Re: Sexed up Anne Frank riles surviving Swiss cousin

What a coincidence.

Last night I was just skimming over this paper by Tom O'Carrol and noticed this little part about Anne Frank.

Incidentally, for those who shake their heads disapprovingly at the idea that children these days are becoming precociously "sexualised" as a result of pernicious modern exposure to sex on TV, in the movies and so forth, the diary of Anne Frank is worth reading in the unexpurgated edition that has been available in recent years. One wonders even whether these days the brave girl revered around the world as an icon of fortitude in the face of Nazi oppression, would be branded a sexual delinquent in the light of passages like this one, in which she refers to a schoolfriend, when the two girls would have been about 12 years old:

"Sometimes when I lie in bed at night I feel a terrible urge to touch my breasts and listen to the quiet, steady beating of my heart. Unconsciously, I had these feelings even before I came here. Once when I was spending the night at Jacque's, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she'd always hidden from me and which I'd never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other's breasts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude, such as the Venus in my art history book, I go into ecstasy. Sometimes I find them so exquisite I have to struggle to hold back my tears. If only I had a girlfriend!"

If Anne's parents had spied on her diary, which they may wisely not have done in view of the family's exceptionally trying circumstances of confinement in hiding, they might also have been shocked to the core by her views on the overrated nature of maidenly purity and her relentless but unsuccessful efforts to seduce a teenage boy who shared their secret accommodation.

One extraordinary irony of Anne Frank's desperate situation is that until the Nazis discovered her family's hiding place in Amsterdam, she had at least enjoyed a great deal more privacy privacy in her mental life and intimate personal relations than is generally available to many youngsters of comparable age today.

I've always liked her dairy ever since I read it for school when I was fifteen.

Re: Sexed up Anne Frank riles surviving Swiss cousin

Re: Sexed up Anne Frank riles surviving Swiss cousin