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A review by melissabalick
Girl Land by Caitlin Flanagan
2.0
I decided to read this book because Bitch Magazine had such a strongly harsh reaction against it, which made me curious, so I requested it from the library. It took months to get it! There were many people in line before me who had reserved the book. In any case, it was an enormously quick read.
It's a pretty dumb book. I mean, I don't know the point of it, really. Girl Land is supposed to be this, like, time in all girls' lives. I would call this same time "adolescence," but I guess that for the sake of trying to write a book, she calls it "Girl Land." Kind of weird! It goes through all these different rites of passage that define adolescence: menstruation, prom, diary keeping, sexual initiation, and so forth. She doesn't have anything particularly new or interesting to say about any of these things. I kept thinking, "Yeah, and...?" as I read it. Utterly pointless.
I do kind of agree with her about some things. For instance, I agree that children -- both girls AND boys -- should be limited and supervised on the internet. I'm not anti-pornography or anything, but I do believe that children having access to so much pornography and graphic sex is not healthy for our young folks. It pornifies our culture, and makes our kids act like little sickos, and, frankly, I don't like it! Maybe I'm being reactionary, but I do think that kids should learn about sex the old-fashioned way -- by experimenting with each other awkwardly as teenagers! But Caitlin Flanagan seems to think that only girls need this type of limitation, and she thinks they need it in order to protect "Girl Land" or some shit. I just didn't understand what she was getting at in most of the book.
I mean, look. I'm concerned about the kids today too. The culture is gross. It's anti-intellectual. Kids have smartphones and are dumb as Britney. They cannot write and they're not into reading. Their parents are Republicans. They are fiercely materialistic. I'm not sure what to do about it except sign up for Big Brothers/Big Sisters and try to get a kid interested in cooking and gardening and reading. Also, I'm just not going to ever have any kids. I don't think that Caitlin Flanagan has any particular insight into these problems or the solutions to these serious problems, though.
That said, I'm not sure Bitch Magazine's vitriol is all THAT justified. It's a stupid book, but it's not, like, horrific or anything. It's not like she's Dr. Laura Schlesinger or something.
It's a pretty dumb book. I mean, I don't know the point of it, really. Girl Land is supposed to be this, like, time in all girls' lives. I would call this same time "adolescence," but I guess that for the sake of trying to write a book, she calls it "Girl Land." Kind of weird! It goes through all these different rites of passage that define adolescence: menstruation, prom, diary keeping, sexual initiation, and so forth. She doesn't have anything particularly new or interesting to say about any of these things. I kept thinking, "Yeah, and...?" as I read it. Utterly pointless.
I do kind of agree with her about some things. For instance, I agree that children -- both girls AND boys -- should be limited and supervised on the internet. I'm not anti-pornography or anything, but I do believe that children having access to so much pornography and graphic sex is not healthy for our young folks. It pornifies our culture, and makes our kids act like little sickos, and, frankly, I don't like it! Maybe I'm being reactionary, but I do think that kids should learn about sex the old-fashioned way -- by experimenting with each other awkwardly as teenagers! But Caitlin Flanagan seems to think that only girls need this type of limitation, and she thinks they need it in order to protect "Girl Land" or some shit. I just didn't understand what she was getting at in most of the book.
I mean, look. I'm concerned about the kids today too. The culture is gross. It's anti-intellectual. Kids have smartphones and are dumb as Britney. They cannot write and they're not into reading. Their parents are Republicans. They are fiercely materialistic. I'm not sure what to do about it except sign up for Big Brothers/Big Sisters and try to get a kid interested in cooking and gardening and reading. Also, I'm just not going to ever have any kids. I don't think that Caitlin Flanagan has any particular insight into these problems or the solutions to these serious problems, though.
That said, I'm not sure Bitch Magazine's vitriol is all THAT justified. It's a stupid book, but it's not, like, horrific or anything. It's not like she's Dr. Laura Schlesinger or something.