| A Consenting Juveniles narrative is a first-hand account reporting the words of the research subject on his or her experience. |
Judith Levine
They helped me begin, sexually, to glow.
| Source: | Summer of Love: The Romance a Teenage Camper Couldn’t Have Today by Judith Levine, Village Voice, July 2, 2002 www.villagevoice.com/2002-07-02/news/summer-of-love/ |
Judith Levine is a writer and social activist. She is a board member of the National Center for Reason and Justice and the Vermont chapter of the ACLU. The following passage is from the opening paragraph of an essay that appeared a few months after the publication of her controversial book, Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex (University of Minnesota Press). |
In 1967, the summer before my 15th birthday, I fell in love. It was my first intense erotic love, and its object was the photography counselor at camp—a lean, bearded, blue-eyed guy I’ll call Jake. He was 26. Nothing sexual happened. Still, I think of those two months as the summer of my épanouissement, a French word meaning blossoming or opening, which also means glow. Jake took hundreds of pictures of me, and his affirmation and his camera opened me to myself. They helped me begin, sexually, to glow.
Limited excerpt reproduced under fair use doctrine for noncommercial, educational purpose.