Sex Ed 1965 Style
Stephanie Fritz, a good and observant friend, again tipped me off on something fun to write about. She spotted a record in the window of an indie record store while visiting Chicago. She took this picture and sent it to me with the fun and witty tag "You made an entire movie about what this claims to do in 25 minutes."
And so I have. Well, that's not exactly what the movie is completely about, and technically the movie hasn't been made. It's in the process of being made, but fair enough. I had to see if our movie had been trumped by this record.
Luckily, Stephanie found a recording of this on the internet, and I had the good fortune to listen to it. There was also a "Sex and Your Son" recording you can listen to, and I most certainly did. You can too here.
First there is about 9 minutes for only the parents to listen to. Dr. Sims talks to the parents telling them that they need to get comfortable with the subject so they can present themselves as people that their child could ask questions to without embarrassment. Good suggestion. Then he goes on to say that this record (the 19 minute part that the child will listen to) is such that your child will spontaneously turn to kiss you at the end of it. I find that to be a wierd and overly optimistic foretelling of the future, but I guess I can appreciate his emphasis on affection between parent and child.
The parents are supposed to be sitting with the child as they listen to the second part, and it is set up like a kind of play where the parents ask the doctor to stop by and talk with their child about sex. Dr. Sims rings the doorbell, greets everyone, and then there is a series of questions, answers and interactions between Dr, parents and child. It's pretty cheesy as you might expect, and I think the funniest thing is that the kids always seem to have a kinda Wisconsin accent.
All in all this is probably pretty progressive for the time, and in general gives good advice for parents. Be actively available for questions. Get correct information before informing the child. Don't make it wierd. Talk to your child throughout their life, conveying appropriate information for their age. The records even discuss masturbation - even if it is brief. It tells us that there is nothing physically harmful about masturbation, but there could be moral issues and your religious leaders are the best people to discuss that with. So it's not exactly a glowing review of masturbation (as I might have added in my sex ed record), but it doesn't ignore it either, so that's something. It discusses the egg-sperm deal, pregnancy, and even breast feeding, menstration, and wet dreams.
Only in the son's record do we ever actually hear that this whole marriage-love-conception thing involves an erect penis being inserted into the vagina. The girl does ask for more details about this, but even though her questions were scripted, the good doctor is still able to avoid it.
It's from the 1960's, so not surprisingly it heavily emphasizes the baby-nurturing part of the female reproductive system and is a bit old fashioned about the whole period thing. But the overall vagueness of the information is pretty much par for the course still today.
All in all, it's a pretty funny listen, and probably could even be used for a nice drinking game (everyone drink each time Dr. Sims says "That's right Bob!")