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!

purity whaaat??!!

So, I'm in the midst of FINALLY reading The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti, a book about how America's obsession with virginity is harming young women. It's really quite an interesting read thus far, in particular the section about purity balls. I was unaware of how little I actually knew about these events until I did some research after reading the section in the book.

Purity balls, a father/daughter dance-like event, aim to promote virginity until marriage for girls by their fathers. The girls make a virginity pledge and their fathers promise to "protect them" until their husband takes the place of the father as protector.

And no, I'm not exaggerating. This stuff is fucking ridiculous. Not to mention sexist, heteronormative, and even a bit incestuous.

Check some footage:



I love the fact that there are no boys making pledges to their mothers to stay "pure." Or the fact that the emphasis is on the men protecting the woman's "purity." It's not like these men are promoting ownership over women or anything. Definitely not. And yes. Don't you agree that "women were created to be accepted by men"??!?!

I guess I shouldn't mention that statistics have shown that the majority of girls who make these virginity pledges do not adhere to said vow, and that these girls are more likely to practice unsafe sex.

You can check out more footage HERE.