Today's Non-fiction post is on Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein. It is 336 pages long and is published by HarperCollins. The intended reader is someone who is interested in culture and the way it works. There is language, sex, and sadly violence in this book. Lots of interview and data in this book, so be warned. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- With casual hookups and campus rape relentlessly in the news, parents can be forgiven for feeling anxious about their young daughters. They’re also fearful about opening up a dialog. Not Orenstein. A contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the New York Times best-selling author of books like Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Orenstein spoke to psychologists, academics, and other experts in the field and yes, 70 young women, to offer an in-depth picture of “girls and sex” today.
Review- This was a very interesting, if sad, read. Orenstein does a lot of good things with this book but she does miss some very important things too. The young ladies she interviews are mostly white, straight, upper-middle class. So her information is in that direction. But within that, she does give some excellent and insightful information. Orenstein lets the young women talk about themselves, for themselves and how they navigate this current culture. They define the current teen buzz words and what they mean in current teen culture. It was enlightening, scary, and very concerning, just in general, for me. What the young women know and what they do not know, what is rape, what is consent, and what is an orgasm are all in this book. Orenstein does offer some solutions to the fear of 'hook-up' culture but how many people will be willing or able to do them is the remaining question. An interesting read one way or another.
I give this book a Four of Five stars. I was give this book by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.
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