What do you think?
Rate this book
The New Gay Teenager
Gay, straight, how much does sexual orientation matter to a teenager’s mental health or sense of identity? In this down-to-earth book, filled with the voices of young people speaking for themselves, Ritch Savin-Williams argues that the standard image of gay youth presented by mental health researchers―as depressed, isolated, drug-dependent, even suicidal―may have been exaggerated even twenty years ago, and is far from accurate today.
The New Gay Teenager gives us a refreshing and frequently controversial introduction to confident, competent, upbeat teenagers with same-sex desires, who worry more about the chemistry test or their curfew than they do about their sexuality. What does “gay” mean, when some adolescents who have had sexual encounters with those of their own sex don’t consider themselves gay, when some who consider themselves gay have had sex with the opposite sex, and when many have never had sex at all? What counts as “having sex,” anyway? Teenagers (unlike social science researchers) are not especially interested in neatly categorizing their sexual orientation.
In fact, Savin-Williams learns, teenagers may think a lot about sex, but they don’t think that sexuality is the most important thing about them. And adults, he advises, shouldn’t think so either.
The New Gay Teenager gives us a refreshing and frequently controversial introduction to confident, competent, upbeat teenagers with same-sex desires, who worry more about the chemistry test or their curfew than they do about their sexuality. What does “gay” mean, when some adolescents who have had sexual encounters with those of their own sex don’t consider themselves gay, when some who consider themselves gay have had sex with the opposite sex, and when many have never had sex at all? What counts as “having sex,” anyway? Teenagers (unlike social science researchers) are not especially interested in neatly categorizing their sexual orientation.
In fact, Savin-Williams learns, teenagers may think a lot about sex, but they don’t think that sexuality is the most important thing about them. And adults, he advises, shouldn’t think so either.
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 9, 2009
Interesting take on purported changes in gay adolescents' experience of their sexuality. I had mixed reactions both substantively and stylistically, so I'll fall back on a 2 X 2 list structure:
Substance:
+ Makes a very good point that most research on gay youth has conceptualized them monolithically, without careful consideration of diversity within the group (by gender, age, race/ethnicity, urban/rural setting, etc.) and that most has been pathology-focused (correlations with substance abuse and suicidality, e.g.) rather than examining resiliency, sources of peer support, etc.
+ Clearly elaborates the implications of a couple of excellent methodological points: for example, that research based on those who self-identify as gay or those who join support groups or seek help at clinics may well be unrepresentative of what happens with the larger group of those engaging in same-sex behavior or experiencing same-sex attraction.
- after scalding other stage theories, he presents his own model of development of gay youth, and it isn't much -- in some ways they're different from heterosexual youth, in some ways the same, in some ways heterogeneous among themselves, and in some ways individually unique.
- this may just be the state of the research available for review, and to his credit there are a lot of disclaimers about how much is known, but in my reading he never really makes a strong case that the data support the central premise of a shift over time in adolescents' perceptions of being gay. It's certainly clear they're not all progressing through stages of questioning, angst, coming out, dealing with flak from parents and peers, finding themselves through becoming enthusiastic members of an out and proud politically active community, etc., but the evidence for a major shift over time seemed thin to me.
--overuses and overinterprets the "less than 100% are like X" critique of others' conclusions/formulations. For instance, in decrying pathology focus of research on gay youth, he points out that most reviewers give estimates of 30% for prevalence of suicide attempts and then bemoans that "few researchers note that the majority -- an average of 70 percent....do NOT attempt suicide" (p. 184). First, that's implicit in the 30% figure and doesn't need spelling out. Second, not attempting suicide is the norm, against which attempts stand out, so of course the attempts are the news. Would he expect stories the day after the VA Tech massacre to lead with "99+% of Hokies were not gunned down yesterday!"? In any given 10-year period, most smokers don't get lung cancer either, but it's still a risk factor worthy of note.
