The Purity Myth

by Jessica Valenti

18 Ultra Teen Choice. Abstinence Awareness Week advertisement, www.ultrateenchoice.org/.

  19 Tyler LePard. “What Teenagers Learn (and Don’t Learn) in Sex Ed,” RH Reality Check, October 13, 2006, www.rhrealitycheck.org.

  20 Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. “The Five Most Egregious Uses of Welfare’s Title V Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage-Funds.”

  21 Pure Love Club. Online store, www.chastity.com/store.

  22 Carpenter. Virginity Lost, 40.

  23 Love Matters. “Five Steps to Becoming a Secondary Virgin,” www.lovematters.com/startover.htm.

  24 Laurel Cornell. “Pure Again,” www.focusonthefamily.com/lifechallenges.

  25 A Pregnancy Resource Center of Northeast Ohio. “Take2 Renewed Virginity,” www.pscstark.com/42.

  26 Ibid.

  27 www.modestyzone.net.

  28 http://blogs.modestly yours.net.

  29 Janet Rosenbaum. “Reborn a Virgin: Adolescents’ Retracting of Virginity Pledges and Sexual Histories,” American Journal of Public Health, May 2, 2006.

  30 Alexa: The Web Information Company. Web traffic data, www.alexa.com/data.

  31 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2008 National STD Prevention Conference press release, www.cdc.gov/stdconference/2008/media.

  32 Feministing.com. “One more reason for comprehensive sex education,” April 3, 2008, www.feministing.com/archives/008936.html.

  33 Feministing.com. “If your hymen could be gift-wrapped, what would the bow look like?” December 28, 2007, www.feministing.com/archives/008311.html.

  CHAPTER 2 tainted love

  1 Camille Hahn. “Virgin Territory,” Ms. magazine, fall 2004.

  2 Laura Kipnis. The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006).

  3 www.abstinence.net.

  4 Ibid.

  5 www.puriTeewear.com.

  6 bell hooks. “Naked without shame: A counter-hegemonic body politic,” in Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age, ed. Ella Shohat (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998).

  7 Ibid, 69.

  8 Patricia Hill Collins. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (New York: Routledge, 2000), 134.

  9 Education Portal. “Leaving Men Behind: Women Go to College in Ever-Greater Numbers,” November 13, 2007, http://education-portal.com.

  10 Via a Nexis search.

  11 Mark Morford. “Bikini waxes for little girls—trend alert!,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 11, 2008.

  12 Cassandra Tognoni. “Giving out eye candy,” Daily Pennsylvanian, October 29, 2007.

  13 Kathleen Deveny and Raina Kelley. “Girls Gone Bad,” Newsweek , August 21, 2007.

  14 Lawrence Downes. “Middle School Girls Gone Wild,” The New York Times, December 29, 2006.

  15 Feministing.com. “A ‘modest’ appropriation of feminism,” July 6, 2007, www.feministing.com/archives/007318.html.

  16 Wendy Shalit. Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It ’s Not Bad to Be Good (New York: Random House, 2007), 10.

  17 Physicians for Life. “Teen Sex, Depression, and Suicide,” June 2003, www.physiciansforlife.org.

  18 Shalit. Girls Gone Mild, 11.

  19 Laura Sessions Stepp. Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love, and Lose at Both (New York: Riverhead Books, 2007).

  20 Ann Friedman. “Moral Panic Comes ‘Unhooked,’” American Prospect, March 8, 2007.

  21 Laura Sessions Stepp. “Cupid ’s Broken Arrow,” Washington Post, May 7, 2006.

  22 Miriam Grossman. “Shocked,” Town Hall, March 17, 2008, www.townhall.com.

  23 Kathleen Parker. “Dying to Date,” November 16, 2007, www.townhall.com.

  24 Ibid.

  25 Feministing.com. “The child-like delusions of Dr. Eric Keroack,” November 17, 2006, www.feministing.com/archives/006084.html.

  26 Carol Platt Liebau. Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Hurts Young Women (and America, Too!) (New York: Center Street, 2007), 152.

  27 http://daw neden.blogspot.com.

  28 Dawn Eden. “Casual sex is a con: women just aren’t like men,” Sunday Times, January 14, 2007.

  29 Carol Platt Liebau. “Girls Growing Wilder?” February 12, 2008, http://carolliebau. blogspot.com.

  30 Carol Platt Liebau. “A ‘Do-Me Feminist’ Speaks,” December 18, 2007, http://carol-liebau.blogspot.com.

  31 Ethics and Public Policy Center. “Modest Proposals” conference announcement, www.eppc.org/conferences.

  32 Public Health Reports. “Trends in Premarital Sex in the United States, 1954 -2003,” Jan/ Feb 2007.

  33 Laura Duberstein Lindberg et al. “Sexual Behavior of Single Adult American Women,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, March 2008.

