Learner’s Permit by Mary Karr. In this excerpt from Cherry: A Memoir, Karr discusses her first kiss and her mother’s obsession with birth control.
“You look back at Mother after a long silence, and she says, with no segue whatsoever, If you want to have sex, so be it. Just don't get pregnant.
Mother! you say with all the virginal outrage you can marshal given the amount of time you spend reading Henry Miller in the bathroom. You've never had a steady boyfriend. Nobody's ever even tried to feel you up. Some girl on your volleyball team who talked about making "dry love" with her boyfriend gave the closest firsthand reportage you've received on actual boning. Even Clarice, who's been going steady for more than a year, doesn't do more than French kiss and dole out the occasional hickey her boyfriend can hide with a Band-Aid at home and wear like a badge with his buddies.”