Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself

by Garcia, Lorena

• ISBN13: 9780814733172
• ISBN10: 0814733174
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-10-22
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

While Latina girls have high teen birth rates and are at increasing risk for contracting sexually transmitted infections, their sexual lives are much more complex than the negative stereotypes of them as "helpless" or "risky" (or worse) suggest.In Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself, Lorena Garcia examines how Latina girls negotiate their emerging sexual identities and attempt to create positive sexual experiences for themselves. Through a focus on their sexual agency, Garcia demonstrates that Latina girls' experiences with sexism, racism, homophobia and socioeconomic marginality inform how they engage and begin to rework their meanings and processes of gender and sexuality, emphasizing how Latina youth themselves understand their sexuality, particularly how they conceptualize and approach sexual safety and pleasure. At a time of controversy over the appropriate role of sex education in schools,Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself, provides a rare look and an important understanding of the sexual lives of a traditionally marginalized group.

Author Biography

Lorena Garcia is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: Studying the "Other" Girls	p. 1
"She's Old School Like That": Mother and Daughter Sex Talks	p. 19
The Sexual (Mis)Education of Latina Girls	p. 57
"Handlin' Your Business": Sexual Respectability and Peers	p. 83
Playing LilÆ Games: Partners and Safe-Sex Strategies	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 147
Profile of Research Participants	p. 161
Methodological Notes	p. 165
Notes	p. 171
Bibliography	p. 189
Index	p. 209
About the Author	p. 219
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.