Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

Women. Berkley, California: Seal Press, 2010. Print.
Valenti analyzes the ‘Modesty Movement’ and how the virgin/whore dichotomy leaves very little room for
girls to develop an actualized sexual identity. She also makes the argument that this movement is working
against feminism and making the ideal ‘woman’ more ‘girl’ than ever before. It is just not sexy to be a fully
competent adult, but rather to be a helpless child-like being that is too weak (spiritually, physically,
emotionally) to take care of themselves.
White, Emily. Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut. New York: Scribner, 2002.
Print.
This book focuses on the way story-telling is used in the High School arena and why these stories are so
important to teens. She focuses on the need to label girls that seem ‘too interested’ in sex or more to the
point, the girls who like sex too much. White explores the myth of the ‘slut’ and how this sexually
ravenous female archetype functions in high school society. White also studies the society that perfects the
virgin vs. slut archetype. This book explores many relevant points to my paper on the expression of female
sexuality (or lack thereof), yet still remains surface in that it lets the interviewees speak for themselves with
little interpretation on the part of the author. What is important about this book is the fact that White
acknowledges the powerlessness of the girls to influence or stop the progression of the story.
Wolf, Naomi. Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood. New York: Random
House, 1997. Print.
This is a personal look on what Wolf remembers about being an adolescent in Haight-Ashbury, California.
She makes connections between what she remembers learning about being a woman during her adolescence
and the larger social ideology that fostered these teachings. She interviews women that grew up with her
around the same neighborhood and incorporates research on the changing views of sexuality over time. This
book is written in such a way that minimal foreknowledge in feminist theory is needed in order to
understand the concepts.
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