The suburbs, where girls, safe from the dangers of the city, didn’t have to be kept under tight wraps, where parents weren’t too concerned on a moment-by-moment basis, the suburbs were her American finishing school. The suburbs created the agora for this education in the unsanctioned to flourish. The lessoning of surveillance, the gradual giving over of space to all these kids who had been endowed by Dr. Spock with the tools of disobedience – and it flourished, all right. It grew out of control.

The Dying Animal – Philip Roth