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‘Girls & Sex,’ by Peggy Orenstein
Back in the 1980s, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” filled the airwaves, and its colorful, sassy video rotated almost continuously on MTV. In the song, a rebellious daughter returns home “in the morning light,” having enjoyed a night of “fun,” and expresses her unwillingness to be hidden away from the world by marriage. This catchy tune was the perfect soundtrack to a time when it seemed possible to reject stale ideas about feminine propriety and celebrate a girl’s right to pleasure.