Tuesday, October 25, 2011

What I am reading

In an effort to get me posting and writing more often, I'm giving days themes and trying that out for a bit. So Tuesdays and what I am reading.

I just finished a great non-fiction book, The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti. I have been reading a ton of women/feminist books lately and this author is wonderful. She is a younger woman that connects beautifully with my age group and makes issues appear as important as they are without painting a picture that is too bleak to overcome.



The Purity Myth focuses on America's obsession with virginity. In our culture young women can either be perfect virgin or a dirty whore and there is no room for any shade of gray, which is just incredibly fucked up. Valenti manages to dissect the ways this dichotomy is presented to young people and how adults actively enforce it on themselves and other.

What I took away from this book was this: While there is nothing wrong with being a virgin until marriage (something friends of mine have done and are happy with) there is also nothing wrong with having safe and consensual sex before marriage. And that virginity is outdated at best, since it seems to only apply to heterosexual.

Jessica Valenti also has written other wonderful books and has a delightful Tumblr and founded Feministing.


I am currently mid-way through book 10 of Robert Jordan's massive Wheel of Time series. These books were recommend to me by my brother and while I have many qualms about the writing, the story is what interests me and I cannot stop now. I am really enjoying this particular book, mostly because the main character of the series is delightfully absent. Seriously though, someone needs to redo the cover art on all of these books. Last time I checked, people and horse legs were not the same length.


What are you reading?

4 comments:

  1. Nice! I'm reading Dolores Claiborne, because I just watched the movie and had never read the book!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've never heard of that one Laura - I hope that you are enjoying the book as much as the movie. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm so glad to come across this blog! I've been thinking of doing my dissertation on sex and this is exactly the sort of thing I want to look in to!

    A
    x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you! I haven't updated in forever but I highly, highly suggest Valenti's works and tumblr. I'd love to hear more about your reserach - in the mean time I post a lot of sexual health related stuff on my tumblr more than here: memymarie.tumblr.com :)

    ReplyDelete