. Contemporary specialists find this result extremely disturbing.
One hundred and forty daredevils
Albert Dryjski was not the first to explore youth sexuality. Before him, this topic was taken up by several other doctors and hygienists. However, the data they obtained must be handled with extreme caution.
At the Warsaw University of Technology in 1903 the questionnaire was received by 1,000 students. Only one hundred and forty were interested in him. It was only a little better at the University of Warsaw, where the broadest survey from the turn of the century included three hundred people.
At the Warsaw University of Technology in 1903, 1,000 students received a questionnaire about their sex life. However, only one hundred and forty were interested in him (source:public domain).
Where reliable research methods were adopted (i.e., for example, no answers were suggested or the group of respondents was not limited to adherents of abstinence), the results were similar to those of Dryjski. Open answers are much more interesting than numbers.
First time at six?
One of the organizers of the 1903 survey, Iza Moszczeńska, commented on the results as follows: "The loss of innocence, even very premature, does not indicate any negative innate inclinations or even the character of a boy."
She found it necessary to make a reservation because among the respondents there were those who lost their innocence at the age of eight or even six. In the case of the latter, we should rather talk about the victims of harassment. But the boys who had their first intercourse at the age of thirteen or fourteen themselves admitted that the initiative came from them. And the partner often had nothing to say.
At the urging of colleagues with the maid
The largest group, as many as twenty-two participants in the survey, explained that they underwent sexual initiation with a servant or cook employed in the family home. One wrote about sex "at the instigation of friends with a maid." Another about the relationship under ordinary conditions with my parents' maid ” . Moszczeńska replied:
A few mention the reluctance of the servant or the passive and reluctant surrender, others that she "did not take long to be asked". (...) Some people directly say that they consider this type of woman the most accessible and at the same time the most reliable in terms of hygiene .
One of them, for example, when asked if he is constantly in relationship with one woman, or is he with another? - he replies:"It depends on each change of the maid."
Most of the survey participants underwent sexual initiation with a maid or cook, because they were considered to be the most accessible and at the same time the most hygienic (source:public domain).
Fear of going for a beer
The second group of female partners at the first intercourse were prostitutes. Ten interviewees mentioned that they lost their innocence with women working in brothels.
Eight wrote about "corneas" - providing the cheapest services and most often infected with syphilis. One also mentioned that he is afraid to go for a beer with his friends, because "most often the party turns into orgies in brothels".
The first time with a friend or with school love at the turn of the century almost never happened. Come on soon - with a random stranger. One of the boys quoted by Iza Moszczeńska stated that ceased to be a virgin "on the spur of the moment". He was "returning from the operetta" when it first happened to him. A complete coincidence. Overall, only six respondents admitted that they had received initiation with someone from their "society".
And only one in a hundred and thirty did so "out of love with a loved one."