  34 Guttmacher Institute. “Single Women Have Sex Too,” March 11, 2008, www.guttmacher.org/media.

  35 Guttmacher Institute. “Facts on American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health,” September 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_ ATSRH.html; John Santelli. “Explaining Recent Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy in the United States: The Contribution of Abstinence and Improved Contraceptive Use,” American Journal of Public Health, 2006.

  36 Advocates for Youth. “Decline in Teenage Pregnancy Rates Precedes Abstinence-Only-Until Marriage Funding ,” www.advocatesforyouth.org/factsfigures.

  37 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Adolescent Reproductive Health,” www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth.

  38 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2008 National STD Prevention Conference press release, www.cdc.gov/stdconference/2008/media.

  39 Jacob Goldstein. “Teen STD Rates Cause for Concern, Not Panic,” Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2008.

  40 Yolanda Young. “Black teen STD rate needs our attention,” USA Today, April 4, 2008, http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped.

  41 Robert Fullilove et al. “An Epidemic No One Wants to Talk About,” Washington Post, March 21, 2008.

  CHAPTER 3 forever young

  1 Feministing.com. “Padded bras for six-year-olds,” September 11, 2006, www.feministing. com/archives/005685.html.

  2 Feministing.com. “Who needs credit cards when you have a junior vagina?” December 11, 2007, www.feministing.com/archives/008226.html.

  3 Cory Silverberg. “The 25 Sexiest Novels Ever Written,” http://sexuality.about.com/od/eroticbooks.

  4 M. Gigi Durham. The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It (New York: Overlook Press, 2008).

  5 M. Gigi Durham. Email interview with the author.

  6 APA Task Force. Report on the sexualization of girls, 2007.

  7 Ibid.

  8 Generations of Light. “What is a Purity Ball?” www.generationsoflight.com.

  9 Generations of Light. Purity pledge, www.generationsoflight.com.

  10 Feministing.com. “Dating your parents: Not just for girls anymore,” January 18, 2007, www.feministing.com/archives/006375.html.

  11 Feministing.com. “Quick Video Hit: Purity Balls,” October 24, 2007, www.feministing.com/archives/007972.html.

  12 Pamela Jean. “Tell Me—What’s So Wrong With A ‘Purity Ball ’?” Digital Journal, March 16, 2007, www.digitaljournal.com.

  13 Jennifer Baumgardner. “Would you pledge your virginity to your father?” Glamour magazine, January 2007.

  14 Lynne M. Thompson and Cheryl Gochnauer. “A Date With Dad,” Focus on the Family, 2005.

  15 Generations of Light. Testimonial, www.generationsoflight.com.

  16 Judith Warner. “Pure Tyranny,” The New York Times, June 12, 2008.

  17 Ovetta Sampson. “Broadmoor formal aims to reinforce importance of father-daughter bond,” Gazette, March 8, 2001.

  18 Gary Cleland. “Tesco accused over padded bra for 7-year-olds,” Telegraph, April 2008.

  19 Charlotte Allen. “It’s OK for Little Girls to Have Sex—As Long As They’re Vaccinated,” Independent Women’s Forum,
June 30, 2006, www.iwf.org/inkwell.

  20 Katha Pollitt. “Virginity or Death!” Nation, May 12, 2005, www.thenation.com/doc.

  21 Bill Maher. “Christians crusade against cancer vaccine,” Salon, www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/03/02/hpv.

  22 Rob Stein. “Vaccine for Girls Raises Thorny Issues,” Washington Post, November 7, 2006.

  23 http://blogs.modestly yours.net/modestly _ yours/2006/01/immunized_again.html www.parentspromotinginnocence.org/index.html.

  24 Dr. Billy Goldberg and Mark Leyner. “Lost innocence or hormonal hazard?” The Body Odd, MSNBC , April 30, 2008, http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com.

  25 American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “2000/2005/2006 National Plastic Surgery Statistics.”

  26 Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Institute of New York. “Women Now Have Equal Sexuality Rights,” PR Web, November 15, 2002, www.prweb.com.

  27 Judith Graham. “Women urged to shun trendy plastic surgery,” Chicago Tribune, August 31, 2007.

  28 Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy, Public Health & Education. “ACOG To Warn Against Vaginal Rejuvenation, Other Cosmetic Procedures,” August 31, 2007.

