A Mormon Girl's Perspective

I'm at the point in my class where I'm diving into the banned books section.

I had such a hard time finding a banned book.  Not because they're not in the library due to their banned status, but because they're all checked out.  I mean between all ten or so libraries in the area, they're all gone.  I even had to ask a librarian to help me dive back far enough in the annals of banned-ness to help me find one to fit the criteria--within the past ten years or so and something I hadn't already read.

Pretty close to being tied with Harry Potter for it's challenged status is the "Alice" series.  I chose to read one of those.

Of the books I've read for this class, this has been my hardest one to read yet.  I'm dragging myself through it.  Even the last dragger I read, didn't make me suffer like this one does.  I actually ended up enjoying the last dragger. 

The "Alice" books are about a girl and all of her self-created drama.  It isn't creatively written.  It's just dull, boring, teen drama. 

Last night I read a portion of the book where Alice goes to a fancy school dance.  Her date is a total player.  She doesn't even really like him and really wanted to go to the dance with another guy that she genuinely likes, but this kid asked her right in front of her whole class, so she couldn't really say no.  She was kind of eh about the whole situation.

They went to the dance with another couple.  Halfway through the dance, the guy wants to take her and go to a party.  She talks him into staying until the end of the dance, so she doesn't have to explain to her dad why they weren't at the dance, then they take the other couple to their homes, and oh look, a whole half hour until Alice has to be home.  What do you know?  It's all pretty predictable.

Of course, the player finds a place to park and....  Thus the banned status.

Things get a bit steamy.  Not full on sauna, but steamy enough. 

Here's what bothered me.  I have to say, I see the world from an LDS standpoint.  Anyone who knows me pretty much knows that and can expect my responses to many, many things.  What bothered me was the fact that this young girl had no limits.  There was no point where she felt to stop--that what she was doing was wrong.  Is the LDS world the only one that considers this wrong?  The only thing that saved her from giving everything to this young man, who she didn't really care that much for, was that it was time to get home.

Is this really how it is?  I have to ask this.  I know no different.  I have to assert that I'm happy I had the limits I did and was taught from a very young age.  I believe it saved me from a lot of really bad choices and their possible consequences--things that could have changed my life in ways I couldn't control.  But, how is it for the rest of the non-LDS world?  Do people know their limits?  Is there a limit, or is it "anything goes?"  I guess I had never thought about this before.  What stops someone when they haven't been taught where to draw the line?