Listening In On Boy TalkCharlotte Faltermayer, [source unknown], June 15, 1998 The three boys, all twelve, have requested that their moms not be allowed in the room. W. takes pains to close all the doors to the dining room where the discussion is going to take place. At one point, he gets up to chase away his little brother. W.'s friends H. and P. are twins, but H. quickly points out,
The subject is sex. Do the boys think about sex?
Why did H. take the Playboys?
The three boys have checked out Beverly Hills 90210, which, says H.,
The Internet is tempting and accessible but, says W.,
They say the movie that really got their juices flowing was the vintage frat-boy flick Animal House. W. saw it at a sleepover, and the twins' say their older brother brought it home one night. Says W.:
Do the three hang out with girls much?
But girls are enough on their minds so that P. taped a phone conversation his brother was having with a classmate about girls. The three have attended school dances where they've seen people "grinding" and getting "frisky and
stuff." At the ice-skating rink, P. saw a seventh-grade couple
tightly The subject turns to other classmates. "I think he likes boys," says H. about one. He and W. start to imitate the classmate, talking in high voices and with their hands. What makes them so suspicious?
How much sex goes on among the other kids in their grade?
The three devise a makeshift formula to measure appropriate sixth-grade sexual activity. On a scale of 1 to 10,
You know what I mean? "
For now.
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