Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk about Sexuality
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Tolman (Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, Mass.) employed the Listening Guide method to analyze interviews conducted with teenage girls, in both urban and suburban settings, who were willing to discuss their sexual experiences and desires with her. The method involves multiple read-throughs of interview transcripts (typically, four times) in search of various specific "voices." In this report she discusses her multifaceted findings, quoting from the interviews and offering her interpretations, which should interest professionals involved with adolescents as well as scholars involved with gender studies or sociology. Her advice to parents is that calm acknowledgment of girls' sexual desire as real and normal is key to supporting their daughters' confidence and ability to make decisions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR Publishers Weekly For all the panicky ink devoted to teen sex, until now there has been no academic study on what teenage girls actually want. Tolman, an associate director at the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College, fills that gap by focusing on girls' desires, rather than on the social ills they're usually quizzed on-pregnancy, disease and dropping out of school. The teenage voices she has collected are articulate and refreshing, though many of the stories are depressingly familiar. Nearly all the girls surveyed worry about being branded sluts, and many grapple with the pressure to be sex objects for boys while expressing no desire of their own. Tolman also makes a convincing case for why we should listen: girls in touch with their own desires make safer, healthier choices about sex. She advocates making it easier for girls to talk about their sexual wants-whether with parents, teachers, or other girls-without fear of repercussion. This is an excellent candidate for a gender studies textbook, and will also be of interest to parents, educators, and teenage girls themselves. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
1Getting beyond "it just happened"12Voices of desire253Sounds of silence504Dangers of desire805Parameters of pleasure1186Geographies of desire1667Speaking of desire187
