Naomi B. (tripleguess) reviewed The Body Scoop for Girls: A Straight-Talk Guide to a Healthy, Beautiful You on + 48 more book reviews
A fairly informative book. I give it thee stars. The glibness of the text was at times annoying, as was the feeling that information was being dumbed down for the MTV attention span audience -- I cannot believe that I would have had any trouble understanding this book at 15 -- but there were some good facts.
And some not-so-good assertions. I found it troubling that the author would state so breezily that the Pill is "perfectly safe" and apparently thinks it can be prescribed like candy. How many tragic instances are there of people ingesting or practicing something harmful because the "experts" assured them it was "safe," only to find out later that there was no going back? Even if the Pill is ultimately not harmful, the attitude is. She says herself that our bodies and hormonal systems are incredibly complicated. How can it follow that messing with things via oral hormones should get an automatic pass?
Also the "just go out and do it!" section on masturbation. Really?? Self control and success at just about anything go hand in hand, do they not? Is it only when comes to sex that one must never say no to oneself? This attitude is wrong on so many levels. Sex is not, should never be, merely about one's own selfish satisfaction. For most girls emotional involvement with a loving other is at least important, if not more so, than sexual intercourse itself.
This roots naturally back into value systems. The author basically says "If it weren't for STIs I wouldn't care about whether teens had sex." Oops. It isn't mentioned in that section, though the fuzzies flock in elsewhere, that we are spiritual and emotional beings, not just physical ones, and "whatever we do to our bodies affects our souls." Or that stating "I have no value system" is in fact a statement of one's value system.
There are whole books on all these aspects and I won't go into them here (no way I could do them justice anyway). I'll just note that "Shannon" in the opening story of Chapter 10 didn't say, "Oh goodie, it's just chlamydia from Jeff's other partner. Dose me up and everything's peachy." As the book itself notes, "When I told her simple antibiotics would clear it up, Shannon felt a little better -- about the physical stuff, that is. The emotional hurt is still healing." Gee, ya think?
It would be better if the author came right out and stated her views/values than if she pretended she didn't have any. Then, when she calmly relates (at least twice) that one of her teen patients "ended the pregnancy" in the same manner one might describe removing a wart, I'd at least understand why she didn't think destroying a tiny little human life was at all important.
I could on on about everything I found out of whack, but in a nutshell I'd suggest parents screen this before handing it to a daughter, discuss the statements they disagree with and why, and find other materials to supplement the holes.
And some not-so-good assertions. I found it troubling that the author would state so breezily that the Pill is "perfectly safe" and apparently thinks it can be prescribed like candy. How many tragic instances are there of people ingesting or practicing something harmful because the "experts" assured them it was "safe," only to find out later that there was no going back? Even if the Pill is ultimately not harmful, the attitude is. She says herself that our bodies and hormonal systems are incredibly complicated. How can it follow that messing with things via oral hormones should get an automatic pass?
Also the "just go out and do it!" section on masturbation. Really?? Self control and success at just about anything go hand in hand, do they not? Is it only when comes to sex that one must never say no to oneself? This attitude is wrong on so many levels. Sex is not, should never be, merely about one's own selfish satisfaction. For most girls emotional involvement with a loving other is at least important, if not more so, than sexual intercourse itself.
This roots naturally back into value systems. The author basically says "If it weren't for STIs I wouldn't care about whether teens had sex." Oops. It isn't mentioned in that section, though the fuzzies flock in elsewhere, that we are spiritual and emotional beings, not just physical ones, and "whatever we do to our bodies affects our souls." Or that stating "I have no value system" is in fact a statement of one's value system.
There are whole books on all these aspects and I won't go into them here (no way I could do them justice anyway). I'll just note that "Shannon" in the opening story of Chapter 10 didn't say, "Oh goodie, it's just chlamydia from Jeff's other partner. Dose me up and everything's peachy." As the book itself notes, "When I told her simple antibiotics would clear it up, Shannon felt a little better -- about the physical stuff, that is. The emotional hurt is still healing." Gee, ya think?
It would be better if the author came right out and stated her views/values than if she pretended she didn't have any. Then, when she calmly relates (at least twice) that one of her teen patients "ended the pregnancy" in the same manner one might describe removing a wart, I'd at least understand why she didn't think destroying a tiny little human life was at all important.
I could on on about everything I found out of whack, but in a nutshell I'd suggest parents screen this before handing it to a daughter, discuss the statements they disagree with and why, and find other materials to supplement the holes.
