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41st out of 45 books
—
59 voters
Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity
by
Kerry Cohen (Goodreads Author)
They have sex too early and for the wrong reasons.
They get STDs. They get pregnant too young.
They have "friends with benefits" but with no benefit to themselves.
They don't get called. They get dumped.
They hate themselves for being unlovable for being needy.
They are loose girls they are everywhere and they need our help.
In the provocative hit memoir Loose Girl, Kerry C...more
They get STDs. They get pregnant too young.
They have "friends with benefits" but with no benefit to themselves.
They don't get called. They get dumped.
They hate themselves for being unlovable for being needy.
They are loose girls they are everywhere and they need our help.
In the provocative hit memoir Loose Girl, Kerry C...more
Paperback, 238 pages
Published
September 1st 2011
by Sourcebooks
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So this book is a compilation of stories, statistics, ideas and opinions. Although I can't say I agreed with every point is this book it was very enlightening. It made me think about youths and their sexual desires in a way I hadn't really considered previously. I think this book can be very helpful to people, and at the very least make them reconsider their original ideals. I find this book very difficult to give a star rating to because I feel like this book will impact everyone who reads it v...more
This is a
Reading Good Books
review.
When I found out I won this on GoodReads First Reads, I was excited. I read Cohen's memoir, Loose Girl, earlier this year. I thought it was a moving piece and a rare look into the life of a girl society views as a "slut". It was not an easy read and it left me feeling rather sad and sorry for the girl on the page.
This was not an easy read either. The inclusion of other people's stories seemed very interesting to me. It is difficult to review books like this....more
When I found out I won this on GoodReads First Reads, I was excited. I read Cohen's memoir, Loose Girl, earlier this year. I thought it was a moving piece and a rare look into the life of a girl society views as a "slut". It was not an easy read and it left me feeling rather sad and sorry for the girl on the page.
This was not an easy read either. The inclusion of other people's stories seemed very interesting to me. It is difficult to review books like this....more
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I was interested in this book because I was a teenage girl not so long ago, and because I took a class on the philosophy of sex and love that touched on this subject a handful of times--it was a class that really made me do a double take of my own beliefs on sex and love. I wasn't surprised to see Wolf, Levin, or Kilbourne referenced, or a hand full of other names.
The girls mentioned in this book could be anyone you know. Although everyone's sexual experiences are their own, there is a commonal...more
The girls mentioned in this book could be anyone you know. Although everyone's sexual experiences are their own, there is a commonal...more
Ummm...no.
As a middle school teacher, I'm always on the lookout for books on social issues that affect my students. Last year, I read Cohen's "Loose Girl" and liked it, so when this book came along I couldn't help but to be intrigued. About 20 pages into the book I found that I didn't care for this one at all. Although the writing is very simple and easy to understand and the stories she includes are poignant, Cohen really doesn't add anything new to the topic of teenage promiscuity that we have...more
As a middle school teacher, I'm always on the lookout for books on social issues that affect my students. Last year, I read Cohen's "Loose Girl" and liked it, so when this book came along I couldn't help but to be intrigued. About 20 pages into the book I found that I didn't care for this one at all. Although the writing is very simple and easy to understand and the stories she includes are poignant, Cohen really doesn't add anything new to the topic of teenage promiscuity that we have...more
The guts of this book is its commitment to a message that could be lost to ambiguity: girls should be able to have sex in their own way, without cultural pressure. But because our world is shaped by that culture, the message is in danger of being skewed towards cultural constructions - teenage sex is bad! Girls who have sex don't like themselves! Cohen does a good job of repeating that she doesn't believe this, and deconstructing the studies she mentions, but I think the book could have been sho...more
This book is not marketed for teens, but it contains content that is pertinent for them. As Cohen points out repeatedly, we have an irrational code of silence when it comes to talking about sex with teenage girls. Putting this book in the hands of a teen might be just the honest discussion they need.
One of the things that I wish she'd spent more time on was how responsibility for emotion is displaced onto the boy who is, himself, still growing up and learning about physical and emotional relatio...more
One of the things that I wish she'd spent more time on was how responsibility for emotion is displaced onto the boy who is, himself, still growing up and learning about physical and emotional relatio...more
The description of this book makes it sound much more interesting than it actually is, instead of anecdotes and stories the book is mostly filled with facts and figures. Much of the material is repetitive and the book doesn't really add much to the subject that was covered in the author's memoir "Loose Girls". The subject matter is important, and the author writes well, but this book just doesn't captivate.
