University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

In this book, Karin Martin deftly and gracefully shares stories of the development of gendered sexual selves. She shows how boys and girls often diverge at adolescence, with boys' confidence encouraged and girls stifled. Martin uses moving and provocative quotes from her interviewees about their experiences with puberty and early sexual encounters. This book inspired me and shaped my line of research over the past 8 years. This book was foundational in understanding the idea of sexual subjectivity and leading me to study its evolution in my book, Deserving Desire. Martin shows how consequential these early experiences can be and what they tell us about larger societal gender differences.