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I’ve been pushing this book at pretty much everyone I saw this past weekend, so a lot of you have already gotten an earful. For the rest of you: find this book, read this book, give it a long hard mull. For it is awesome.
Right, so. The first half of this book deals with the way American law and culture addresses – and mostly fails to address – sex and children. From the unsurprising indictment of sex-ed to the discussions of the misogyny and powerlessness perpetuated by statutory rape laws, it’s a grim but utterly fascinating picture. The second half of the book offers up alternative solutions, snapshots of successful pilot programs, memorable and pointed anecdotes. This book is frank, inclusive, nuanced. Levine is entirely unwilling to leave anything to implication, and her frankness about the reality of the sexualized behavior children display as early as two or three is only part of the reason her road to publication was so rocky, as outlined in the introduction. This is a book about sex and culture and parenting, but it’s also a vicious but controlled screed against conservative politics, social inequality, sexism. It’s about all the things we aren’t doing that could help American children grow up into respectful, responsible sexual partners, and it’s also about all the things we are doing which perpetuate gender inequality and lead to unsafe behavior and even kill our country’s kids.
Levine is a powerful writer, with a real knack for picking effective, thought-provoking statistics. The second half of the book is far more anecdotal than prescriptive, which I didn’t really mind. Partly it’s that this book was -- and is -- groundbreaking as a holistic, unified treatment of the topic, and the research data for some of the suggestions simply doesn’t exist yet. Levine does make some odd stylistic choices – I would have reversed the presentation of the sex-ed material and the chapter on pedophilia and child sexual predators (that’s child predators, as well as the adult kind) but I can see her reasoning. I also would have liked a more complete treatment of child sexual abuse within the family, but honestly that’s not what this book is about.
What this book is about is information. The kind we receive as children is inadequate at best, flat out harmful at worst. Levine argues in concert with a long-held instinct of mine, and she has the research to back it up: exposing children to a saturation of sexual images and information which is positive, diverse, and inclusive is not only healthy, but absolutely essential for saving them grief, pain, and possibly death. And we might just make life better for women and minorities while we’re at it.
Seriously, read this book. Not everyone will agree with all of it. I certainly didn’t – I made a bet with myself halfway through, paused to look up Levine’s biography, and went ‘yep, thought so,’ when her Libertarianism popped up. But this is the sort of book which is meant to sew discussion, and the thought behind it, and maybe some action.
Right, so. The first half of this book deals with the way American law and culture addresses – and mostly fails to address – sex and children. From the unsurprising indictment of sex-ed to the discussions of the misogyny and powerlessness perpetuated by statutory rape laws, it’s a grim but utterly fascinating picture. The second half of the book offers up alternative solutions, snapshots of successful pilot programs, memorable and pointed anecdotes. This book is frank, inclusive, nuanced. Levine is entirely unwilling to leave anything to implication, and her frankness about the reality of the sexualized behavior children display as early as two or three is only part of the reason her road to publication was so rocky, as outlined in the introduction. This is a book about sex and culture and parenting, but it’s also a vicious but controlled screed against conservative politics, social inequality, sexism. It’s about all the things we aren’t doing that could help American children grow up into respectful, responsible sexual partners, and it’s also about all the things we are doing which perpetuate gender inequality and lead to unsafe behavior and even kill our country’s kids.
Levine is a powerful writer, with a real knack for picking effective, thought-provoking statistics. The second half of the book is far more anecdotal than prescriptive, which I didn’t really mind. Partly it’s that this book was -- and is -- groundbreaking as a holistic, unified treatment of the topic, and the research data for some of the suggestions simply doesn’t exist yet. Levine does make some odd stylistic choices – I would have reversed the presentation of the sex-ed material and the chapter on pedophilia and child sexual predators (that’s child predators, as well as the adult kind) but I can see her reasoning. I also would have liked a more complete treatment of child sexual abuse within the family, but honestly that’s not what this book is about.
What this book is about is information. The kind we receive as children is inadequate at best, flat out harmful at worst. Levine argues in concert with a long-held instinct of mine, and she has the research to back it up: exposing children to a saturation of sexual images and information which is positive, diverse, and inclusive is not only healthy, but absolutely essential for saving them grief, pain, and possibly death. And we might just make life better for women and minorities while we’re at it.
Seriously, read this book. Not everyone will agree with all of it. I certainly didn’t – I made a bet with myself halfway through, paused to look up Levine’s biography, and went ‘yep, thought so,’ when her Libertarianism popped up. But this is the sort of book which is meant to sew discussion, and the thought behind it, and maybe some action.