Style
+ good ability to interweave some clearly-presented studies (e.g., one showing that (somewhat contrary to overall thesis of the book that a post-gay generation is emerging for whom sexual attraction is more like eye color, just something true of you and not a centrally defining all-consuming identification) that gay men are much more likely than straight men to incorporate information regarding their sexual identity in responses to the question "Who am I?", with compelling anecdotal information from interviews with gay youth.
- says same things over and over--seriously needed a stronger editorial hand on the book.
- just a pet peeve of mine, but overuses scare quotes by a factor of about 80.
Substance:
+ Makes a very good point that most research on gay youth has conceptualized them monolithically, without careful consideration of diversity within the group (by gender, age, race/ethnicity, urban/rural setting, etc.) and that most has been pathology-focused (correlations with substance abuse and suicidality, e.g.) rather than examining resiliency, sources of peer support, etc.
+ Clearly elaborates the implications of a couple of excellent methodological points: for example, that research based on those who self-identify as gay or those who join support groups or seek help at clinics may well be unrepresentative of what happens with the larger group of those engaging in same-sex behavior or experiencing same-sex attraction.
- after scalding other stage theories, he presents his own model of development of gay youth, and it isn't much -- in some ways they're different from heterosexual youth, in some ways the same, in some ways heterogeneous among themselves, and in some ways individually unique.
- this may just be the state of the research available for review, and to his credit there are a lot of disclaimers about how much is known, but in my reading he never really makes a strong case that the data support the central premise of a shift over time in adolescents' perceptions of being gay. It's certainly clear they're not all progressing through stages of questioning, angst, coming out, dealing with flak from parents and peers, finding themselves through becoming enthusiastic members of an out and proud politically active community, etc., but the evidence for a major shift over time seemed thin to me.
--overuses and overinterprets the "less than 100% are like X" critique of others' conclusions/formulations. For instance, in decrying pathology focus of research on gay youth, he points out that most reviewers give estimates of 30% for prevalence of suicide attempts and then bemoans that "few researchers note that the majority -- an average of 70 percent....do NOT attempt suicide" (p. 184). First, that's implicit in the 30% figure and doesn't need spelling out. Second, not attempting suicide is the norm, against which attempts stand out, so of course the attempts are the news. Would he expect stories the day after the VA Tech massacre to lead with "99+% of Hokies were not gunned down yesterday!"? In any given 10-year period, most smokers don't get lung cancer either, but it's still a risk factor worthy of note.
Style
+ good ability to interweave some clearly-presented studies (e.g., one showing that (somewhat contrary to overall thesis of the book that a post-gay generation is emerging for whom sexual attraction is more like eye color, just something true of you and not a centrally defining all-consuming identification) that gay men are much more likely than straight men to incorporate information regarding their sexual identity in responses to the question "Who am I?", with compelling anecdotal information from interviews with gay youth.
- says same things over and over--seriously needed a stronger editorial hand on the book.
- just a pet peeve of mine, but overuses scare quotes by a factor of about 80.
May 9, 2011
I heard Savin-Williams recently on NPR's All Things Considered discussing his 2005 book, The New Gay Teenager. Intrigued by his assertion that most teenagers are happy, even the gay ones, and that bullying wasn't the guaranteed fate of LGBT youth as the media reports might have us believe, I decided to read his book.
For this review I'm pointing to two journal reviews of the book along with my more usual blog review posts as I'm not an expert in LGBT issues or child psychology. As I continue with my library science education, these journal review citations might become more of a feature of future reviews.
The thesis of The New Gay Teenager is that "gay youth" is a social construct, an artificial box created by researchers who needed somewhere to put teenagers who were becoming sexually active. It's an interesting idea and one I would have liked to have seen fleshed out a bit more in the book. The background is laid out in the first chapter and set aside as the focus turns to contemporary teens.
On the part of bullying and depression in the gay teenage population, Savin-Williams cites self selection as the problem. The people doing the research were making their observations from teenage populations who have already sought mental health help. The extrapolations didn't adequately consider the remaining population of teens and what percentage might fall into the LGBT categories.
