“The new ideology is that sex is good and good sex means orgasm”: Richard V. Lepe, “What About the Right to Say ‘No’?,” New York Times, September 16, 1973. Referenced on pp. 111–12 of Forever.
“Not that I don’t identify with Katherine”: Weidt, Presenting Judy Blume, p. 53.
“be careful”: Judy Blume, Forever, p. 37.
“Sometimes it’s hard for parents to accept the facts”: Ibid., p. 119.
“There were double standards then”: Ibid., p. 83.
Three years later in 1939, Tampax was featured: Details about the Hall of Pharmacy found in the New York Public Library’s digital World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 collection. Accessed online: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=pharmacy#.
“that a tampon took up no more room than a standard nozzle”: As quoted in Joan Jacobs Brumberg’s The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), p. 161.
“of the time that Erica taught me how to use tampons”: Judy Blume, Forever, p. 129.
In a TikTok from 2022: https://www.tiktok.com/@singinraisin/video/7180450325726285102.
“This is really rough”: Judy Blume, Forever, p. 27.
“soft mattresses are good for making love”: Ibid., p. 41.
she’s not “mentally ready… a person has to think”: Ibid., p. 50.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a tease”: Ibid., p. 51.
“Sometimes I want to so much,” she admits: Ibid., p. 52.
“I was thinking, I love you Michael”: Ibid., p. 66.
“I didn’t tell them that with Michael and me it’s different”: Ibid., p. 91.
“In my whole life nothing will ever mean more to me”: Ibid., p. 134.
they don’t have to “do anything”; they can “just talk”: Ibid., p. 96.
“when we were naked, in each other’s arms, I wanted to do everything”: Ibid., p. 102.
“I’m thinking about getting pregnant”: Ibid., pp. 102–103.
“Still, I can’t help feeling let down”: Ibid., p. 107.
Chapter Eleven
Pleasure
“Can we do it again?”: Judy Blume, Forever (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Bradbury Press, 1975), p. 141.
“Our old ethic is, like Venice, sinking imperceptibly into the sea”: John Money, “Recreational—and Procreational—Sex,” New York Times, September 13, 1975.
which had more than doubled between 1963 and 1975: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports Series P-20, No. 297, “Number, Timing and Duration of Marriages and Divorces in the United States: June 1975” (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976).
she answers, “Does it matter?”: Judy Blume, Forever, p. 120.
“I’d rather take the Pill”: Ibid., p. 128.
“Katherine absolutely wants it and is in touch with her own desire”: RL to RB, November 8, 2023.
Michael describes his mom and dad as “a little stuffier”: Judy Blume, Forever, p. 142.
“We don’t have to do anything…”: Ibid., p. 136.
he “use[s] more junk” than she does: Ibid., p. 138.
“Do you ever put it on your balls?”: Ibid., p. 139.
“I grabbed his backside with both hands”: Ibid., p. 140.
“I thought how nice it would be if we could go upstairs”: Ibid., p. 143.
“Any way you want,” Michael answers: Ibid., p. 174.
“I thought, there are so many ways to love a person”: Ibid., p. 175.
“We both think you could use a change of scenery”: Ibid., p. 151.
“So they’ll find out that separating us won’t change anything”: Ibid., p. 158.
“What’s forever supposed to mean?”: Ibid., p. 187.
