Next on my reading list is Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends & Other Realities of Adolescence.
You all probably recognize the book since it was the basis for Tina Fey’s brilliant movie Mean Girls. I’m bringing it to the gym with me right now, so I’ll be sure to post my initial thoughts really soon!
A search of The New York Times archives allowed me to stumble upon this article called Inside the Mind of the Boy Dating Your Daughter provided a really interesting insight into the thoughts running through the hormone driven mind of a teenage boy. Researchers at the State University of New York at Oswego surveyed 105 tenth grade boys to determine the various “reasons why they asked girls out, dated and pursued physical relationships.” The most interesting outcomes were that 80% of the boys said that the primary reason for dating was not that they were physically attracted to someone but rather because “they really liked the person.”
The article also went on to ask the boys who had been sexually active what their reasons were and the answers ranged from”physical desire and wanting to know what sex feels like were among the top three reasons they pursued sex.” But what was particularly interesting was that the boys were “equally likely to say that they pursued sex because they loved their partner.”
I think that looking at this survey and article is great in the context of this blog. We spend a lot of time thinking about the thoughts of women and the effect of hook ups on them, but this survey is an indication that boys are not on a one track mind to sex and that there are certainly layers of emotions that we’re overlooking on the side of boys.
