| Report of the "Leslita" Project REPORT OF THE STUDY OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION AND SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WOMEN AND PRETEEN GIRLS Introduction This study, conducted by the Faculty of Social Science, has become known to many as the "Leslita Project". It owes its origins to a more general study of human sexual response conducted by the faculty in 2008 which appeared to reveal that a significant minority of women found themselves sexually attracted to girls in the preteen age group. The earlier study recoomended more work to establish the full extent and nature of this attraction and the extent to which it was acted upon and reciprocated by preteens. That work was finally begun in 2011 when funds became available from an anonymous sponsor. The age groups chosen for study were women 21-50 and girls younger than 12. The omission of individuals in the 13-20 age group was deliberate and arises from the need to consider two distinct and recognisable populations. Methods The major problem as always was identifying a sufficiently large sample of females in the target age groups who would particpate . This was exacerbated by the fact that the study needed to establish the extent of actual physical relationships, which are illegal. An attempt to conduct an anonymous internet-based study was soon abandoned when it became apparent that more than 30% of participants were men posing as women and girls. The method finally adopted was to place 50 computer booths in public places such as shopping malls in various cities around the country. The booths offered a small free gift in return for participation in an unrelated consumer survey. The participants were asked to enter their emai addresses in order to recieve the gift. Hidden cameras in the booths took photographs of the participants which were later correlated with email addresses by project staff in order to indentify genuine members of the target groups, based on their appearance. This method identified around 2000 women and 1500 preteen girls in the target groups, all of whom were sent emails explaining the purposes of the study and how their anonymity would be safeguarded. There was a gift of $10 worth of internet purchase vouchers offered for participation, which was the major expense incurred by the project. Postive responses were high, particularly from the girls, and eventually 1000 women and 1000 girls were selected to recive a questionaire. The 100 questions were related to the prevalence and nature of any sexual attraction between the groups and any relevant sexual acts which had taken place. The results are discussed later. From the 2000, those who had relevant sexual feelings or experience were invited to join a Focus Group who would be invited to come to the campus for further questioning and physical tests. This yielded around 100 volunteers from the women. In the case of the girls, ptoject staff negotiated with parents and guardians, sometimes offering additional finacial inducements. Parents were mostly unaware that their girls had admitted to having sexual feelings for women and were told that the study would focus on attitudes of preteens towards sexual matters generally. This statement was judged to be sufficiently close to the truth by the faculty ethics committee. 100 girls were recruited to the focus group in this way. Finally, based on testing of the focus group members, 10 women and 10 girls were selected who had the highest mutual sexual attraction. These were invited to the end-of-project party and introduced to one another. Events taking place at the party were extensively recorded by both covert cameras and hand-held cameras operated by project staff. * * * The online questionnaire completed by the preteen group was very different from the one the women were sent. The questions were often picture-based. After basic information had been entered the girls were presented with a series of pictures of two men and two women and asked to select the two they found most attractive. The pictures were of a group of models of various age groups hired by the project who had been chosen for their physical attractiveness, based on the opinions of the project team. . Girls who consistently chose men were directed to the completion screen and took no furthrt part in the study. They only accounted for 20% of the group, mainly the 12-year-olds. The rest were asked to review the pictures again and choose the adult they would most like to see naked. There was a tickbox for those who did not want to view nudity. Almost all the girls chose a woman and the few who chose men, or elected not to choose, were eliminated. The rest, 75%, were shown nude pictures of the model they had chosen, front and rear views, and asked if they would like to touch or kiss her. Those answering 'yes' were allowed 5 mouse-clicks to indicate parts of her body they would like to touch and 5 more to indicate parts they would like to kiss. The touches and kisses were to be placed in order of preference. The clicks left behind a small letter 'o' for touches and an 'x' for kisses so the girls themselves could see their choices. Those answering 'no' were eliminated, leaving around 70%. Later the results of the girls' choices were printed out on a life-size composite picture and studied in great detail. The majority of the touches were in sexual positions with the breast area accounting for 50% of all touch mouse-clicks. The legs and buttocks scored around 20% with 10% for the genital region and 10% elsewhere. On the other hand over 50% of kisses were placed on the lips or face and 30% on breasts, usually both. Kisses in the genital region accounted for 10% and the buttocks 5%. Feet, neck and lower leg kisses were among the other choices. Interestingly, of the 70% of girls remaining in the study, 10% elected to kiss their model's genitals as a first choice. * * * The questionnare sent to the Women had more conventional questions such as "Do you consider youself a lesbian?". The results were in line with previous studies, such as Kinsey, with 10% practising lesbians, rising to 30% when occasional experiences or fantasies were taken into account. Only 2% admitted to attraction to, or sexual experience with preteen girls. The project team were at first concerned that there would be insufficient women to form the focus group. However when the 30% were invited and advised that they would be meeting little girls who were sexually attracted to women there were more than enough applicants. The team were left to ponder why 70% of girls appeared to have lesbian tendencies but this figure declined to 30% in adults. A popular theory suggested that the results were directly related to how close the girls felt to their mothers. It seemed likely that, as with boys, the girls first sexual feelings were directed towards their mothers and that this shaped their preteen sexuality generally and their feelings for other adult women. The focus groups were selected and, in batches of 30 or so over a period of a month, 200 women and girls were invited to the university campus for more questions and physical tests. The participants were all photographed professionally, providing facial portraits and full-length poses. Those who were willing were also photographed nude. All the girls were questioned by female members of the project team. This time the objective was to find out how many had experienced sexual contact with a woman. They were asked what parts of a woman's body they had actually touched, and where they had been touched, followed by more explicit questions. Of the 100 girls questioned, 30 said they had touched a woman's bare breasts. Of these 23 had also touched an adult woman's genitals. In almost all of the 23, this had led to insertion of one finger or more into the woman's vagina. Of these, 7 had also put their fingers in a woman's anus. Almost all of the 70 who were inexperienced expressed a desire to do one or more of these things. Questions on oral/genital contact were also asked. It seemed that genital touching amost always led to oral sex with 20 girls reporting that they had either kissed or licked a woman's genital area. 9 said they had actually inserted their tongues into the vagina. 32 girls reported that their own genital area had been touched by a woman. The low incidence of contact being one-way suggests that sexual contact was overwhelmingly mutual and consensual. Interviews with the women showed a lower incidence (18/100) of sexual contact with preteem girls, although most of these had had multiple multiple partners. One woman reported sex with 98 different girls, contrasting with the most experienced of the preteens, who had been with 12 different women. All 200 participants took part in a test in which temperature sensors were placed on the clitoris to indicate the rate of blood flow to this region. Increase in clitoral blood supply has been found to be a reliable indicator of sexual arousal. In private booths, the girls were shown pictures nude and scantily-clad women in sexually provocative poses while the strength of their clitoral response was measured. A similar process was undertaken with the women, who were shown pictures of girls. One woman, who was inexperienced and had never seen pictures of this kind, recorded a very powerful response. It later emerged that she had experienced an orgasm. |