The New Gay Teenager / Edition 1

by Ritch C. Savin-Williams

Overview

Gay, straight, bisexual: how much does sexual orientation matter to a teenager’s mental health or sense of identity? In this down-to-earth book, filled with the voices of young people speaking for themselves, Ritch Savin-Williams argues that the standard image of gay youth presented by mental health researchers—as depressed, isolated, drug-dependent, even suicidal—may have been exaggerated even twenty years ago, and is far from accurate today.

The New Gay Teenager gives us a refreshing and frequently controversial introduction to confident, competent, upbeat teenagers with same-sex desires, who worry more about the chemistry test or their curfew than they do about their sexuality. What does “gay” mean, when some adolescents who have had sexual encounters with those of their own sex don’t consider themselves gay, when some who consider themselves gay have had sex with the opposite sex, and when many have never had sex at all? What counts as “having sex,” anyway? Teenagers (unlike social science researchers) are not especially interested in neatly categorizing their sexual orientation.

In fact, Savin-Williams learns, teenagers may think a lot about sex, but they don’t think that sexuality is the most important thing about them. And adults, he advises, shouldn’t think so either.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674022560
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2006
Series:	Adolescent Lives , #3
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	704,888
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Ritch C. Savin-Williams is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Why the New Gay Teenager?

2. Who's Gay?

3. In the Beginning... Was Gay Youth

4. Models or Trajectories?

5. Feeling Different

6. Same-Sex Attractions

7. First Sex

8. Identity

9. Resilience and Diversity

10. Refusing and Resisting Sexual Identity Labels

Notes

References

Index

What People are Saying About This

Adolescence is no picnic--but is it especially hard for gay teens? Ritch Savin-William's ground-breaking book reveals that being young and homosexual is not the identity crisis we might expect. Today's teenagers are more at ease with homosexuality--and with a more flexible and shifting view of human sexuality in general--than their parents' and grandparents' generation. With a conversational style, personal history, and intimate interviews with teens, Savin-Williams transforms research into a great read. At a time when adults argue passionately over who has the right to do what with whom, kids must be laughing behind their backs.

Meredith Small

Adolescence is no picnic--but is it especially hard for gay teens? Ritch Savin-William's ground-breaking book reveals that being young and homosexual is not the identity crisis we might expect. Today's teenagers are more at ease with homosexuality--and with a more flexible and shifting view of human sexuality in general--than their parents' and grandparents' generation. With a conversational style, personal history, and intimate interviews with teens, Savin-Williams transforms research into a great read. At a time when adults argue passionately over who has the right to do what with whom, kids must be laughing behind their backs.
— Meredith Small, Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University

Editorial Reviews

Adolescence is no picnic—but is it especially hard for gay teens? Ritch Savin-Williams’s ground-breaking book reveals that being young and homosexual is not the identity crisis we might expect. Today’s teenagers are more at ease with homosexuality—and with a more flexible and shifting view of human sexuality in general—than their parents’ and grandparents’ generation. With a conversational style, personal history, and intimate interviews with teens, Savin-Williams transforms research into a great read. At a time when adults argue passionately over who has the right to do what with whom, kids must be laughing behind their backs.

Meredith Small

That there has been a sea change in attitudes about sexual minorities in the past few generations is not news. What is remarkable, however, is the growing nonchalance of contemporary adolescents about their own sexuality. Savin-Williams (Cornell Univ.), a pioneer in the study of sexual minority youth and the author of several groundbreaking books (e.g., Mom, Dad, I'm Gay), admits that "gay" may be a misnomer for the teens he interviewed. Many rejects labels altogether and prefer to see themselves as free agents. Savin-Williams, likewise, rejects the developmental-stage ideas of sexual identity that have dominated psychological theory for over 30 years. Most important, by carefully listening to the experiences of the teenagers, he confirms what many other observers have noted: the generation coming of age now has increasingly open ideas about sexuality that will likely create huge cultural shifts in the coming decades. General readers will appreciate Savin-Williams's ability to transmit complicated concepts clearly. Recommended for any academic library collecting in psychology and gay studies.-David S. Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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