Reviving Ophelia Saving The Selves Of Adolescent Girls Review

This book written by, Mary Pipher, PH.D (therapist,) is a book about all of the struggles that adolescent girls and women have to deal with in our culture and society. Although published in 1994, most of her points still hold true, if not worse. She explains in an interview how our society now interacts with social netowrking, texting/sexting, etc. and how these are harmful as well. The book was organized by different categories, such as divorce, alcohol, eating disorders, mothers/fathers, etc. then she would go into a few stories of different girls for each. She would express her thoughts and explain the differences between the girls, where the problems rooted and how to fix them.

Reviving Ophelia, which was also made into a Lifetime movie, mirroring some of the examples of the book, discusses how girls at this time in their life are very impressionable. I watched the trailer and now pretty much have to see it. The littlest comments can stick with them forever and cause anxiety, self mutilation, eating disorders, depression, chemical use, etc. The biggest thing is how confused girls are at this time in their life. They are confused about how they are suppose to be and act and lose sight of their true self, trying to be something their not and fit in. The book also focuses a lot on the effects that media have on these young girls. At home, school, and in church, they are taught something different about themselves then they are in music lyrics, TV shows, and magazines. The media teaches them that they are just an object of men and are supposed to be beautiful, sexy, and thin. They can't be too smart or too pretty or they will be criticized. If they don't do bad things like their peers they may not be accepted, but if they do they may be punished, or like it said somewhere in the book...boys who persuade girls to have sex with them Friday night, ignore them and call them sluts Monday morning.

 It talked about a lot of girls that have suffered horrible things like sexual abuse from family/ friends, rape, name-calling, parents divorce, and other certain events that have made them act out and turn to negative things. There are other girls who even seem to have perfectly normal and healthy lives that struggle. The point is that girls need to learn real values about themselves and not what society and media confuses them with like being beautiful, sexual, abusing chemicals, and sex roles of men and women. In the end, the author concludes with how we need to change our world culturally and socially to better fit equality among men and women and provide a safer world for everyone to grow up in, without fear, and be aware of their self worth. I myself appreciated the book, and think many others could learn a lot from it.