The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1946-08-26

4 been q spectuculur rise in j
youths.
Before World Wor I. for ext
who morried wds q "fullen wo
Today, not one bride in two can
claim innocence of sexual expe- |
rience.
My own observation from
clinical experience is that about
three out of five of the engaged
couples planning early marriage
who can consult me have expert
enced full intimacy.
After studying the lives of 1872
couples, DIR. L. NJ. Terman, au-
thor of Psychological Factors in
Marital Happiness" found that
about So per cent of the girls
who married in 1910 were nom
virgin whereas only IL per cent
were non-virgin in the period
around 1912. He concluded:
The trend toward premari-
tai sex experience is proceed
ing with extraordinary rapid
iiY."
After studying his statistics
covering several decades he said:
IF the drop Tin virginity) should
continue at the average rate
shown, virginity at marriage will
be close to the vanishing point
for girls marrying after 1860"
There is a good deal of evil
dence, however, that the trend
has already slowed down in the
past few years and that the PEN
dulum, in fact, has started swing
ing the other way In recent
months / have talked to several
leaders in the marriage counsel
ing field and the consensus was
that today about 40 or As per
cent of our brides are virgins at
marriage.
A large proportion of the
girls who remain virginia. un-
fill marriage have experienced
so-called heavy petting. Where
as less than half of the past
generation petted before mar
rage. today fully nine-ienths
of our young people pet before
marriage.
/ do not suggest that this is
wrong. Certainly engaged cou-
pies should respond to each 9TH
er emotionally to the point where
the full intimacy which marriage
will bring seems natural and de-
sirable. However, il. is disturb
ing phenomenon of our genera
ton that SO many girls feel they
can give, without giving all.
l have read a great deal about
the supposed wild orgies that
take place on college campuses.
Objective surveys, however, show
without question that premari-
tai sexual experience among
college students is much less fire.
quent than among people who
never go to college.
The fact that girls Today
participate in so much petfins
and full sexual experiences
might lead you TO assume they
do SO because they are unable
10 restrain their passions. That.
however. does not seem TO be
the case.
DIR. Alfred Kinsey of Indiana
University, after studying the sex
behavior of many thousands OF
Americans, has found that sex
ually q woman natures much
more slowly than man. Where
as the typical man reaches the
peak of his sexual drive at the
early age of 10, the woman does
not reach her peak until 10 years
later, usually a few years after
she is married.
Why is it then that girls be-
come involved in SO much sex
adventuring? Most girls, be-
lieve. start to pet because they
are afraid they won't be asked
if they don't (Which of course has
no basis in facD. They give kisses
as rewards to the boy who takes
them to the dance. And some
times they become involved IN
idle experimenting.
The level-headed girl-and
there are still many of them
decides in the quiet of her
own room a philosophy OF lie.
AS a part of that philosophy she
sets up standards of conduct
she can live with until mar