Book Reviews

Maiden USA and Do My Story, Sing My Song

by Anne Pyburn, June 26, 2008

On the dedication page of Do My Story, Sing My Song, Jo Salas quotes Oliver Sacks: “To restore the human subject at the center—the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject.” This quotation, from The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, could serve as a mission statement of sorts for Kathleen Sweeney’s Maiden USA as well. Both of these books explore the central question of safeguarding for our children the right to have and to use their own voices.

Maiden USA begins with an extremely scholarly parsing of media phenomena such as lipstick Lolitas, the virgin/slut dichotomy, Mean Girls, Barbie, and fear of menstruation. Though the book seems a bit overwrought (or perhaps overthought) at some points, these idiosyncrasies are well worth forgiving in order to share Sweeney’s insights into the state of young womanhood at the turn of the millennium.

For, unlike so many analysts of pop culture, Sweeney, who has worked extensively as an educator in the Mid-Hudson Valley, doesn’t stop at identifying the problem. There is good news out there; in the emergence of powerful female icons (one has to love an author who distinguishes icons and eye-cons) and in the growing tendency of young women to step out of the passive role of object, creating media of their own. Inside the queen bee of a swarm of Mean Girls may well lurk a frustrated Fellini. Maiden USA is a fascinating read for all who care about the well-being of young women—and young men, for clearly the well-being of one impacts the other.

In Do My Story, Sing My Song, the population under scrutiny is troubled children—severely troubled. Salas began doing music therapy at a residential treatment home for emotionally disturbed kids as a pioneer, patching together a program that initially had little in the way of funding, facilities, or comprehension from her superiors.