Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations | 
|  | | | Title: | Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations | | Author: | Vendela Vida | | Publisher: | St. Martin's Griffin | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 12 June, 2000 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0312263287 / 9780312263287 | | List Price: | $12.95 | | You Save: | $1.94 | | Amazon Price: | $11.01 | |
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Product Description
In a fascinating look at how young women are coming of age in America, Vendela Vida explores a variety of rituals that girls have adapted or created in order to leave their childhoods behind. Vida doesn't just observe the rituals, she actively participates in them, going as far as spending a week at UCLA to experience rush—she emerges a Tri-Delt. She also goes to Miami to learn about the "quince" (the Latin American celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday), to Houston to take part in a debutante ball, to Los Angeles and San Francisco to talk to female gang members, to Salem, Massachusetts, to interview a coven of witches, and to Las Vegas to watch young brides take the plunge—some of them in drive-through wedding chapels. With humor, insight, and illuminating detail, she explores girls' struggles to forge an identity and secure a sense of belonging through various rituals—rituals that they embrace without necessarily understanding the comforts they seek or the repercussions of their often all-too-adult choices.
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Customer Reviews:
• Amusing View 02 August, 2006
I picked this book up because unlike Alexandra Robbins "Pledged," Ms. Vida actually decided to experience a sorority rush as one of the "rites of initiation" she covered. For her other topics, she interviewed young women in the situations and did her best to observe some of the activities (e.g. a debutante ball). I especially enjoyed her epilogue where she attended the Burning Man festival in Nevada. I found it to be an amusing point of view and an enjoyable light read.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AX7OQLZCRG1SD
• But Why Must It Be Pink? 18 January, 2008
I'm a sucker for the mixed essay, world-perspective editorial style of editorship anyway, so foucing upon an issue of interest to me was just a cherry on top. Girls are becoming women wherever they live, regardless of the the sociopolitical background they come from- there are two eternal truths: you friends know sooo much better, and. . . unfortunately- your mother becomes a blithering fool the moment you turn 11.
Wish I had the time to reread before I need to resell!
- Reviewed by customer ID: ALC2JRG3GY3S2
• Eh... 03 August, 2004
Though this book reads like a series of feature articles in Seventeen magazine, no theories are explored or conclusions drawn, and the author makes a few gag-inducing statements in the beginning--In an attempt to distinguish herself from the typically silly girls in the sorority rush piece, she compares the surfboard-swinging boys of L.A. to the intellectual Manhattan boys she'd chatted with the night before who "jousted over interpretations of Joyce. "-- it does have some merit. It is often informative and brings awareness to some rites of passage that are not widely experienced. The pieces about the debutante ball and Burning Man festival were particularly enlightening to this somewhat typical, Midwestern, working class girl.
I can't recommend this book as anything more than a light afternoon-at-the-pool read or as filler for a bathroom magazine rack, but I do still recommend the author. Don't let this lackluster effort scare you away from reading anything else by her. I'm halfway through her novel, "And Now You Can Go" and it is wonderful...
- Reviewed by customer ID: A27PNHEZYR90P1
• A Disappointing Book 28 February, 2007
Some notes:
-- Pseudo-sociology or 'soc. lite,' masquerading as a more significant endeavor. Author occasionally provides block quotes from more in-depth works by real academics; those may be the best parts of the book.
-- Superficial analyses. Interesting questions present themselves but author always reaches for her pre-fabricated answers. She seems to have approached this project with a simple thesis, rather than a hypothesis and an open mind. She seems to have written her conclusions before she even started her "research."
-- Author sees/presents most things in "black & white." By which I mean simplistically, not in terms of race. B/c actually she totally ignores factors like race and class, i.e., factors that would complicate and add depth to her analysis.
-- Author has little sympathy, empathy, or compassion for her subjects (except perhaps the sorority girls).
-- Bias is, of course, a part of any qualitative research project. But here the author does not explore or question her own biases, perceptions, etc. She simply runs with them. Frequently judgmental and condescending.
-- Poorly written/in need of an editor: misuses words, inconsistencies abound. Lacking coherent structure at all levels (from the formation of sentences and paragraphs, to the overall lack of coherence between chapters. Fails to explain how pieces fit together. No methodological or theoretical framework).
-- Wicca chapter is particularly appalling for its willingness to make sweeping generalizations. No acknowledgment of how limited the author's bases are for such conclusions.
-- List of complaints could go on . . .
- Reviewed by customer ID: AUOOOF7W1HTVZ
• Perfect Picture Of Rushing 30 April, 2007
I was absolutely astounded that someone could paint such a perfect picture of rushing for a sorority. Vida mentioned every crucial, and frequently humorous, detail of the process. Accurate and brilliant.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2DFZLKYTLNRPX
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