Arrayed before Vernacchio was a circle of small desks occupied by 22 teenagers, six male and the rest female — a blur of sweatshirts and Ugg boots and form-fitting leggings. Other stuff? While these kids will sit poker-faced as Vernacchio expounds on quite graphic matters, class discussions are a spirited call and response, punctuated with guffaws, jokey patter and whispered asides, which Vernacchio tolerates, to a point. Bill Taverner, director of the Center for Family Life Education for Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey, said that his 11 educators are usually given the most freedom with so-called high-risk youth, those in juvenile detention, or who live in poor neighborhoods with high teen-pregnancy rates. The classes are still going strong, though in the late s, the program was replaced with another one without explicit images called Our Whole Lives , a joint project of the U.

Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. Conceived and designed the experiments: SB. Performed the experiments: GC.

Ample, valuable information on the way young women in America perceive and react to their sexual environment. After interviewing dozens of young women between the ages of 15 and 20, as well as educators, sociologists, psychologists, and other experts, New York Times Magazine contributing writer Orenstein Cinderella Ate My Daughter , , etc. With a daughter of her own soon entering this new phase of her life, the author sought to understand the current culture, "at a time when celebrities presented self-objectification as a source of strength, power, independence; when looking desirable seemed a substitute for feeling desire; when 50 Shades of Grey …was being hailed as the ultimate feminine fantasy; when no woman under the age of forty appeared to have pubic hair.

Skip to Content. Media messages play a big role in shaping gender norms, ideas about sex, and body satisfaction, from the time kids are in preschool to their adolescence. Common Sense Media is leading the way in research on the impact of these messages on kids.