Recommended Reading #168: Youth, Pt. V
“Speaking Up About Hookup Culture” by Cory Silverberg (Sex and Culture, Media, Sociology, Academia) 8/28/13
Unquestionably, my favorite part of this piece is the last paragraph. I agree so wholeheartedly and really appreciate Cory’s pointing it out. As far as the rest of the piece, I also appreciate the offering of a perspective/perspectives to “complicate the picture,” as he puts it, of various media frenzies/hysterias about sex, particularly sex and youth.
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“Sexy Selfies: No Cause for Teen Shaming” by Rebekah Kuschmider (Sex and Culture, Gender Socialization) 9/5/13
Love this. If you haven’t read the post to which it’s responding, she links to it (“FYI If You’re A Teenage Girl”), but frankly I feel one could gather from the context what the gist of that post is (as I perceive it, sexist, hypocritical, slut-shaming, judgmental nonsense). In any case, I like this response and its emphasis of individuality and of sexuality and sexual expression not being something intrinsically shameful. Despite how prevalent such a perception seems to me in this culture, it still strikes me as a breathtakingly absurd idea. The only things I don’t fully agree with in this piece are the allusions to young women being “as lovely as they will ever be” and at their sexual peak at their current age. I can understand why that is invoked, but I don’t think it is a given for anyone or that we ever know such a thing, really. But other than that, I’m a big fan of what I interpret from this post.
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“School is a prison — and damaging our kids” by Peter Gray (Non-Sex-Related, Education, School, Public Policy) 8/26/13
I wholly agree with this and have long viewed the fundamental structure of the school system in the U.S. as problematic for many of the reasons I interpret this piece as outlining. I also appreciate the point offered in the article that it may seem hard to even imagine that the current system is not the best we can do and based on the best of intentions for supporting our youth. Seem that as it may, I don’t see it as such; I see it as a system that does nothing of the sort, and I am all for our considering that as well as ways we could make it better.
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