Thanks for the info, Betsy!

Nutty, the book that Tashijian wrote is called Faultline and it comes with an afterword in which she talks about Naomi Wolff's book, Promiscuities where Wolff talks about being physically abused by her boyfriend when she was in high school. Then she talks about the JAMA study. And she follows it up with

When I talked to professionals about these statistics, most thought they were low.

I'd love to see the study.

anyhow, I like how in the book, Tashijian writes an abusive character who isn't a stereotypical monster. He's a nice guy most or some of the time and then he's an abusive prick other times. It's a good story. But sad.

I wore shorts over tights all the time in college. Bright pink tights, denim shorts. With my Mardi Gras pendant from the Krewe of Endymion. I still think it was kind of a good look, actually. I, um, read books while wearing this outfit.

I was never in any relationships as a teen, much less abusive ones.

Did you complete your outfit with striped ankle socks and did you have perky flower appliques all over your shorts and matching vest? DID YOU? Well, then.

FWIW, I did a little googling and the JAMA article isn't easily gotten at without a subscription. News articles citing it all simplify and none of them offers definitions of terms or even methods. (One did clarify that it was 9th-12th graders only.)

A Massachusetts Youth Risk Survey for 1997 comes up with the same statistic, which is on the slowest server in the world. Ah -- the 2001 survey lists 11% of all respondents (16% of females, 6% of males) as having been "hurt physically or sexually by a date or someone they were going out with" and 10% (14% f, 5% m) have had sexual contact against their will. All this in chapter 5, at

[link]

In the same study (chapter 7), 21% of all respondents rarely or never wore seatbelts. And 31% had been in a car where the driver had been drinking within the 30 days prior to the survey. 31%!!

Clearly, it is a miracle that anyone survives adolescence.

I often wore purple corduroy knickerbockers, a matching bolero vest, and a lavender blouse that tied at the neck.

Just call me Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Clearly, it is a miracle that anyone survives adolescence.

And then there are those of us who were boring as hell the perfect children during our adolescence...

Me, too. No social life == no sneaking in after curfew, no drugs, no car accidents... boy, were my parents unprepared for my younger brother.

Betsy, you were just indulging your turn for vintage fashions at an early age.

In the 1970s I did have a cool pair of purple striped bell-bottoms, in polyester. The tights and shorts outfit was all about Doc Martens and thrift store cashmere cardigans, however.

Yeah, in the 1970s I'm sure I had bell bottoms too. But considering I was in kindergarten, nobody holds that against me.

I survived adolescence by hiding in the library. There is very little drinking or unprotected sex in libraries (although there's a fair proportion of exhibitionists), and no cars at all.

Confession: I almost never wore tights. Uncomfortable things, on me.

1920's vintage dresses and 1940's menswear, a la Lauren Bacall. That was me.

And antique kimonos.