• Girls & Sex

  • Navigating the Complicated New Landscape
  • By: Peggy Orenstein
  • Narrated by: Peggy Orenstein
  • Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (997 ratings)

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Girls & Sex  By  cover art

Girls & Sex

By: Peggy Orenstein
Narrated by: Peggy Orenstein
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Publisher's summary

The author of the New York Times best seller Cinderella Ate My Daughter offers a clear-eyed picture of the new sexual landscape girls face in the postprincess 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 70 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 listeners comprehensive and in-depth information with which to understand and navigate this complicated new world.

©2016 Peggy Orenstein (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Girls & Sex

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Must read for anyone who has a daughter

We have a seven year old daughter who has recently started asking questions about sex, I want to raise her with a healthy and realistic attitude of sex. I came from a very conservative home where sex was a four letter word, because of my nativity I was date raped in college and honestly never really enjoyed sex until almost a year into my marriage. I want better for her!!! This book has opened my eyes so much on how my sex life before my marriage was very much media driven and why I hated sex and was honestly never satisfied. It also taught me, and gave me the tools to help teach my daughter, why she not only deserves but has the right to demand a good sex life, on her terms!!!! I have read and listened to over a dozen books on sex and this is by far the best one I have found. I now feel empowered to help guide her through her sexual journey and into womanhood in a much better, and more informed way. Thank you Peggy for writing this and helping me understand why this may be the most important thing I guide my daughter through!

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

As a father

This book provides a wonderful insight into the minds of teenage girls. It also has reaffirms my belief that fathers talking to their daughters about sex is just as important as mothers. This book is a definite read for any father whether they have a daughter or son

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Must read for parents of teens, girls and boys!

It's time that parents have honest conversations about sex with their teens, it's parts of our job! A healthy attitude that promotes respect and loving relationships should be our goal. Pretending teens are not seeking the information they are curious about on the Internet is wishful thinking and could be harmful to a healthy sexual life later on. The days of stealing your dad's Playboy magazine are long gone!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Heart breaking but also inspiring

This was hard to listen to. Hard to hear what young girls (and boys) are faced with but Peggy Orenstein faces the hard facts, presents them in a non-judgemental way and ends with possible solutions. I may even listen to this again right away. As a middle aged single woman I identify with some of these struggles and wished I had learned these lessons when I was younger. Still, with more insightful people like Orenstein I think our youth have a better chance of healthy sexual lives.

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4 people found this helpful

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Almost perfect

This is a stunning and compelling bitch slap to religious and political conservatives (and liberal sycophants) who'd sooner bury their head in the sand than deal with the reality of the devastation their ignorant policies actually cause young people, who as we know, are our actual future. The evidence provided in this well-researched and in-depth book serves as searing testimony to the wages of false morality and callous ideologies of the "abstinence only crowd" and the consequences to girls and women, some of which are heartbreaking and enraging.

While I'll never be able to convince one of these moral cretins to read this book, I plan on buying a hard copy that at the least can be hurled at their heads.

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3 people found this helpful

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Every parent should read this book

If every parent in America read this book and really, truly, open-mindedly listened to Peggy Orenstein on the subject of girls (and boys) and teenage sexuality, the world would be a safer, healthier, and far less wounded place. Please read this.

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3 people found this helpful

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For girls, boys, women and men

I wish I had read this before raising my daughter, parenting a teenage son, and while teaching Our Whole Lives sex/ life Ed curriculum. As a parent and a woman, this American world of sex is even harder on our youth than it was for me; I had hoped for better. Orenstein lays out today's landscape for kids-all manner and gender- in hs and college, then presents a different possibility realized by other countries, Denmark in particular. Let's keep talking about sex in the way we want it for our kids.

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2 people found this helpful

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Honest and realistic yet not complete

I recommed this book to everyone who is in touch with teenagers, both male and female. I had loved to read it when I was 16 and not interested in sleeping around even when all my friends were doing it. I'm a 27 y/o from Spain. The society I grew up is not as sexualize as the American one but it is slowly becoming more and more so. I don't have a problem with promiscuity nor virginity until marriage (I personally didn't pursue any of them). What disturbs me is misinformation, risky behaviours and shame, that sometimes associate with sex development. This book covers it pretty well. I loved the idea that objetifying men might not be the solution to men objectifyimg women, as well as many others ideas expressed in the book.

I think readind this book can help parents and also teenagers to know what to expect and what to look for. It also normalizes the idea of good communication, both between educators and teens and between lovers.

I wish it included a more comprehensive population of girls (and also boys for that matter), but I really really like it as it is.

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not for the conservative or religious father

I thought there were some really great points made in the book and it was easy to listen to. However, I did feel that the author did not think religion or conservative values were useful in talking to girls about sex. I thought she made great points about the culture and the double standards, but she never talked about how to involved religion or conservative values in regards to talking about sex with our girls.

As well her sample size was very biased, with only 70 girls interviewed and only a couple from each type of demographic, I don't think she gives a fair idea of the landscape and how to approach the issues. It is definitely an enjoyable read, but not a credible one.

I will take away some valuable insights, but it was hard to stomach what she was saying when the author had such a clear bias.

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1 person found this helpful

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Researched and necessary

Every teenager and his or her parent will benefit from this extensive exploration of current sexual behavior in America. A must read, with a must have discussion possibly to follow.

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