  29 Sandra Boodman. “Cosmetic Surgery’s New Frontier,” Washington Post, March 6, 2007.

  30 Blank. Virgin: The Untouched History, 24.

  31 Richard Estes. “The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico,” University of Pennsylvania, 2001.

  32 Girls Educational & Mentoring Services. Message from the director, www.gems-girls.org/message.html.

  33 Rachel Lloyd. “From Victim to Survivor, From Survivor to Leader: The Importance of Leadership Programming and Opportunities for Commercially Sexually Exploited and Trafficked Young Women & Girls, Girls Educational & Mentoring Services, 2008, www.gems-girls.org.

  34 Julia Scheeres. “Girl Model Sites Crossing Line?” Wired magazine, July 2001.

  CHAPTER 4 the porn connection

  1 Focus on the Family. “In what direction is the pornography industry moving these days?” http://family.custhelp.com.

  2 Carmine Sarracino and Kevin Scott. The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go From Here (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008), 12.

  3 Robert Jensen. Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007).

  4 Ibid., 80.

  5 Good magazine. “Internet Porn: The Lucrative Business of Online Sex,” May 2007.

  6 Jensen. Getting Off, 4.

  7 Ibid., 57.

  8 Shauna Swartz. “XXX Offender,” in BitchFest, ed. Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006), 318.

  9 www.realdoll.com.

  10 www.coverdoll.com.

  11 Meghan Laslocky. “Just like a woman,” Salon, October 11, 2005, www.salon.com.

  12 www.sexdollrental.com. (As of publication, this site has been removed.)

  13 MSNBC.com, “Sheen plays with dolls, destroys the evidence,” October 10, 2007, www.msnbc.msn.com.

  14 Ariel Levy. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (New York: Free Press, 2005), 19.

  15 Courtney Martin. Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body (New York: Free Press, 2007), 245.

  16 Concerned Women for America. “‘De-pornification?’ CWA’s Jan LaRue Challenges Young Adults,” December 6, 2006, www.cwfa.org.

  17 Brenda Zurita. “Score Two for the Perverts,” Concerned Women for America press release, March 2008.

  18 Barton Gellman. “Recruits Sought for Porn Squad,” Washington Post, September 20, 2005.

  19 Xeni Jardin. “FBI’s new War on Porn—vagina, not Osama, is greater threat,” BoingBoing , September 20, 2005, www.boingboing.net.

  20 A Queer Tribe, “Obscenity Prosecutions,” December 8, 2005, http://aqueertribe.tribe.net.

  21 Associated Press, “Ala. sex-toy ban goes to Supreme Court,” May 15, 2007.

  22 Reuters, “Texas mom faces trial for selling sex toys,” February 11, 2004.

  23 Allison Kasic. “Take Back the Date,” Independent Women’s Forum, February 13, 2008, www.iwf.org/campus

  24 Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute. “The Vagina Monologues Exposed: A Student’s Guide to V-Day,” 21.

  25 Ibid., 23.

  26 Lakshmi Chaudhry. “Babes in BushWorld: Raunch culture offers good old-fashioned pleasure, Republican style,” In These Times, October 28, 2005.

  27 Naomi Wolf. “The Porn Myth,” New York magazine, October 20, 2003.

  28 Andrea Rubenstein. “Sex-positive does not mean misogyny-friendly!” January 29, 2006, Shrub, http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji.

  29 Audacia Ray. Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration (Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2007).

  CHAPTER 5 classroom chastity

  1 Choosing the Best PATH. Teachers’ guide, 7.

  2 Michael Alison Chandler. “Christian Sex-Ed Lesson Criticized,” Washington Post, March 15, 2007.

  3 Henry Waxman. “The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs,” United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, Special Investigations Division, December 2004.

  4 Ibid., 13-14.

  5 Ibid.

  6 Me, My World, My Future. Revised HIV material, 258.

  7 Reasonable Reasons to Wait. Teachers’ guide (unit 5): 19.

  8 Sex Respect. Student workbook, 11.

  9 WAIT training.

  10 Choosing the Best Life. Leader guide, 7.

  11 http://proknowledge.org.

  12 Why kNOw. Abstinence-only textbook, 59.

  13 Ibid., 61.

  14 Reasonable Reasons to Wait.

  15 Friends First. WAIT training manual.

  16 Why kNOw, 76.

  17 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. “Child Maltreatment 2004,” Chapter 3, 2006.

  18 No More Money. “Reality Behind Programs,” 2005, www.nomoremoney.org/reality.html.

  19 Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. New guidelines.

