So Hot it's Making Me Sexist

Who leaves their blog to languish for over a month? Honestly. I hope it's not taken away from me.

This summer, in addition to being the summer of slacker blogging (OK fine, that's every summer for me) is also the summer of essay collections not written for teens but that pertain to them in some way. Over my vacation I read Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust, and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men. Oh, this book. I was so sad when it ended in all its beautiful and hilarious glory. I love the fact (and find it completely logical) that so many of the contributors are YA authors. The teen years are prime sexual confusion time, after all.

Just this morning I finished Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume and, as expected, found it to be a thrilling read. I particularly loved Beth Kendrick and Diana Peterfreund's pieces about the parents in Blume's books-- this makes me determined to revisit all of Blume's middle-grade and YA titles in the very near future, especially Deenie, which was cited in nearly every essay and is the Blume title that had the least impact on me as a girl (I probably read if 5 times vs. 25).

Lara M. Zeises contributed an excellent essay about masturbation and how through Deenie, Blume was able to convey to a generation of girls--in a non-embarrassing and subtle-to-the-point-of-subconscious way--that pretty much everyone masturbates and it's just fine. I also love how Zeises went on to explore the influence the movie Splendor in the Grass has on Deenie, creating subtextual commentary about teenage sexuality that sails over the head of intended audience but works on a surprising and effective level for the older, educated reader. I've never seen the movie, but it's going on my Netflix queue as of now.

Next up-- How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time by Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer. I've have been anticipating this book since I heard the first rumor of its publication because I am of a certain age, and any mention of Sassy sends me all a-squee. I know it's not actually an essay collection, but it's not a novel, so close enough.

While I'm coming clean with my obsessions, I'll just reveal another. Could anyone be more obsessed than I with HBO's Flight of the Conchords? I adore this show and, oddly enough, a recent storyline about the sexual pressures of dating played with subverted gender roles inspired me to write an entry. Not this entry of course-- I need to watch it again and give it some more thought before I can go any farther, but basically, as much as I found it hilarious, I'm still not sure I'm entirely comfortable with the idea of such a scenario--the joke being the woman as sexual predator--used to get laughs. I am not being overly sensitive, just interested in exploring the degree to which humor effects my ideological standards in terms of art. Do I let the show get away with something I'd normally call foul on just because I love it so? Don't want to to be a hypocritical critic, you know.

Anyway, back to playing the blog-writer-of-leisure for the next few weeks, but I'm looking forward to a productive and book-filled autumn.

Written material © 2007 Dawn A. Emerman