Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape - Softcover

Orenstein, Peggy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062209744 ISBN 13: 9780062209740

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2017

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Time Top 10 Book of the Year - A San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year

The author of the New York Times bestseller Cinderella Ate My Daughter offers a clear-eyed picture of the new sexual landscape girls face in the post-princess stage--high school through college--and reveals how they are negotiating it.

A generation gap has emerged between parents and their girls. Even in this age of helicopter parenting, the mothers and fathers of tomorrow's women have little idea what their daughters are up to sexually or how they feel about it. Drawing on in-depth interviews with over seventy young women and a wide range of psychologists, academics, and experts, renowned journalist Peggy Orenstein goes where most others fear to tread, pulling back the curtain on the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important possibilities of girls' sex lives in the modern world.

While the media has focused--often to sensational effect--on the rise of casual sex and the prevalence of rape on campus, in Girls and Sex Peggy Orenstein brings much more to the table. She examines the ways in which porn and all its sexual myths have seeped into young people's lives; what it means to be the "the perfect slut" and why many girls scorn virginity; the complicated terrain of hookup culture and the unfortunate realities surrounding assault. In Orenstein's hands these issues are never reduced to simplistic "truths;" rather, her powerful reporting opens up a dialogue on a potent, often silent, subtext of American life today--giving readers comprehensive and in-depth information with which to understand, and navigate, this complicated new world.

About this title

Review

"Provocative and thoughtful.... Both an examination of sexual culture and a guide on how to improve it.... The breadth of Orenstein's reporting ... is impressive."--Laura Stepp, Washington Post

"Nonsensational but deeply entertaining.... A must-read."--People, Book of the Week

"A nuanced read for anyone who remembers being a young woman and anyone who is raising the next generation of girls (and boys) for whom we hope the future holds sexual satisfaction, not pain or disappointment."--Rebecca Traister, More

"Thought-provoking. . .Girls & Sex is full of thoughtful concern and empathetic questions."--Cindi Leive, New York Times Book Review, cover review

"[An] important new book.... Her writing is clear and compelling, her analysis is incisive and thorough, and her findings are downright troubling."--Sharon Holbrook, Washington Post

"Fascinating.... A wise and sharply argued look at how girls are navigating 'the complicated new landscape' of sex and sexuality."--Economist

"An intimate view of the sex lives of young women in the United States. While revealing disturbing common threads... Orenstein brings levity to this fraught topic."--Elle

"'Girls & Sex' may do more to change how sex education is rethought and how parents and daughters discuss pleasure and sexuality than any book since the landmark 'Our Bodies, Ourselves.'"--Tamara Straus, San Francisco Chronicle

"A smart, sobering guide to the sexual lives of young women today."--Ann Levin, Associated Press

"Eloquent.... [A] compact, polished, and readable... cris de coeur."--Julia M. Klein, Boston Globe

From the Back Cover

A generation gap has emerged between parents and their girls. The mothers and fathers of tomorrow's women have little idea what their daughters are up to sexually or how they feel about it. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than seventy young women and a wide range of psychologists, academics, and experts, renowned journalist Peggy Orenstein goes where most others fear to tread, pulling back the curtain on the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important possibilities of girls' sex lives in the modern world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0062209744
• ISBN 13: 9780062209740
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336