The author explores her own conflicting feelings as a mother as she protects her offspring and probes the roots and tendrils of the girlie-girl movement and concludes that parents who think through their values early on and set reasonable limits, encourage dialogue and skepticism, and are canny about the consumer culture can combat the 24/7 "media machine" aimed at girls and hold off the focus on beauty, materialism, and the color pink somewhat.

"A provocative and bracing send-up of modern masculinity, from the author of Class and The Story of My Purity"-- "Marcello, an editor and poet, is on the brink of his forties. Like everyone in his life, including his sister-in-law, he's writing a novel. This novel. This novel will be about women. Love. Growing older. Maybe even taking responsibility. But unfortunately for Marcello, the women in his life resist definition. They flit and flicker constantly...

"The hosts of the popular podcast and E! show LadyGang offer a relatable, empowering, and hilarious take on being unapologetically yourself (even if that's not always your best self) in a manifesto that redefines womanhood for the twenty-first century lady"--

"Heartbroken Nina Kamiyama is a former idol. She's decided to keep her past identity a secret for her personal safety, but the dangerous situation intensifies when another discovers who she really is. Who can she trust?"--Page 4 of cover

After that day, she stopped being a girl. In the wake of an assault, Nina Kamiyama, a former idol in the group Pure Club, shuns her femininity and starts dressing as a boy. At high school, she keeps to herself, but fellow student Hikaru Horiuchi realizes who she is. What secrets is she keeping? The shocking drama starts.

"When an unexpected medical crisis sends [the author] on a deeply personal journey to tease out the intersections between sexuality and creativity, she discovers, much to her own astonishment, an increasing body of scientific evidence that suggests that the vagina is not merely flesh, but an intrinsic component of the female brain--and thus has a fundamental connection to female consciousness itself."--Dust jacket.