MORE THAN JUST RINGS WHAT IS PURITY CULTURE? WRITTEN BY Chelsea Hall // DESIGN BY Hayley Gomez Many people hear the term “purity culture’’ and immediately think rings and abstinence. However, purity culture is a bit more complex than that.
taught different ideologies through purity culture.
Purity culture refers to the American evangelical movement that promotes virginity until marriage. Purity culture bases its beliefs on the Bible verse 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5.
said.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.”
“Purity culture also teaches that women are responsible for the sexual thoughts, feelings, and choices men make, and so must dress, walk and talk in just the right way so as not to ‘inspire’ sexual thoughts, feelings, and actions in them,”
The endorsement of purity is spread using tools like purity rings and purity balls, which are formal events fathers and daughters attend to promote the virginity of the daughters until marriage. Purity rings are physical symbols that allow others to know that a certain person is practicing abstinence until they are married. Many celebrities have been seen wearing purity rings in the past, such as the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. Purity culture is practiced by males and females alike, and all those who practice it believe in abstinence until marriage. However, the expectations in purity culture are severely based on constructs of gender. Based on this belief, both unmarried males and females are expected to not act on their sexual desires, yet many believe that purity culture is harder on women. According to Linda Kay Klein, founder of Break Free Together — a non-profit that helps those with gender and sexuality-based trauma — men and women are both
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“Men are taught their minds are evil whereas women are taught that their bodies are evil,” Klein
One of the biggest criticisms of the movement is that a lot of blame is put on women.
Klein said.
Critics of purity culture believe that it villainizes women and paints men as victims. They believe that one of the main messages of the culture is that men cannot control their minds if women cannot control their bodies. At the height of the purity culture movement, there was a belief that this movement did show some results. According to the CDC, from 1995 to 2002, there was a decrease in sexual intercourse between boys and girls of the ages of 15-18. It was also seen that during this period teen pregnancies dropped. Although there may be some correlation between these numbers and the popularity of the purity culture movement at the time, there is no hard evidence that the decrease was caused by this movement. The purity culture movement has been around for decades, and it doesn’t seem to be disappearing any time soon — with a large number of supporters and critics alike.
