Leonard Sax: Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis For Girls

In Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls, Dr. Leonard Sax examines the world in which adolescent girls are growing up and acknowledges how and why this world is negatively influencing their development of a sense of self. Today’s adolescents are growing up in an unparalleled time and culture, and it seems as though girls have more opportunities. However, Sax explores the ways in which certain opportunities can put girls at risk physically, socially, and emotionally. This book shows that today’s world is not the same world of previous generations, or even the same world girls grew up in 10 years ago. Girls on the Edge provides insight into the challenges girls face and some of the unspoken rules that exist. Girls on the Edge is helpful not only in helping people understand ‘‘girl world’’ better but also in giving practical advice on how to reduce negative societal effects and actively help girls develop in a healthy manner. Sax draws on his experience as a family physician and psychologist, in addition to relevant research, to provide evidence and create a clear message for readers. The four factors Sax identifies as having a role in inhibiting girls’ sense of who they are as a person are sexual identity, the cyberbubble, obsessions, and environmental toxins. He discusses each of these factors in the first part of the book. The second half of the book focuses on solutions to these problems in the form of the healthy development of mind, body, and spirit. This book would be an aid to anyone seeking to learn more about the development of adolescent girls or those who wish\s to help with their development. The first chapter explores the first factor Sax has identified: sexual identity. He concisely sums up the chapter in the first sentence: ‘‘Girls are getting sexier earlier. That’s not a good thing’’ (p. 11). He explains that girls today are expected to dress and act in a sexual way starting at a very young age, often before they have any sexual agenda or even feel sexual. He gives the example of young girls wanting to wear sexualized Halloween costumes that young girls never would have worn 20 years ago. Sax explains that most girls do not feel that there are other options of how to dress; they simply are conforming to society’s expectations. However, just because girls are dressing in a more provocative manner does not necessarily mean that they want to engage in sexual behavior, and this leads to problems with sexual intimacy. Sax looks at popular media such as Twilight and Taylor Swift. He argues that these forms of current entertainment revert back to more traditional gender roles of males’ being more dominant and females more submissive. However, he explains that, unlike when these traditional roles existed, women are no longer necessarily the ‘‘gatekeepers’’ to sexual activity. Girls today are no longer proud of virginity, and sex is no longer seen as such a big deal. He gives advice to parents that they must be willing to be the ‘‘bad guy’’ and take control of what their daughters choose to wear. The chapter ends with a discussion on lesbian sexual identity, and the increasing popularity of two girls engaging in sexual intimacy in today’s culture. Sax explains that, while girls are much more fluid in their sexual identity than boys, he is worried for those girls who choose to engage in sexual intimacy with a girl for the purpose of appealing to boys. However, he also offers an alternate explanation in the idea that because boys are less mature than girls and because boys are increasingly turning to pornography rather than relationships, girls might be choosing to be M. Welton (&) Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA e-mail: mfwelton@indiana.edu