of scared to read this, My friend got it for me as a semi joke, It is actually called Love and the Facts of Life but it is by the same author, The original printing was. Again I'm assuming this is either sciencefiction, fantasy or a horror book, Reading a book about the "facts of life" from the's is amusing, shocking and saddening all at the same time! An amusing old book I found at the library.
I read some parts and skimmed the rest, It's a quite lengthy book on growing up/sex ed/dating/manners, Lots of content on how to date and
just get along with one's peers in general, It's less judgmental than I would have expected, and the anatomical/medical content seems pretty accurate still, I found it interesting that it mentions contraception existing, but doesn't say what methods are available, . . I guess that was only for married people to know
I'm still glad I live in modern times, First, this book doesn't think asexual people like me exist! There was a lot of emphasis on how everyone is interested in sex but still don't do it til you're married!.
There was also a section talking about how your sex drive makes you creative That was strange, I found it interesting that homosexuality is mentioned as something sort of "normal" but it still shouldn't be acted upon according to the author.
And whoa boy, the statement "If you are well into your teens, you can expect to be a parent within the next ten years.
" That is definitely not as true nowadays! Here I am,years old and doing a serious clearingout of my bookshelves, And here is this little paperback that my mother gave me aroundbecause she felt shy about explaining the Facts of Life to me and I was quite the little reader.
She handed it to me againyears later, before my wedding,
All these years, one section of the book remainedwith me because it had so alarmed me as a teen: an anecdote about a young girl who had to fend off a date who was coming on too strong.
I can still quote it from memory:
"Oh," she said, with a silvery little laugh, "You are too much for me!"
The very idea of having to fend a fellow off seemed intensely awful and embarrassing as indeed it is.
Emitting a silvery little laugh seemed intensely embarrassing and also probably impossible for me, This scene haunted me for years and years,
Imagine my surprise today, as I leafed through the volume, to find that for the most part, it actually seems to be pretty comprehensive and sympathetic.
Whatever its faults or lacks, it probably was as good a literary introduction to sexuality as could have been found in.
It's quite readable as an artifact of cultural history and yes, some passages are quaintly humorous,
As an aside: to help young people of today to better understand their opposite numbers, I would give them a copy of Deborah Tannen's "You Just Don't Understand: Men and Women in Conversation.
" FACTS OF SEX AND GROWTH
"This sane, sound, reassuring book for young people gives not only the facts about sex and growth, but also an understanding of how these facts are related to life, from etiquette to ethics.
It minces no words in its descriptions of growing up and all the attendant problems of sex, " New York Times
"The physical facts of life are faced with a frank realism that will appeal to a generation of teenagers who hate beating about the bush.
. . Here are the concerns about which they are reluctant to talk to any adult, most of all in too many cases, to their parents.
" Parents' Magazine Evelyn Ruth Millis Duvallwas a pioneer in the field of family development, In, Duvall published one of the first books on dating for young adults, Facts of Life and Love for Teenagers, She was executive director of the National Council on Family Relations fromtoand lectured at various national and international universities betweenand.
In, she was awarded the first endowed chair in Family Development at the University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee Campus, .