Shed sexual ignorance and guilt, author advises

Too many people have guilt feelings about sex and they should not be bothered by such attitudes.

So said Sol Gordon, professor of child and family studies at Syracuse University. who spoke yesterday

to about 300 persons who counsel teenagers. Gordon's talk was frank and included some four-letter words. However, his audience. mostly women. laughed frequently and gave him a standing ovation at the end.

Gordon

Gordon's talk was sponsored by Preterm. a nonprofit abortion clinic at 10900 Carnegie Ave. SE. He is the author of several books about questions young people ask. The books have been banned in some communities for being too explicit.

One of every two high school students will have sex." Gordon said. "whether we like it or not or whether they like it."

Young people. he said. should be informed about sex because "ignorance. not knowledge. stimulates inappropriate behavior."

For example. he said when a child uses a vulgar word, the parent should not chastise him but use that occasion to teach him about sex.

He said that too often, schools are run by the "lunatic fringe" and the result is that sex education "is often the relentless pursuit of the fallopian tubes or a course in plumbing,'

No one ever asks about fallopian

tubes. he said. and the courses fail to answer the real questions puzzling teenagers.

He said the No. 1 "hangup" in this country is masturbation. Actually, he said. "Masturbation is the normal expression of sexuality at any age."

Some people. he said, contend that a person who masturbates will not enjoy real sex.

"Not every meal is a gourmet meal." he said.

Gordon also said that people are too concerned with statistics such as how many orgasms they have. how long it takes and whether or not it is mutual.

There is so much of this absurdity, he said. that orgasm has become a kind of gymnastics.”

Most of the research in the field of sexuality is based on false assumptions, he said.

For example, some people say a man reaches his peak at age 19.

"I thought I reached my prime 20 years ago." Gordon said, "until just the other day." He is 51.

Researchers, he said. may interview 1.000 couples. Each lies a little bit and the researchers call their results fact.

He said people feel so guilty about their sexual feelings that their self image is destroyed. For example, one homosexual relationship when a person is young has no bearing on whether a person is homosexual.

He said some people consider * fashionable to talk about laten homosexuas.

"Latent is a figment of the psychiatric imagination," he said, "you might as well say all women are latently preg nant."