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n the l990s, a warning about girls was sounded by some best-selling books such as Meeting at the Crossroads by Lyn Mikel Brown and Carol Gilligan and Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher. These powerful discussions alerted the nation to the psychological difficulties of growing up female in a society that silences and stifles girls even in social and educational settings thought to be enlightened. Other studies confirmed that women really are the “stronger sex”—that is, until puberty, when their vulnerability to physical and mental health problems increases. In The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, I argued that our current cultural environment is especially “toxic” for adolescent girls because of the anxieties it generates about the developing female body and sexuality. On the basis of my reading over one hundred personal diaries written by adolescent girls between 1830 and l980, I concluded that as the twentieth century progressed, more and more young women grew up believing that “good looks”—rather than “good works”—were the highest form of female perfection.
Approximate Word count = 564
Approximate Pages = 2.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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