How innocent can anyone be?

[Ukwriter79]

I'm sure I read a news story recently, where a couple had asked for fertility assistance/treatment. When pressed about their sexlife it became clear that they weren't having sex but praying to God for conception. This got me thinking of an idea for a story where an innocent couple seek help from a doctor. However being so innocent, the doctor realises he needs to guide them, up until the man says "Show me." You can work out the end from there. Has anyone encountered this level of innocence when talking to an adult? How could they have reached that point without knowing what to do? Surely during a medical examination they would have been asked about serial activity. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Ukwriter79]

I'm sure I read a news story recently, where a couple had asked for fertility assistance/treatment. When pressed about their sexlife it became clear that they weren't having sex but praying to God for conception. This got me thinking of an idea for a story where an innocent couple seek help from a doctor. However being so innocent, the doctor realises he needs to guide them, up until the man says "Show me." You can work out the end from there. Has anyone encountered this level of innocence when talking to an adult? How could they have reached that point without knowing what to do? Surely during a medical examination they would have been asked about serial activity. Any ideas? Thanks.

That should read sexual activity. Bloody predictive text.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

Never. Seems awfully wild to believe, unless the article failed to mention a mental or social condition of the couple. Apart from that, I’d want to confirm whether the article was simply “fake news” or even AI generated; (not that I know how to do that!)

 

[Pabiporffor]

I recall a similar story years ago where an indian couple went to the doctors because they were unable to conceive. A quick examination told the doctor she was still a virgin. Apparently he had just been poking her in the naval.

 

[Ukwriter79]

Never. Seems awfully wild to believe, unless the article failed to mention a mental or social condition of the couple. Apart from that, I’d want to confirm whether the article was simply “fake news” or even AI generated; (not that I know how to do that!)

I'm sure it was only a few weeks ago that I saw it. I did Google it but the recent story didn't appear. Similar stories did including one where they'd been trying in the wrong hole. The 'condition' that the couple in the article were victim to, seemed to be religion. I know a few devout people and none of them appear so naive. I just thought that it could lead to a good story on here but I can't get past the idea that 2 grown adults wouldn't know how babies were made.

 

[DarkSollat]

It reminds me of the old joke.

A couple wants to have a child but can't, even if they try. They go to a doctor.
"Doctor, we have sex every day, and we can't conceive."
The doctor answers: "Are you two serious, boys?"

 

[NotUnperson]

Maybe they should try praying to the magic stork instead.

 

[Britva415]

How could they have reached that point without knowing what to do?

They're clearly already in a region where everyone's Godly and sex talk is taboo.

These are the same regions where the populace has stamped out sex education at school.

And the parents just couldn't bring themselves to talk to them about sex at all.

And none of their friends did either.

 

[lustychimera]

There's a popular rumor that Anne of Cleves thought that merely a kiss goodnight and sleeping in the same bed together would get her pregnant. Even if it's not true, clearly it's believable enough to persist.

Though, I think it would need to be a story without the internet. Either escaping a cult or set in the past or something like that.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

I know… they were raised by wolves. And thought that doggy position was a community bonding ritual.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I recall a similar story years ago where an indian couple went to the doctors because they were unable to conceive. A quick examination told the doctor she was still a virgin. Apparently he had just been poking her in the naval.

If Erica Jong's first novel is to be believed, when she was young she believed that fellatio could result in a pregnancy. The novel is partly autobiographical, but I can't confirm if that is fictional or not. Also, she was far younger than anything that would be allowed on Lit.

 

[MrRandyWatson]

I'm sure it was only a few weeks ago that I saw it. I did Google it but the recent story didn't appear. Similar stories did including one where they'd been trying in the wrong hole. The 'condition' that the couple in the article were victim to, seemed to be religion. I know a few devout people and none of them appear so naive. I just thought that it could lead to a good story on here but I can't get past the idea that 2 grown adults wouldn't know how babies were made.

You might be surprised. There are a lot of repressive cultures and regimes that make the subject so taboo that people prefer not to broach it. It is entirely possible for two people to be pushed into a marriage, taught nothing but abstinence, given no direction other than “don’t do it” and it be so ingrained that the couple has no idea how to make babies or make love and don’t trust anyone to answer it - or if they ask, they’re just told to follow the Lord or some hogwash.

 

[LupusDei]

I have heard/read multiple accounts of somewhat the opposite, where a girl is seeking medical help for a "mysterious illness" with turns out to be a pregnancy, already quite late term by then -- but she's seemingly dumbfounded at how she's possibly got there even after explaining what's going on with her. Further interrogation reveals she had sex (although not necessarily fully vaginal, just squirting semen on the entrance may sometimes be enough), and likely repeatedly, but were brainwashed to not recognize the activity as sex or "real" sex.

