A review by librarydosebykristy
Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein

4.0

This book was a lot to take in. Initially it made me so anxious and sad and angry and really really terrified as the mother of a tween daughter and a teen son. There is quite the onslaught of information and statistics throughout the book — it reads as a sort of volley between upsetting statistics and interviews with girls and young women about their experiences, mostly in college. If I had college age kids right now I would probably hyperventilate from reading this.

That said— I am glad I read it. I wish with every fiber of my being that my kids could have comprehensive sex education in school and that the messages could be reinforced in society and by the government (see : the Dutch model of sex Ed). Because seriously: do not buy into the delusion that you can stop teens from exploring their sexuality. It’s gonna happen whether you want to think about it or not. And the best thing we can do for them is teach equality of experience between the sexes (girls- is it not your job to “please” a boy), and to empower young people, especially women, to express their feelings about what they want and what they don’t want. Also: do you really want what you think you want or has society taught that you should want that (