Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape

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, journalist Peggy Orenstein pulls 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, Orenstein brings 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.