But yes, while a couple that wonder why they can't conceive without ever having sex sounds like a joke, imho, it's not exactly outside of the long, long, looong, tail of freak fringe possibilities.

Say, one of my girlfriends had a good friend who reportedly had so extreme gymnophobia neither she, nor said girl's allegedly long time boyfriend had seen her as much as in underwear (not sure about swimsuit; I would assume one-piece, but possibly she avoided situations even that would be expected, certainly can't remember such) even less nude. Reportedly, she never changed any other way than in a locked bathroom.

Combine this with aggressive asexuality (likely, but not necessarily the case) and you will get someone who can't conceive for purely technical difficulties, even if she seeks male companionship for social purposes. She may actively invent substitutions or approximations to sex for intimacy. The guy may not need to be an idiot, just being strung along in undying hope to eventually reach trough... and dragging her into doctor for consultation might be his last hope.

Similar in reverse is also possible, that it's the guy who's conditioned to perceive his own male genitals as so unconditionally offensive and "dirty" he's never touched them with bare hand himself. To him it's inconceivable to subject the girl he loves to the horror of being exposed to his privates, never less to allow her to touch him there.

While both are more than likely at very least religion adjacent, if not otherwise than seeking validation for own aberrations, it's not a necessary component per se.

 

[Ukwriter79]

Thank you for your responses. I may be able to piece together a conversation between the couple and a doctor/fertility expert. I had gone down the route of extreme religious beliefs and that the couple considered the Internet, video/dvds and even books (that weren't the Bible), the work of the devil himself. I know of families that keep their children away from sex ed classes. But if this couple were early to mid-twenties, you'd have thought that the 'birds and the bees' talk would have cropped up at some point in their lives.

 

[DownTheWell]

You could set it in the "near future".

How much did the Western culture and to a lesser extent world culture change during the last four years?

 

[Pabiporffor]

You could set it in the "near future".

How much did the Western culture and to a lesser extent world culture change during the last four years?

Sex education is branded fake news by youth who also think porn is government brainwashing. A falling birth rate is blamed on a lack of storks and gooseberry bushed by online influencers.

Not to worry because grandad still remembers how its done and I'd happy to help.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Anyone who was schooled in the public school system would not be this naive. So I think you'd have to find people who were home-schooled in a religiously strict family or community. People who felt that sex education would lead their children to sin.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Sex education is branded fake news by youth who also think porn is government brainwashing. A falling birth rate is blamed on a lack of storks and gooseberry bushed by online influencers.

Not to worry because grandad still remembers how its done and I'd happy to help.

A reason the birth rate is falling (in a number of countries) may be because of increased urbanization. It takes two or three generations for that to become apparent. On a farm (a tiny percentage of Americans now work in agriculture) kids can be an asset because they can do the chores. In a metro area, kids are an expensive liability.

 

[gunhilltrain]

You could set it in the "near future".

How much did the Western culture and to a lesser extent world culture change during the last four years?

It's more like the last two hundred years. If you look at all of history, attitudes towards sex have varied quite a bit based on the time and place. What was accepted as true in ancient Rome or ancient Egypt was not the same in medieval Europe or Victorian Age England. Sometimes it's a matter of what people are allowed to say versus what they actually do. 19th Century Britain certainly had plenty of prostitutes.

 

[Pabiporffor]

A reason the birth rate is falling (in a number of countries) may be because of increased urbanization. It takes two or three generations for that to become apparent. On a farm (a tiny percentage of Americans now work in agriculture) kids can be an asset because they can do the chores. In a metro area, kids are an expensive liability.

That's true. It wasn't that long ago they'd plant nettles on your grave if you failed to produce children.

 

[Ukwriter79]

It's more like the last two hundred years. If you look at all of history, attitudes towards sex have varied quite a bit based on the time and place. What was accepted as true in ancient Rome or ancient Egypt was not the same in medieval Europe or Victorian Age England. Sometimes it's a matter of what people are allowed to say versus what they actually do. 19th Century Britain certainly had plenty of prostitutes.

To us Ancient Rome was just orgy after orgy. Probably quite tiring when you're in the middle of it all.
Son: Do we have to go to the orgy tonight? I don't feel very sociable.
Dad: Don't worry son, it'll just be close family.
Whereas I grew up believing that nobody had casual sex before 1960, everybody was too straight laced.
I think the couple in my story will be the last two youngsters (20 somethings) from a commune that has survived on private property for 3 or 4 generations. Only one, maybe 2 men each generation knew how babies were concieved and they would take the women away for special 'prayers' so that the family would be blessed with a child.
The story I've started drafting will start with the couple trying to find their way in the normal world and being given advice by a doctor. When the subject of family planning arises the doctor will find it hard to explain to them what they must do and end up breaking a few codes of conduct.