Well I couldn't finish this book because it is too repetitive especially in the last chapters. But she did a great job in her research and sometimes I even recognize myself in some chapters. It is an eye-openly book and I think that teenagers or older women who struggle from love or sex issues should read this book. And those who want to know about loose girls' feelings should too instead of judging the girls they call sluts.
Good research in terms of finding the case studies. Not so good in terms of the coherence of message. At times it seems cautionary, at times it seems like advocating teen girl sexual empowerment. I suppose one can do both, but I'm not sure this book accomplished either. I was a big fan of the author's first memoir, and maybe that's the arena where she does her best work.
thought provoking modern perspective on teen girls and sex. very relatable. totally recommend this to people who have teens, work with teens, or even just younger women - it covers lots of stuff about the influence of parents and society.
While this started out with a useful perspective and made me think about things in different ways, as I got father into the book it just seemed to drag on. It kept saying the same thing over and over with different names and slightly different tweaks to the personal stories. In the end, it reinforced what we already know (marketing is bad, puberty is dangerous, girls are victimized, girls are confused, society is unfair to girls, etc) but did so repeatedly beyond where it needed to.
Good, empowering read about girls and sexual attitudes. Cohen treats the subject with honesty and candor. One of the most impressive statements comes from a section on "good" girls and virginity. We are taught to "respect" our bodies and not give sex away, wait until marriage. Cohen says how is that respecting your body, when you deny yourself pleasure? Not that 13 year olds should be sexually active; just that waiting for marriage and being virginal does not make you more of a woman or more res...more
A must read book for anyone that wants to dig into the world of sex in the US and just how broken it is right now.
She's good at talking about feelings from "slutty" girls but she only lightly touches upon girls who are ashamed because they are virgins. Virgins can feel horny, too. It's so common to be sexually active at a young age that girls who do choose to wait can sometimes be the ones to feel left out or ashamed to be different. Cohen only has experience as the loose girl, so it's understandable that she could only speak from one angle. It would be nice if she did some research on girls who are not loo...more
I don't fully agree with all of her conclusions, but Cohen obviously has done a lot of research on promiscuity and the reasons that cause it. This book incorporated the tales of others besides Cohen, and offered an interesting and different look into the promiscuity of girls. If you have a pre-teen or teen daughter, you may want to take the time to read this.
While the author brings up some good points. Others are erroneous. And she contradicts herself quite a bit.
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I just started it, so I have no insight to share yet.
A very cursory examination of promiscuity in teenaged girls.
Abandoned at 60 percent. the book is repetative and the people in it don't seem real outside their sexuality which seems like the opposite point this book is attempting to make.
*I won this book on Goodreads.
It seems as if there is only a very narrow path for a chance for girls to have a healthy relationship with sex. The book is filled with stories and statistics that are rather sad.
It seems as if there is only a very narrow path for a chance for girls to have a healthy relationship with sex. The book is filled with stories and statistics that are rather sad.
This is an excellent book to pair with Jessica Valent's The Purity Myth. Cohen, a practicing psychotherapist, offers an empathetic, insightful, and thoughtful look at why adolescent girls and young women use sex as a means to prove their self-worth, and successfully tears down many myths, misconceptions, and stereotypes.
A very important book for teenagers and women.
It's going to be a short review. The book was okay for a non-fiction book. It had some interesting real-life stories.
It was thought provoking. It made me realize how different are expectation of the society towards boys and girls (in the context of desire).
However I found it quite repetitive and biased. So I just skimmed the rest of the book.
It was thought provoking. It made me realize how different are expectation of the society towards boys and girls (in the context of desire).
However I found it quite repetitive and biased. So I just skimmed the rest of the book.
I'm putting this aside for the moment. After half of it, I found myself skimming and thinking, yeah, so? The polite way of putting it.
I was excited to read this book but disappointed once I picked it up. The concept is there but her detail and reasoning are lacking.
Eye-opening book. Giving it to my younger sister!
Very insightful. Glad to read about the different perspectives.
May 19, 2013
Christa Komar
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Kerry Cohen is the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity; Seeing Ezra: A Mother’s Story of Autism, Unconditional Love, and The Meaning of Normal; Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity; as well as three young adult novels – Easy; The Good Girl; and It’s Not You, It’s Me. Her essays have been featured in The New York Times' "Modern Love" series, The Wash...more
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