Message

Social Behavior:

The girls try to run away several times. Much of the questionable social behavior is by their mother. In her narcissistic way, she trains the girls to focus on their looks to "catch" men. "My mother decided she wanted us all to be . . . sexbombs, each in her own way." Shelby says she practices manners from the heart, while to her mother, "manners were just a way of getting another bauble." The family picks up two hitchhikers. Shelby calls Maddie's father KIA (for know-it-all); he tries to impose order and rules on the girls.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Marilyn, 15, starts smoking when a man gives her cigarettes. She says "Good job, sweetie," when her 6-year-old sister puffs on it. Shelby makes her younger sister stop. Shelby says her mother and her boyfriends drank too much.

Violence

Maddie's father spanks her. A new boyfriend shouts at their mother and insults her; when she tells him to leave, he says, "I won't leave until I get what I paid for." (He does eventually go.)

Sex

Shelby's mom has four daughters by four different men. She uses men to support her with gifts and money; her daughters divide them all into "minor boyfriends" and "major boyfriends" (their fathers). Their mother goes off with a car mechanic she just met, prompting Shelby's older sister to say their mom likes S-E-X.

Language