Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Their Self-Respect and Find it's Not Bad to be Good, by Wendy Shalit

I received this book recently in the mail, but it took me a while to finish it. Basically the premise of Wendy Shalit's book is new feminism. She believes that a new generation of girls are reclaiming the self-respect that has gradually been lost since women's sexual liberation was first introduced. While Shalit never denounces female sexual liberation, she points out that basically now, we have reverted back to what original feminism fought to change - the image of women as sex objects. However, she argues, the solution to men sexualizing women is not to sexualize yourself. Instead, it is to respect yourself, dress modestly, and behave modestly. I was somewhat surprised, however, to realize Shalit was not advocating going back to the buttoned-up cardigans and docile housewives of the 1950s. From everything she said, she was in full support of women's complete liberation. However, today's sexy bad girl is less of a feminist than her predecessors - by dressing sexy and offering sexual favors, girls are really only pleasing men. Statistics show that many of these girls are not being fulfilled themselves. The real road to sexual liberation and control, Wendy Shalit says, is to attract the right kind of guy. Basically the tried and true motto: If you dress like trash, what do you think you'll attract? By dressing modestly and respecting yourself, Shalit thinks most guys will focus more on what's coming out of your mouth than what's spilling out of your clothes.

I don't agree with Shalit on everything. She thinks there is a very large modesty movement afoot in the United States, which I think is not the case. She supplies great examples of average teenagers making good choices and standing up for themselves (like Ella Gunderson, the eleven-year-old girl who sent a letter to Nordstrom, asking for more modest clothing, and the Girlcotters that started a nationwide boycott of Abercrombie and Fitch, after the well-known retailer printed T-shirts with messages like, "Who needs brains when you have these?"). However, the vast majority of the teenage population does not subscribe to modesty theory, and as a teenager I don't really feel any less put-upon by society to be sexy and sleep around. She also thinks abstinence-only education is the only "responsible" education choice, with which I disagree. Morals start at home - honestly, I don't think most teenagers pay much attention to their sex education classes, except for the information they want to know. I think abstinence education would fall on deaf ears, and leave us with a less-educated teen populace than we have now. A populace that would still be going out and having sex - but less safely. Morality education starts at home, with good family role models that have open and frank discussions with their children. Ignorance is not the same as morality.

Overall, Shalit's book was alright. Sometimes it felt like it was preaching to the choir, sometimes it dragged and sometimes it just didn't make sense.

Overall: 5 out of 10.

Details:

Hardcover
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE (2007)
ASIN: B00136USH0

Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

Wharton's classic novel centers around a wealthy society man, Newland Archer, in 1870s New York. Archer is engaged to be married, but when he meets a European woman fleeing from her abusive husband, his eyes are opened and he discovers that there is more to life than society.

Edith Wharton's novel is definitely sending a bold message. It closely mirrors her own life and experiences - Wharton married a society man that she had little in common with. Wharton found her husband spending their money on younger women. Devastated by this betrayal, she fled to Paris and began an extramarital affair with journalist Morton Fullerton. In her journal, she describes her romantic and intellectual involvement with Fullerton as fulfilling everything that had been missing in “the greatest mistake of her life” (her marriage). After divorcing her husband, she moved permanently to Europe.

Unfortunately, Wharton's novel dragged on at times. She went into great detail describing architecture and other unnecessary material details. However, her thought is appreciated - writing this novel in the 1920s, she needed to go into detail to recreate a world that no longer existed. Age of Innocence ended on a somewhat depressing, yet, somehow fulfilling note. I praise her for her ability to leave the reader fully closed as to the love story without going into all sorts of unnecessary details and dialogue.

While Wharton's book dragged on in spots, and I felt an accomplishment at finishing it, her writing has definitely placed a new perspective for me on certain contemporary issues.

Overall: 6 out of 10.

Details:

Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics; illustrated edition edition (January 16, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1593080743
ISBN-13: 978-1593080747