ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a picture of what occurs among the young people in relation to an issue that is generally not discussed in religious groups, by presenting ultra-Orthodox women's and men's personal experiences from their childhood and adolescence, within their own conceptual world and social context. The significance attributed to conceptions of the body and sexuality is derived from social, cultural and religious contexts. From the mid-nineteenth century sexuality became an inseparable part of the modern human being's identity, and the Western world's endorsement of romance and courtship as separable from reproduction gave new meaning to couplehood and sexuality. The mechanisms of silencing and supervision just described, ultra-Orthodox young people have an internal supervisory mechanism that forms when they internalise the messages and prohibitions instilled in them by various socialisation agents. The major socialisation agents in the ultra-Orthodox community consider it a religious obligation to avoid passing on information about sexual matters.
