QUESTION: My old man caught the clap from some teenybopper. He is now taking medication. Naturally we aren’t balling right now. But can I catch it from simply sleeping with him? Also, what kind of sexual activity can we safely engage in?
ANSWER: Gonorrhea is rarely transmitted except by direct sexual contact. The discharge of pus, of course, is infectious and must be avoided. As for the kind of sexual activity you can safely engage in—you can think about what you’ll do when your friend’s physician tells him his infection has cleared up.
QUESTION: Why does my left testicle persist in up setting the symmetry of my body by hanging lower than my right?
ANSWER: Medical research has uncovered the fact that “lefties” predominate in this part of the male anatomy. The reason is unknown. My communications coordinator believes that psychological balance is much more important.
QUESTION: I am a 17 year old boy living with my parents in a small town. I have been hearing and reading quite a bit about THC. Where can I get some?
ANSWER: THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is thought to be the active ingredient of marijuana. Because the synthesis of this drug is so complicated and expensive, any “THC” sold on the black market is almost surely not synthetic marijuana.
Capsules of the drug said to be THC and selling for $1.50 each were recently collected in the Haight-Ashbury and analyzed in the Pharmacology laboratories of the University of California. The capsules were found not to contain THC but a sedative used for treating animals.
Most dealers know little about the purity of the drugs they sell. The most widely known underground (al)chemist believes that a dealer with any feelings at all for other people will use the drug on himself first before selling it to others.
The establishment has no monopoly on dishonesty, though they’ve more than their share of the market.
QUESTION: Can you explain why, at nude beaches like the one at San Gregorio, California, the men don’t seem to become sexually aroused?
I would love to go to a nude beach but my husband is reluctant and I suspect it’s because he’s afraid he’d have an erection. It shouldn’t be embarrassing since I think an erection is the most attractive thing a man can wear. But he’d probably be more willing if he were sure he wouldn’t get hard. I have heard that this is no problem in nudist camps.
ANSWER: Nudists very quickly adjust to the sight of a man in his natural state. None of us were born wearing clothes. The notion that the sight of a naked body is somehow evil is a perversion responsible for much unhappiness in our society. I received two letters recently which speak to this point better than I could. The first is from a small town in the mid-west:
“My half-brother, who is five years old, kept on begging to see my penis. I finally asked him why and he said, ‘Because it’s pretty.’
“He tried to see my cousin’s penis also. This has some of the people in our family worried. He has done a few other things to make us believe he is homosexual. Does this mean he is homosexual or becoming homosexual? Is there anything we can do about it?”
The second letter is from Berkeley:
“I am a 14-year-old boy interested in seeing the female anatomy (sexual). Could you print pictures or photographs for my enlightenment and for others? Also, is it wrong for boys of my age to want to see the naked female body?”
Many psychoanalysts believe that children should not be allowed to see their parents’ nude bodies. That’s bunk! The five-year-old boy had apparently not seen many adult nude bodies and with the knowledge he would be an adult someday, wanted to see an adult penis which he considered “pretty”. The housewife thought the same. Should the little boy think it ugly?
I have several times considered illustrating my column with drawings or photographs for obviously words are but one way of communicating information.
Dr. Schoenfeld welcomes your questions. Write to him at 1611 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley, CA., 94702.