The world is full of mixed messages for girls: Stand up for yourself but do it softly. Love your body, just make sure it’s waxed, bleached, and thin. And then there are the more overt hostilities: being talked over, paid less, touched without permission, and having politicians debate their right to bodily autonomy. Many parents find it simpler to affirm girls’ strength than to address these distressing experiences directly. But with girls’ skyrocketing rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide, parenting them in this culture presents an urgent challenge: How do we teach girls to recognize and cope with these realities without crushing their optimism and belief that they can incite change?
Jo-Ann Finkelstein, a Harvard-educated psychologist, has more than two decades of experience working with girls, helping them find resilience in the face of toxic messages about beauty, sex, and femininity. In Sexism & Sensibility, she draws on real stories from her practice to unpack the effects of sexism in its many guises. It includes how to talk about misogyny, gender stereotyping, objectification, and consent at different ages; strategies for fine-tuning our daughters’ natural "sexism detectors" and safeguarding their self-esteem; and how to recognize and combat sexism in our own parenting We can’t shield our daughters from gender bias and sexism, but we can make sure that they are more prepared to handle it than we ever were with this eye-opening and essential resource for proactive parenting.
Author | Jo-Ann Finkelstein PhD |
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ISBN | 0593581164 |
Publication Date | Sep 3, 2024 |
Publisher | Harmony |
Language | English |
Category | Body Image / Self-Esteem, Child Sexualization, Gender Research, Media / Commercialization |
Parenting Books Age | Infant to Preschool, Child / School Age, Pre-Teen, Teen |