The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants may not be as popular as Harry Potter, but it certainly has its teen and schoolteacher following. My friend Charlotte, an English Teaching major, (as they say), introduced me to the series a couple of years ago and I became a converted fan. The books are quick, cute, and reminiscent of the Babysitters Club books with a touch of romance. Well, Ann Brashares finished her last book in the series and it was published maybe 2 or 3 months ago. Of course I read it. You could tell she didn't spend as much time as she did on the others. It wasn't well written, it was cliche. It wasn't suspenseful, it was tedious and sometimes boring. With just these things said the "dazzling finale" would have only been disappointing. I would have never recommended any of you not to read it. I would have said "eh, it was okay. Kind of dissapointing."
So let me tell you why I am instead saying "I would rather my own future teenage daughter watch a raunchy sex scene".
She is subtle and crafty, and Ann Brashares finds a way to write three sex acts (for three of the four girls) into the book and make it appear light and so very normal. The scenes themselves aren't lurid or overly descriptive-- but I wish they were! At least then teachers and parents would rally around and mark it as an inappropriate read for the recommended 12 and older age group. As it is now, this book is flying completely under the radar. One character, Lena, loses her virginity to a crush. They aren't in a relationship. She doesn't love him. She knows their fling will end (and it does) and she doesn't care. She just, and I am closely paraphrasing here, "lies back and enjoys it." Morals aside, this unrealistic idea of a casual sexual encounter with no emotional or mental repercussions is so misleading and destructive. It is the whole "Sex and the City", we can have casual sex with no strings attached and be JUST FINE lie. Except it isn't on HBO, it is in a well known, highly recommended juvenile lit book? Por que? The other liaisons are more of the same.
And this is why this book is so bad; it delicately attenuates baneful sexual philosophies into the minds of our naive youth. I would rather my daughter watch a nasty movie because at least then it's obscenities and lies would be loud and CLEAR. I despise the sneakiness and grossness of Brashare's fraudulence. And to think she saved it all for the last book, when parents have put their guard down and trust an author as safe and appropriate?
4 comments:
YIKES! I had a feeling that was why. When I took a 13 year old girl I was mentoring at the time to the movie a while back I remember thinking there were some risque parts in it and had to explain some things to her....UGH...thanks for letting us know!
Oh dear! What a mess! The decline of morals and families these days is so very sad:(
fascinating and so disappointing! my sister was reading one of the "traveling pants" books while she was here...I'll have to warn her that she's on the slippery slope to immorality :)
Funny. I had read the three books previously and I WAS reading the 4th when I came across the part where Tibby is freaking out about "something" breaking. I was appalled! I immediately stopped and returned the book to the library (where the waiting list for this book is longer than The Great Wall—probably all 13 year old girls!) It seems reckless and criminally foolish to publish this book under the guise of a “normal young adulthood". In the first book, when Bee is at camp and has her “experience” I was very bothered, but I appreciated that it became a wound in her life. It didn’t just happen and everything was honky-dory. It was not a light, happy, warm experience- it was one that put her in a depression and made her gain weight and withdraw from life. Unglamorous, but real. That is a very real emotional response. Not the apathetic feelings of Lena, as you described.
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