Her drinking, truancy and bad attitude are turned arround in a very unexpected way.
Jill is a Native American girl adopted by white parents. Their voices become muted, they lose.Based on Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, one of the seminal nonfiction books of our time, this is the gripping story of four teenage girls battling the corrosive influences of popular culture and each searching for the personal North Star that will guide her home.
Pipher sees adolescence as the time when girls' identities begin to "go under ground". Rather than being inner directed, Ophelia strives to meet the demands of her loved one her self-esteem is based solely on his approval.Īs with Ophelia, Dr. An analogy is made to Ophelia who, as a girl, is happy and free but loses herself during adolescence because she falls in love with Hamlet and lives only for his approval. Additionally, they lose resiliency, become less included to take risks, are unhappy with their bodies, self-critical, depressed and deferential. Pipher explains how, in early adolescence, girls' IQ scores drop and their math/science grades plummet. Pipher explains how the oppression of females is a direct result of social pressures to be beautiful and sexual rather than intelligent and competent.Ĭiting research, Dr. The epidemic of teenagers exhibiting emotional and physical problems stems from the negative messages our culture conveys to women about weight and beauty. Pipher, a clinical psychologist in private practice, demonstrates, via case studies, the reasons why so many adolescent girls enter therapy for serious problems such as anorexia, suicide attempts, underachievement, sexual abuse and self-mutilation. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, by Mary Pipher, provides important testimony to the negative cultural messages which impact on young women today. Reviewed by Cheryl Bartholomew, George Mason University
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