Book Review: The Purity Myth

Summary:
The United States is obsessed with virginity — from the media to schools to government agencies. In The Purity Myth Jessica Valenti argues that the country’s intense focus on chastity is damaging to young women. Through in-depth cultural and social analysis, Valenti reveals that powerful messaging on both extremes — ranging from abstinence curriculum to “Girls Gone Wild” infomercials — place a young woman’s worth entirely on her sexuality. Morals are therefore linked purely to sexual behavior, rather than values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti sheds light on the value — and hypocrisy — around the notion that girls remain virgin until they’re married by putting into context the historical question of purity, modern abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex. The Purity Myth presents a revolutionary argument that girls and women are overly valued for their sexuality, as well as solutions for a future without a damaging emphasis on virginity. --Amazon

Review:
I have to admit I didn't have extremely high expectations of this book when I first bought it. While I'm a huge fan of feministing.com (the blog started by the author, Jessica Valenti), I had heard some pretty negative comments about her first book Full Frontal Feminism, (mainly pertaining to the fact that it was a kind of "feminism for dummies": oversimplified and biased, from a liberal, 3rd wave feminist perspective).

Boy was I wrong.

I LOVED this book. LOVED it.

It is EXTREMELY well-researched and informative. Also very comprehensive with a wide- range of topics including the virginity movement, hypersexualization of young girls, purity balls, pornography, abstinence-only education, legislating sexuality, rape and violence against women, and masculinity.

Do yourself a favor and read it!