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The Secret Language of Girls

by Josey Vogels

There aren’t many secrets revealed in The Secret Language of Girls. But, then again, I’m a girl, making me privy, I suppose, to these secrets. The book is the fourth from Josey Vogels, a Canadian sex and relationships columnist and host of the television show My Messy Bedroom. In her latest, Vogels abandons her usual dating advice to look instead at how women relate to each other. She journeys through a typical woman’s life, examining how women bond (or don’t) on the playground, at the office, at the mall, and through milestones ranging from menstruation to marriage.

Vogels argues that women relate to each other very differently from how they relate to men, and very differently from how men relate to other men. This is hardly a mind-shattering thesis. And with references from such sources as Friends and Steel Magnolias (with the odd academic study thrown in), this is hardly high science.

Which doesn’t make the book any less fun. Reading through the adolescent anecdotes of the many women Vogels interviewed feels like an estrogen-charged stroll down memory lane. The writing is conversational and, at times, very funny. In particular, Vogels’ glossary of girlspeak is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

However, aside from some rather odd facts (women are apparently more articulate in the middle of the menstrual cycle), there isn’t much for women to learn here. For men, there is an amazing opportunity for enlightenment – though it’s difficult to imagine many men sitting down with this book over a cup of chamomile tea (or even a beer) to educate themselves about the joys of female bonding. The Secret Language of Girls works as a thoughtful, funny look at the way women communicate – not with men, for a change, but with each other.

 

Reviewer: Marsha Lederman

Publisher: Thomas Allen Publishers

DETAILS

Price: $21.95

Page Count: 256 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 0-88762-102-3

Released: May

Issue Date: 2002-6

Categories: Politics & Current Affairs