Introduction: Scarlett redux -- "Holding excitement in their hands" : the Southern "girl problem" -- Spirited youth or fiends incarnate? -- "Just as much a menace" : race and sex delinquency -- "A head full of diamonds" : fact, fiction, and African American girls' sexuality -- "Living in hopes" : an economy of desire -- Sex, science, and eugenic sterilization -- The World War II pickup girl and wartime passions -- School days : reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic, and romance -- Would Jesus dance? The dangerous rhythms of rock 'n' roll -- The sexual paradox of high school desegregation -- Conclusion: Sex, memory, and the segregated past
Summary:
"Sexual Reckonings is the fascinating tale of adolescent girls coming of age in the South during the most explosive decades for the region. Focusing on the period from 1920 to 1960, Susan Cahn reveals how both the life of the South and the meaning of adolescence underwent enormous political, economic, and social shifts. Those years witnessed the birth of a modern awareness of adolescence and female sexuality that clashed mightily with the white supremacist and patriarchal legacies of the old South. As youth staked its claim, the bodies and beliefs of southern girls became the battlefield for a transformed South, which was, like them, experiencing growing pains."--Book jacket
Topic:
Teenage girls, White--Social conditions Search this
