The Importance Of Talking To Young Women About Pleasure

When it comes to teaching American adolescents about sexuality, “we are completely silent around girls’ sexual entitlement and girls’ pleasure,” says Peggy Orenstein, author of the new book Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape. But it’s not just that—American culture is sending a message to young women today that “they’re supposed to be sexy, that they’re supposed to perform sexuality for boys, but that their sexual pleasure is unspoken.”

Orenstein argues that we need to change the way we teach our kids about sex and, in particular, to talk “clearly and honestly to girls about their own desires and their own pleasures.”

To learn more, listen to the segment below from NPR’s Fresh Air, which features an interview with Orenstein. If you want to get a copy of her book, you can find it through both Amazon and iBooks.

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Image Credit: 123RF.com/Natalia Gesto

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