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

5.0

This is not a fun read. Not that it is not interesting or informative or very well written. It is all of those things, it is not fun because it is so hard to read on an emotional level. As a mother of a pre-teen girl and someone who spends the majority of her work day surrounded by teenagers, I felt like this was a book that I needed to read. But as a mother it was also a painful read because I can see in the not too distant future, that these are issues both my children are going to have to deal with, and my job as their parent is going to become so much more difficult. Handing our kids a book about puberty and sexual anatomy isn't going to cut it, and neither is ignoring it and hoping they learn everything about it from somewhere or someone else. That kind of thinking does our kids a disservice and sets them up for risky behavior they are ill equipped to unprepared to handle.

Conservatives won't like this book, for its frankness when it comes to teen sex and it's inevitability, or for its focus on how abstinence only programs have been scientifically proven to be more harmful than helpful. The author doesn't pull punches on outdated ideas of fear induced abstinence only, boys will be boys, or blurred lines of consent. She aims to inform and lots of people will be off put by the facts that she backs up with research and data.

All teenage and college age students should read this book, boys most definitely included. It won't be easy but it will be incredibly eye opening and hopefully transformative to a generation saturated with easy but not always accurate information. Our teens and young adults deserve to be informed, they deserve parents and trusted adults who are willing to answer questions in a judgement free way. This book is a good first step to those conversations.