Tag Archive for "Purity"

Posts Tagged Purity

What Rolling Stone and the Abstinence-Only Movement Have in Common

The latest Rolling Stone cover seems like a ridiculously apt illustration of what I was reading in Jessica’s new book, The Purity Myth, just last night:

Touting girls and girlhood as ideal forms of sexuality is simply another way of advancing the notion that to be desirable, women need to be un-adults–young, naive, and impressionable. Being independent, assured, and grown up has no place in this disconcerting model.

Jess’ goes on to make the argument that it’s not just pop culture outlets like Rolling Stone that are pushing this highly sexualized and infantile image, but the virginity movement as well:

…the ‘perfect virgin’ is at the center of the movement’s rhetoric, and its goals revolve largely around convincing girls that ...

The latest Rolling Stone cover seems like a ridiculously apt illustration of what I was reading in Jessica’s new book, The Purity Myth, just last night:

Touting girls and girlhood as ideal forms of sexuality ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

America’s Next Top Model’s fetishizing take on “purity”

For more pics, check out Women’s Glib.
America’s Next Top Model doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to sexism and photo shoots, so I guess this shouldn’t shock me. The show had the models dress up like little girls as a way to promote…purity?

This issue is really important to me, the issue of teen girls and being what I call ‘out of control.’ I did a survey on my talk-show website, and I found that one in five girls that are teens that we surveyed actually want to be a teen mom. Purity and innocence is something that’s being lost and as you Top Models are doing this photo shoot, you ...

For more pics, check out Women’s Glib.
America’s Next Top Model doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to sexism and photo shoots, so I guess this shouldn’t shock me. ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Shameless Self-Promotion: The Purity Myth is out!

I’m really excited to announce that The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women is out. (Though super nervous too!)
And while I’m anticipating some backlash – shit, even the title/cover of the book generated some conservative hand-wringing – I’m hoping that it will further the conversation about how the conservative movement uses young women’s bodies and moral panic myths to push traditional gender roles and punish women who don’t fit into the “pure” ideal.
If you want to get more of an idea of what the book is all about, you can download the Introduction here. Hope you enjoy it!
You can buy The Purity Myth on

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Moral panic visualized

In a talk I gave a couple of weeks ago in Virginia, I mentioned how the covers of anti-“hook up culture” publications often depict women as disheveled and distraught. Since I didn’t get to show folks what I meant then, I thought I could post a couple now for your viewing pleasure (or perhaps more accurately, viewing horror).
Here’s a study funded by the Independent Women’s Forum, Hooking Up, Hanging Out and Hoping for Mr. Right.

The cover of Laura Sessions Stepp’s Unhooked is a bit more subtle, simply showing a faceless woman taking her shirt off.

But it’s Miriam Grossman‘s Unprotected that really takes the shaming cake, with two different covers relaying ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Girls aren’t “going wild” after all

I was really glad to see that The New York Times picked up on the misplaced moral panic over teenage sex.

Parents have worried for generations about changing moral values and risky behavior among young people…
…The talk show host Tyra Banks declared a teen sex crisis last fall after her show surveyed girls about sexual behavior. A few years ago, Oprah Winfrey warned parents of a teenage oral-sex epidemic.
The news is troubling, but it’s also misleading. While some young people are clearly engaging in risky sexual behavior, a vast majority are not. The reality is that in many ways, today’s teenagers are more conservative about sex than previous generations.

But what reporter Tara Parker-Pope left out is that this ...

I was really glad to see that The New York Times picked up on the misplaced moral panic over teenage sex.

Parents have worried for generations about changing moral values and risky behavior among young people…
…The ...