I've got a lot to say about this book!
Pros: Overall, I like the message of this book. On the most basic level, it is pro-abstinence and anti-teenage sex, both things I agree with. The book starts with a lot of statistics about sexual activity being prevalent in the adolescent population, and how some middle schools are even seeing related problems among their students.
A major part of Liebau's argument is that American culture is WAY too focused on sex (in her words - "a constant human fixation"), which I definitely agree with. I was surprised by the statistic that 70% of television shows contain sexual content or references! But yes, like the author, I have noticed a lot of sexual content on TV, in popular music, on the internet, in magazines, and in young adult fiction. (It seems like there's sex in almost every YA book I read!) Additionally, the majority of sexual content in the media doesn't talk about safe sex or possible consequences of sex. Liebau argues that the constant sexual messages of pop culture are "normalizing" teen sexual behavior, creating an environment where teens feel like they need to sexually experiment years before they otherwise would. According to the author, this leads to STDs, teen pregnancy (leading to either single parenting or abortion), socioeconomic problems (due to single/teen parents having fewer opportunities and having to rely on government welfare), and of course emotional problems, because most teenagers aren't mature enough to handle sexual relationships.
There's also a chapter on how fashion trends are now sexualizing girls even before their teenage years - this topic made me wonder about who's driving these trends. I would guess that a lot of it comes from celebrities (I cringe at some of the red-carpet fashions that seem dangerously close to nudity). I get that teens want to look like the people they admire. But on the other hand, I work at a university, and most if not all of the students I see are pretty covered up (okay, maybe some of this is the cold climate!). I think that by the time they reach adulthood, the average woman has figured out that comfortable clothing is better than trying to keep up with celebrity fashion trends.
Cons: I consider myself fairly prudish, but not as prudish as this author! She argues that sex should only be talked about in the context of "moral, ethical, and religion considerations," along with "traditional concepts of right and wrong," and therefore purely scientific/educational resources like WebMD shouldn't be available to teens. I want to argue back that first of all, not everyone has the same moral, ethical, and religious values, and since some teens will have sex anyway no matter what we tell them, I am really glad that we have nonjudgmental, unbiased, informative sex ed information online! As I once heard someone say, "The safest sex is reading about it." It seems like Liebau is advocating censoring any information that doesn't fit her worldview. But actually, teens (and everyone) need to develop their own values and critical thinking skills so that they can make their own judgments about things they read online.
There's a touch of homophobia in the book...LGBT people are not mentioned, except for a few references to girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual and kissing other girls, which is lumped together with other "undesirable" sexual behavior. I don't feel great about that. Regardless of gender, kissing and exploring one's orientation should be the least of this author's worries.
Even though it's not explicit, this book definitely has a conservative Christian vibe, which explains its implicit homophobia, and also its occasional jabs at feminism. The author seemed to waver between definitions of feminism, sometimes supporting it and sometimes opposing it. I think she could have done a better job at defining feminism and which parts of it she agrees with.
One thing I had a HUGE problem with is that even though the author purports to be pro-teenage girls, she is not as supportive of them as I would like. Every once in a while there will be hints of the idea that girls, and not boys, are responsible for making smart decisions. There's definitely a "boys will be boys" attitude, along with the idea that if women don't have premarital sex, it will somehow lure a good man to them, who will then be "rewarded" with marital sex. I really despise this view. It implies that men and boys are mainly interested in sex, and women and girls have to accommodate that interest in various ways. It even says that "almost any willing girl is good enough" for a teenage boy to have sex with. I don't think there's anything in this book about the problems of rape, sexual assault, and predatory in-person relationships, and it barely touches on online predators...it's assumed that only teen boys will pursue girls, who have to say "no," and somehow the boys will always respect the "no." Real life doesn't work that way, sadly. Near the end of the book, the author lists a few pro-abstinence organizations, at least one of which includes boys (yay!). At least that's something. I know this book is mainly about girls, but I think it could have done a lot better at supporting healthy sexual decisions for boys AND girls. The way it's currently written, it makes me wonder why men are appealing to women at all if all they want is sex.
My last, pettier complaint - the citations. There are OVER 50 PAGES of endnotes, and so many of them include URLs. I shudder to think of how many of those links must be dead by now. This is why you should use the Internet Archive to save webpages! Also, Liebau occasionally cites "personal observations" and "personal interviews" with unnamed teenage girls - I would have liked more context on who these girls were. There's no proof that she didn't just make them up.
Things to consider: This book was published in 2007, over a decade ago now. And a lot of the studies the author cites are quite a bit older than that. It would be interesting to see a new edition of this book with updated information. I've read that teenage sex has been steadily decreasing, which is great! (Though I'm not sure if Liebau's proposed ideas had anything to do with it.)
Another thing that really dates this book is its view of technology. Myspace, MTV, and perhaps even chat rooms are probably not very influential on teens anymore - I'm sure that smartphones, Facebook, YouTube, and dating apps are influencing teens and their relationships far more than anyone could foresee a decade ago. I'd be really interested to see studies on how these technologies are affecting today's teens (besides the obvious topic of sexting). One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the fact that pornography is easily available on the internet.
Liebau makes the argument that since we've dramatically decreased smoking and drunk driving in America over the past few decades, we should be able to do the same for teenage sexual behavior. I don't have my hopes up for this - though I would be pleasantly surprised if I start seeing billboards and PSAs advocating for abstinence. As I said earlier, different individuals and families have different values...sex isn't such a cut-and-dried topic as smoking and drunk driving are.
Final verdict: Overall, I loved what this book was arguing for, and it was easy to read. Even though there's an undercurrent of Christian conservatism, it's hardly preachy. But I have to knock off a star due to the occasional problematic ideas and wording.