She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up, (Paperback)

This book is more than just a book. The authors looked at scientifically backed measures of healthy s36uality and relationships and compared people who grew up in "Purity Culture" (which is far more than just a belief to keep s36 within marriage) to those who did not. They looked through all the big books and programs from Purity Culture in the 1990s and 2000s and found major teachings and themes. In a survey of 7,000 women, they asked women if they believed these teachings in high school and if they believed them now. This was correlated to their current status of safety in marriage (signs of abuse), marital satisfaction, s36ual satisfaction, and self-esteem. When data shows that certain teachings harm women, we need to ask why those teachings persist. This book could be difficult to read for many women, as we were taught that r@pe was our fault, that all men are essentially immature and irresponsible, etc. And it isn't true. I encourage men to read this, too, especially if you are unaware of what your wife or friends were taught about themselves and men.