This 184-page book is written for parents of teenage
girls, as the title implies. Many parents, both men and women, do not know what
is abuse and what is not, especially with emotional abuse and date rape.
Therefore, the book is listed as a parenting book, and it is written to
parents. Murray explains in her introduction that she wrote the book after
working in a battered women’s shelter, where she found that virtually all of
the battered women had been in abusive dating relationships in high school.

Murray went into schools and tried to educate teens
about abusive relationships. As she explains, it was Murray who got the
education. She was surprised at how blind the girls and the boys were about
what is abusive and what isn’t. After her lectures teenagers would stay and
talk with her about their own new awareness that they had indeed been engaging
in behaviors that they did not realize were abusive.

Another thing Murray states in the book is that
teens stay in abusive relationships for different reasons than adults. For
instance, adults stay because of economic dependence, religious and cultural
mores, and because of the children. According to her, teens who stay in abusive
relationships are doing so often because they are receiving implicit messages
from their families and society that it is not okay to explore and develop
their own identity. They become active participants in the cycle of the
problem.

Murray appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was overwhelmed with the parents who
wrote to her about their daughters, whom they realized were in abusive relationships.
She says that it was because of her experiences, including the aftermath of the
show, that she wrote this book.

The specific topics covered include defining: teen
dating abuse; the different levels of abuse (she defines them in “levels,” starting
with verbal and emotional, moving to sexual and ending with physical); and
warning signs. I have at least as much experience as she does with victims of
domestic violence, and I would not describe them as levels, but instead as a
circle of violence with any or all of the types of abuse taking place.

She spends a chapter talking about why a girl would
“choose” an abusive relationship. Again, I disagree that a girl or a woman
“chooses” either the relationship, or to “stay” in the relationship. There are
men who are boys first, who are abusive. Some women and girls have the bad luck
to date or marry one of them. In fact, most abusive relationships do not start
until marriage and even later, when the first pregnancy occurs. Also, staying
is not seen as an option for many girls and women, in part because they do not
see the behavior as abuse. Denial is a big part of abusive relationships on the
part of both partners. Furthermore, the boys/men will act completely contrite,
promise never to do it again, and become even more loving, and the girls/women
believe them.

Murray devotes another chapter to the role of
alcohol. Much of it is statistics about the number of teens who drink. The part
I found disturbing in this chapter, though, is that while it is true that
abusers become more violent when drinking, she does not point out that studies
have shown that even without alcohol abusive men will remain abusive unless
they receive treatment. Unfortunately, many women believe this, too, and this
leads to focusing on the cessation of alcohol use rather than the abuse. She
even labels the victims as “codependents.” I know many experts in the field who
would strongly disagree with this label. The blame goes with the abuser not the
abused. But Murray states outright: “If she refuses your help (with alcohol or
drugs) you will be able to see very clearly that your daughter has made a conscious decision ((italics mine) to
stay in her relationship and be an active participant in the abuse … “

I couldn’t disagree more. If a girl uses drugs or
alcohol, it could be to numb herself to the abuse, to avoid dealing with it, or
because she is a typical teenager experimenting. Murray herself started out the
book with all the numbers of teens who drink but then concludes that doing so
is abnormal and essentially is “asking for it.” (Quotation marks mine).

The book does have a considerable amount of
information in the back about where to get help, questionnaires to help define
abuse, and that kind of thing, but overall, I do not agree with the basic
premises of the book. The final straw for me was the chapter where she talks
about girls who abuse boys. Statistics have shown that this is very rare. More
importantly, when it does happen, it is usually in reaction to being abused
over and over by the boy/man, and it is the larger, stronger boy/man who can
leave the situation. This statement is supported in most of the literature on
domestic violence.

In conclusion, while I feel that a book such as this
has potential to help teens avoid abuse, it may do more harm than good in the
long run. Because of the factors I pointed out, many parents will use it
against their daughters rather than as a way to help them. It has some merit,
but in my opinion, this is not the book I would give my daughter if I were
concerned about her being in an abusive relationship.

© 2003 Patricia Ferguson

Dr. Patricia Ferguson
is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of California, a freelance
writer and editor, and an artist. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from San Diego
State University and received her doctorate from Nova Southeastern University.
Her publications include research on rape in the Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, several articles on nuclear medicine for nuclear medicine technologists,
and an article on group therapy in The Reader’s Guide to Social Sciences. She
currently writes book reviews for several venues, has a chapter in "Girl
Wars: Twelve Tried and True Strategies for Overcoming Female Bullying,"
(Fireside, 2003), and is an Editor-in-Chief for Apollo’s Lyre, an online
magazine for writers. She is also working on a book of memoirs.

Categories: SelfHelp, Relationships, ChildhoodDisorders