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andipants 's review for:
Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape
by Peggy Orenstein
This was a very good (and surprisingly quick) read. Having read fairly extensively on the subject, most of the information was already familiar to me, but it's nice to have it all packaged together to recommend to those less familiar with the issues. Each chapter tackles a different aspect of the topic, creating a broad and cohesive starting point for discussion.
The downside, in my opinion, is that the examinations of each aspect are somewhat cursory. The author is fairly good at presenting objective facts and admitting her own biases, but some of the chapters felt at times like they were just cruising over the major outlines of each topic without questioning much or delving into a lot of the nuance. I noticed this particularly in the discussions of hookup culture and casual sex. While she (rightfully) calls out parents' and the media's tendency toward moral panics over exaggerated or outright false stories of new and outrageous teen behaviors (e.g. Oprah and her "rainbow parties"), at times it felt almost like that was what she was doing herself: taking a (self-selected) sample of girls and extrapolating from their (self-reported) behavior to create a narrative of constant hookups and casual sexual contact that didn't always ring true for me. Yes, it's been a decade since I graduated high school, and no, I wasn't one of the cool kids, but I don't think I was THAT far out of touch then, and I don't think things can have changed THAT much since. I'm sure such behavior does go on, and probably more frequently than most parents would like to admit, but I'm still skeptical of the absolute ubiquity the book seems to imply. More actual data would have been useful here, as well as more historical context for comparison.
Overall, though, it was a very accessible and interesting read, and I would definitely recommend it to those looking for an easy primer on the subject.
The downside, in my opinion, is that the examinations of each aspect are somewhat cursory. The author is fairly good at presenting objective facts and admitting her own biases, but some of the chapters felt at times like they were just cruising over the major outlines of each topic without questioning much or delving into a lot of the nuance. I noticed this particularly in the discussions of hookup culture and casual sex. While she (rightfully) calls out parents' and the media's tendency toward moral panics over exaggerated or outright false stories of new and outrageous teen behaviors (e.g. Oprah and her "rainbow parties"), at times it felt almost like that was what she was doing herself: taking a (self-selected) sample of girls and extrapolating from their (self-reported) behavior to create a narrative of constant hookups and casual sexual contact that didn't always ring true for me. Yes, it's been a decade since I graduated high school, and no, I wasn't one of the cool kids, but I don't think I was THAT far out of touch then, and I don't think things can have changed THAT much since. I'm sure such behavior does go on, and probably more frequently than most parents would like to admit, but I'm still skeptical of the absolute ubiquity the book seems to imply. More actual data would have been useful here, as well as more historical context for comparison.
Overall, though, it was a very accessible and interesting read, and I would definitely recommend it to those looking for an easy primer on the subject.