Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape

Orenstein discusses girls’ sex lives with the understanding that they’re entitled to sex lives that are rich, expansive, and autonomous. Do you agree with this premise? How do you feel about teenage girls pursuing sex?

Orenstein suggests that while she’s concerned about the societal policing of girls’ sexuality through clothing, she’s also concerned about girls’ self-objectification. What do you think about these concerns? Are they mutually exclusive? Do you have ideas for solutions?

Katie Roiphe and Christina Hoff Sommers wrote books challenging the notion of date rape. They both took offense to the idea because the expanded definition of rape suggests young women are victims in situations where they have agency. Roiphe, for example, writes, “If we assume that women are not all helpless and naïve, then they should be held responsible for their choice to drink or take drugs” (172). What do you think about this take on date rape? What might be the repercussions if date rape was no longer illegal?