Stages of development in sex-positive teens
Hi! I've been thinking a lot of how to raise sex-positive teens lately (mine is hitting the high hormones and interest in sex lately and I'm trying to undo some generational trauma on that front).
From looking at my own kids development, there seems to be distinct stages:
No interest
An interest in how babies are made, how bodies work
An interest in learning about and emulating romantic yet platonic relationships
The hormonal rush of puberty that seems to drive an interest in sex and masturbation
My partner and I were speculating on the future stages between this and adulthood. Recognizing I lose influence as a parent throughout the teen years, I'm trying to figure out how to set her up for success.
We hypothesized (yes we're both science nerds) that next there would be a tentative exploration of actual intimate relationships which will lead to a (hopefully) more confident continuation of intimate relationships later in life built on that experience. As they build more foundational skills in recognizing consent, good boundaries, and media literacy, they become better able to both navigate the world and media without supervision. Which would give us two stages of (5) exploration and (6) confident self-knowledge (the end goal).
But we recognize our own upbringing and experiences are atypical - I had a very early intro to pornography and they had a very repressed and tightly controlled environment.
So I'm curious if other sex-positive folks recognize any stages in their development along these lines, when they felt more interested in certain topics than before. I suspect many of us struggled in a sex negative society and families, so there may have been a lot of issues with it.
Also you may now yell "NEEEEERD" at me.