The next big point of the book is that today's youth isn't self categorizing. They aren't calling themselves any of the alphabet soup that's been used to identify orientation or gender identity. On the one hand, I agree with this observation. On the other hand the book doesn't seem to test that observation to the fullest. By this I mean, is there any documentation to show how previous generations of teens self identified (or didn't)? Maybe that lack of conformity is more a product of age than of a specific generation? The book doesn't investigate.
The part of the book that bothered me the most was the assertion that despite teens refusing to conform, they do anyway at least in terms of their biological sex. No matter how much teens rebel, girls and boys (regardless of sexual interests) are still fundamentally different. After reading Pink Brain, Blue Brain, I have to strongly disagree with this piece of the book and I feel it does a great disservice to the teens the book is supposedly trying to help!
References:
Schoser, S. M. (2008) Review of The New Gay Teenager. In Book Reviews. Journal of Homosexuality 53(4) p. 254-8:
Tasker, F. (2006) Book Review of The New Gay Teenager. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47(9). p. 978
For this review I'm pointing to two journal reviews of the book along with my more usual blog review posts as I'm not an expert in LGBT issues or child psychology. As I continue with my library science education, these journal review citations might become more of a feature of future reviews.
The thesis of The New Gay Teenager is that "gay youth" is a social construct, an artificial box created by researchers who needed somewhere to put teenagers who were becoming sexually active. It's an interesting idea and one I would have liked to have seen fleshed out a bit more in the book. The background is laid out in the first chapter and set aside as the focus turns to contemporary teens.
On the part of bullying and depression in the gay teenage population, Savin-Williams cites self selection as the problem. The people doing the research were making their observations from teenage populations who have already sought mental health help. The extrapolations didn't adequately consider the remaining population of teens and what percentage might fall into the LGBT categories.
The next big point of the book is that today's youth isn't self categorizing. They aren't calling themselves any of the alphabet soup that's been used to identify orientation or gender identity. On the one hand, I agree with this observation. On the other hand the book doesn't seem to test that observation to the fullest. By this I mean, is there any documentation to show how previous generations of teens self identified (or didn't)? Maybe that lack of conformity is more a product of age than of a specific generation? The book doesn't investigate.
The part of the book that bothered me the most was the assertion that despite teens refusing to conform, they do anyway at least in terms of their biological sex. No matter how much teens rebel, girls and boys (regardless of sexual interests) are still fundamentally different. After reading Pink Brain, Blue Brain, I have to strongly disagree with this piece of the book and I feel it does a great disservice to the teens the book is supposedly trying to help!
References:
Schoser, S. M. (2008) Review of The New Gay Teenager. In Book Reviews. Journal of Homosexuality 53(4) p. 254-8:
Tasker, F. (2006) Book Review of The New Gay Teenager. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47(9). p. 978
April 21, 2013
This book was depressing. The entire premise is that gay teens no longer feel passionately about political issues, specifically ones that effect the LGBT community. I know this isn't true, thank god. We are still passionate, angry, and determined to effect change in the world. I hate the idea that once we gain acceptance into mainstream society, we have to abandon the very thing that bonds us as a community.
June 18, 2013
A must-read for every researcher in the field of LGB youth. I was fascinated and blown away when I first read it. It was en eye-opener for me. However, I have become more critical now, since I wonder whether his message that western youth are post-gay and don't care about their sexual oriention is tenable for whole new generation or only a privileged subgroup. Nevertheless, it let me reflect in new ways about same-sex sexuality.
May 16, 2014
Had to read this for class and I wish there was a better book. I have to agree that this books has some odd theories, like that there is no LGBT teen anymore, that they are no longer marginalized - which is a lie. And LGBT youth are no longer activists, which I also don't think is true.
March 2, 2009
Whenever I'm forced to read a book (for school) I never enjoy it. This had some interesting research but overall I thought it was dry.
April 27, 2011
Required reading for a class. This book was repetitive and not very informative or interesting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews