Offers insight and honesty in a discussion of the healthy ways mothers can help their daughters grow comfortable and knowledgeable about their sexualityAn empowering resource for mothers and daughters everywhere. KirkusA fascinating and empowering text for women of all ages. Publishers WeeklyWhat an amazing and insightful guide for mothers facing the huge challenge of supporting their daughters amidst the many "hate your body" media messages that assault all of us daily. Judy Norsigian, co-author of Our Bodies, OurselvesYour Daughter's Bedroom is loaded with the kind of insight, wisdom, and practical advice that all mothers need to know to raise healthy daughters who are comfortable with their own sexuality. I highly recommend it! Christiane Northrup, M.D., ob/gyn physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers: Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of MenopauseUsing thousands of intimate interviews with women Joyce McFadden argues that --despite ourselves and inadvertently--sexism comes, in part, from the unhealthy messages we send our daughters about sex and behavior. A groundbreaking look at sexuality, mothers, daughters, and the myriad subtle ways one generation of women shapes the next. Jennifer Baumgardner, author of Manifesta, Look Both Ways, and Abortion LifeEndless talk about women as mothers has focused almost exclusively on the question of how, and whether it is possible, to raise children and still fulfill adult aspirations to work. But an equally important part of adult womanhood that has to be integrated with the competing demands of mothering is adult sexual desire. While mothers often hide their sexuality from their children, the literature seldom asks whether this helps or hurts children, and what kind of sexual honesty might actually help children to develop their own sexuality. In this important book Joyce McFadden shows how mothers affect their daughters' sense of self through the sort of sexuality they model as well as their explicit communications and exhortations. It's an honest, surprising and compelling look at this crucial contemporary dilemma. Jessica Benjamin, Psychoanalyst, author of The Bonds of LoveAn important book that gets at the heart of the mother and daughter bond and finally explodes the myth that women have to turn themselves into sexless Stepford wives to be good mothers. Expansive, honest, informed, and real. Deborah Siegel, author of Sisterhood, InterruptedI couldn't put it down. This book is a revolution in mindful caring for girls. It tells us how to dispel our own mother/daughter myths and how to realize and support our girls in the recognition and celebration of their sexual selves to gain lifelong physical and mental happiness. This is THE book I would recommend to all my mothers of girls and to all their doctors, teachers and therapists. I wish I had this book when I started in Pediatric practice 20 years ago: from it I've learned that I missed so many opportunities to nurture my female patients as females growing into themselves. I love this book. Barbara H. Landreth, M.D., Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College, Pediatrician, The New York-Presybterian HospitalAbout the AuthorJoyce McFadden is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York and East Hampton. Author of the ongoing anonymous web-based Women's Realities Study, she is a faculty member, clinical supervisor and training analyst at the Training and Research Institute for Self Psychology, as well as a faculty member at the Woodhull Institute and the NYC Open Center. She is a featured writer on intent.com and a columnist on Huffington Post. what do you talk about in a book club Your Daughter's Bedroom: Insights for Raising Confident Women
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Inspirational and incredibleBy Delaney WoodfordIf you have a daughter, are a daughter, or know anyone who has a daughter or is a daughter, Your Daughters Bedroom is relevant to your life. Too often, we choose not to talk to our daughters about issues surrounding sexuality. This is because we feel too much shame or because we do not have the language or information to do it correctly. This book changes that. From masturbation to menstruation, this book will help you realize how important it is that you do not leave your daughter in the dark about these subjects. McFaddens research reveals that the messages young women are bombarded with can be combatted by learning accurate information from their mothers, and this book provides just that. We all want the best for our children, and this book can help us give them that without making us feel guilty about our own fears surrounding the uncomfortable topics. By knowing that so many mothers are all facing the very same challenges, McFadden gives us the inspiration and confidence to empower the next generation.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Are these relationships good and healthyBy Kendra HollidayThis book is incredibly important. It attempts to break the shame barrier that keeps our generations apart. Think about your relationship with your mother. Now think about your relationship with your daughter. Are these relationships good and healthy? Why or why not? What can you do to change the culture of your family? This book has a great appendix with questions you can ask yourself about these relationships and help you gain insight on mother/daughter dynamics. One time my daughter asked me, "Do you think I'll be a good mom someday?" I replied, "If your goal is to be a better mom than me, than you will be a great mom." Because that was my goal - to be a better mom than my mom. And I achieved that goal. It's important to accepts our children - and ourselves! - for who we are.15 of 15 people found the following review helpful. A MUST read!By jklI cannot say enough about the importance of this book. I am finished reading it, but don't feel like I am finished. I want to read it again- and what I have read informs me every day. This is the only book that makes the connection between the overall confidence of girls and their sexuality. It is the only parenting book I have read which talks openly about sexuality beginning at birth. We live in such a puritanical society. The fact that the anatomically correct words for girls are taboo- and treated like curse words is a tragedy. Joyce McFadden helps us as moms to feel more confident to face this ugly reality and work to change it with our own daughters. I am amazed by how insidious sexism is and how we all feed right into it- without even knowing it. Joyce McFadden offers great tips on how to comfortably change our own ways in order to support our kids- without shaming us. She makes it seem easy. The book is also really important in pointing out how our relationships with our own mothers informs how we parent. Again, without shaming or judging- she simply brings about an awareness so that we can move forward in a healthy way. She also brings up the very taboo topic of masturbation and normalizes it for women. It is a treasure to read the realities of womens stories on this topic.I want to add that even though this is written about mothers and daughters, I have used the author's wisdom in mothering my son and my husband is currently reading it.Joyce writes so clearly and beautifully- as if she is having a supportive conversation with each of us. She is humble and backs up her findings with stories from her clients and women in her study. It is fascinating and I couldn't put it down.