Girls on the Edge, by Dr. Leonard Sax

Girls on the Edge by Dr. Leonard Sax, is all about the things that are driving a crisis for girls. The book cites sexual identity, the cyberbubble, obsesssions, and environmental toxins as the four main factors. The book is 272 pages and was published by Basic Books in July of 2011 and sells for around 13 dollars for a paperback copy or 20 for the hardcover edition. The book begins with an explanation of teenagers and how they are different from the teenagers of 50 years ago. More and more teenagers are depressed, and on medication. The author states that teenagers now are on alot more medications than the teenagers of the past. In the first part of the book Dr. Sax discusses the four forementioned factors he believes are affecting the crisis for girls.

In the first chapter Dr. Sax discusses how girls are expected to be sexual beings at earlier ages than ever. The main focus of this chapter is how the culture has shifted from a culture of dating to a culture of hookups. Sax discusses how girls are losing their virginity at earlier ages, and becoming sexual objects earlier than ever. He claims this is the fault of the shift in our culture. He contrasts the songs “Paradise on the Dashboard Light” and “I kissed a girl”. In the first song, which was written in the 70’s, a boy and a girl are getting intimate in a car when a girl stops everything and says,

“Stop right there!

I gotta know right now!

Before we go any further!

Do you love me?

Will you love me forever?

Do you need me?

Will you never leave me?

Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?”

That’s because in the 70’s many girls would not have intercourse without the promise of marriage. In contrast, the latter song is about...

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...as changed from when it has 30-50 years ago.

2) I learned that girls establish a hierarchy in school differently than boys, more subtly.

3) I learned that girls have been shown to dress to impress the boys, and do many things, namely sexual things, for attention or intimacy.

4) I learned that many things in life repress womens’ gender roles. These things include drinking, toys, clothes, and so on.

5) Finally, I learned that girls will exclude people over many things. Music, sexual acts, not hanging out with them., etc. They will usually outcast that person rather than use physical violence as boys do.

Works Cited

Sax, Leonard. Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for

Girls--Sexual Identity, the Cyberbubble, Obsessions, Environmental Toxins. 1st

ed. New York: Basic Books, 2011. Print.