  20 Nico Pitney, “New Bush Policy: All Gays Should Be Celibate,” Think Progress, April 17, 2006, http://thinkprogress.org.

  21 Zazzle. Online “Wait Wear” store, www.zazzle.com/waitwear.

  22 Feministing.com. “No sex for you, my pretty!” May 31, 2006, www.feministing.com/archives/005129.html.

  23 Abstinence Clearinghouse. Abstinence Idol registration, www.abstinenceconfeence.net-.

  24 John Santelli et al. “Abstinence and abstinence-only education: A review of U.S. policies and programs,” Journal of Adolescent Health 38, no. 1 (2006): 72-81.

  25 Karen Perrin. “Abstinence-Only Education: How We Got Here and Where We’re Going,” Journal of Public Health Policy, January 1, 2003.

  26 Daley. “Exclusive Purpose,” SIECUS report, April/May 1, 1997.

  27 Perrin. “Abstinence-Only Education.”

  28 Title V, Section 510 of the Social Security Act.

  29 Advocates for Youth. “The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding,” www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications.

  30 Legal Momentum. “Sex, Lies & Stereotypes: Profiles of Federally Abstinence-Only Grant Recipients,” www.legalmomentum.org.

  31 Feministing.com. “Leslee Unruh is coming for your babies,” May 24, 2007, www.feministing.com/archives/007079.html.

  32 Myra Batchelder, “Who Is Leslee Unruh?” Planned Parenthood, May 10, 2006, www.plannedparenthood.org/issues-action.

  33 Eric Resnick, “State ‘abstinence’ head suspended in ethics case,” Gay People’s Chronicle, April 14, 2006, www.gaypeopleschronicle.com.

  34 Legal Momentum. “Sex, Lies & Stereotypes: Profiles of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Grant Recipients.”

  35 Ibid.

  36 Amy Bleakley, PhD, MPH, Michael Hennessy, PhD, MPH, and Martin Fishbein, PhD. “Public Opinion on Sex Edu
cation in US Schools” Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 160 (2006):1151-1156.

  37 Documentary Educational Resources. Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque website, www.der.org/films/abstinence-comes-to-albuquerque.html.

  38 YouTube. “BULL$#!+ - Abstinence Only” video, www.youtube.com.

  39 www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/04/09/abstinence-only-abstaining-from-ethics-while-imposing-morality.

  40 American Psychological Association. “Based on the Research, Comprehensive Sex Education Is More Effective at Stopping the Spread of HIV Infection, Says APA Committee,” February 23, 2005, www.apa.org/releases/sexeducation.html; American Medical Association. “Sexuality Education, Abstinence, and Distribution of Condoms in Schools,” www.ama-assn.org; American Academy of Pediatrics. “Sexuality Education for Children and Adolescents,” Pediatrics 108 (2001): 498-502; American Public Health Association. “Abstinence and U.S. Abstinence-Only Education Policies: Ethical and Human Rights Concerns,” www.apha.org/advocacy/policy.

  41 Kevin Freking. “States Refuse Abstinence Ed. Grants,” Time, June 24, 2008, www.timecom/time/politics..

  42 www.parentsfortruth.org.

  43 Rob Stein. “U.S. Campaign to Promote Abstinence Begins,” Washington Post, June 1, 2008.

  44 Christopher Trenholm, Barbara Devaney, et al. “Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs,” 2007.

  45 Hannah Brückner and Peter Bearman. “After the promise: The STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges,” Journal of Adolescent Health 36, no. 4 (2005): 271-78.

  CHAPTER 6 legislating sexuality

  1 Archive of the Biting Beaver. “Morality causes, EC, and broken condoms,” May 31, 2008, http://archiveofthebitingbeaver.wordpress.com.

  2 NARAL Pro-Choice America. Refusal to Provide Medical Services, Who Decides?, 2007.

  3 Cristina Page. Interview with the author, December 2008.

  4 NARAL Pro-Choice America. Who Decides?

  5 Jim Abrams. “30 states said at risk of abortion ban,” Associated Press, October 6, 2004.

  6 Lawrence B. Finer and Stanley K. Henshaw. “Abortion Incidence and Services in the United States in 2000,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, January/February 2003.

  7 Stanley K. Henshaw. “Abortion Incidence and Services in the United States, 1995-1996,” Family Planning Perspectives, November/December 1998.

  8 Katha Pollitt. “Pregnant and Dangerous,” Nation, April 8, 2004; Rick Montgomery. “Push for fetal safet y blurs women’s rights,” McClatchy Newspapers, July 11, 2006.