For my project, I chose to explore how purity culture was taught at it’s height in the 90s and how it’s being taught now.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Sa-XG6DBN0medRSU7hxCRU-YPGeHvsu6EhIbHjNdV0c/edit?usp=sharing
Bibliography
For my project, I chose to explore how purity culture was taught at it’s height in the 90s and how it’s being taught now.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Sa-XG6DBN0medRSU7hxCRU-YPGeHvsu6EhIbHjNdV0c/edit?usp=sharing
Bibliography
Abraham, Devi. “It’s Back: Purity Culture 2.0, Gen Z Style.” Religion News Service, December 2, 2021. https://religionnews.com/2021/12/02/its-back-purity-culture-2-0-gen-z-style/.
Brebner, Samuel. “You’re Not a Piece of Gum.” Chastity, October 26, 2021. https://chastity.com/2020/04/youre-not-piece-gum/.
Freitas, Donna. Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Galo, Sarah. “How Not to Talk about Purity.” Relevant, January 8, 2021. https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/church/how-not-talk-about-purity/.
Gregoire, Sheila Wray, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky. The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You’ve Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2021.
Gross, Terry. “Memoirist: Evangelical Purity Movement Sees Women’s Bodies as a ‘Threat’.” NPR, September 18, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/648737143/memoirist-evangelical-purity-movement-sees-womens-bodies-as-a-threat.
Haberman, Clyde. “How an Abstinence Pledge in the ’90s Shamed a Generation of Evangelicals.” The New York Times, April 6, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/abstinence-pledge-evangelicals.html.
Krutzsch, Brett. “Post-Purity Culture: The New Online Frontier of Evangelical Sexual Ethics.” The Revealer, July 22, 2021. https://therevealer.org/post-purity-culture-the-new-online-frontier-of-evangelical-sexual-ethics/.
Mean Girls. Roma: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2004.
Morgante, Camden. “Exploring Purity Culture as Religious Trauma/ Purity Culture & Shame.” Dr. Camden Morgante, August 25, 2022. https://drcamden.com/2020/10/07/exploring-purity-culture-as-religious-trauma/.
Sellers, Tina Schermer. Sex, God, and the Conservative Church: Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy. Milton: Taylor and Francis, 2017.
Abraham, Devi. “It’s Back: Purity Culture 2.0, Gen Z Style.” Religion News Service, December 2, 2021. https://religionnews.com/2021/12/02/its-back-purity-culture-2-0-gen-z-style/.
Brebner, Samuel. “You’re Not a Piece of Gum.” Chastity, October 26, 2021. https://chastity.com/2020/04/youre-not-piece-gum/.
Freitas, Donna. Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Galo, Sarah. “How Not to Talk about Purity.” Relevant, January 8, 2021. https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/church/how-not-talk-about-purity/.
Gregoire, Sheila Wray, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky. The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You’ve Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2021.
Gross, Terry. “Memoirist: Evangelical Purity Movement Sees Women’s Bodies as a ‘Threat’.” NPR, September 18, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/648737143/memoirist-evangelical-purity-movement-sees-womens-bodies-as-a-threat.
Haberman, Clyde. “How an Abstinence Pledge in the ’90s Shamed a Generation of Evangelicals.” The New York Times, April 6, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/abstinence-pledge-evangelicals.html.
Krutzsch, Brett. “Post-Purity Culture: The New Online Frontier of Evangelical Sexual Ethics.” The Revealer, July 22, 2021. https://therevealer.org/post-purity-culture-the-new-online-frontier-of-evangelical-sexual-ethics/.
Mean Girls. Roma: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2004.
Morgante, Camden. “Exploring Purity Culture as Religious Trauma/ Purity Culture & Shame.” Dr. Camden Morgante, August 25, 2022. https://drcamden.com/2020/10/07/exploring-purity-culture-as-religious-trauma/.
Sellers, Tina Schermer. Sex, God, and the Conservative Church: Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy. Milton: Taylor and Francis, 2017.
Ashley, I love your project! The Mean Girls formatting was so cool and had such a funny and unique touch. I also did my project partly on purity culture so it’s really interesting to see how your research and findings align with my own. I think the part you put about women being equated to used-up things is especially true. I also mentioned that in my project as well because it really is horrific! Sometimes I still can’t believe rhetoric like that is truly out there and people are really using it against women. Overall I learned a lot from your project and really appreciated hearing your take on the similar findings I had in my project. It’s cool how you compared purity in the 90s versus the current day!
I love the mean girls formatting so much, I think the aesthetic of presentations is actually really important cause it can be what makes people captivated by the project and you definitely did a good job with that. I also really liked the quote about parents giving the ring to avoid talking about sex because I feel like parents have no idea how to talk to their children about sex and the way they go about it usually ends up being more damaging. Good job!!
This project was a super interesting way to analyze purity culture. I really like how you compared the way that purity culture has been presented to teens of different generations. It’s interesting how proponents of purity culture have adapted their methods to reach children and teens in ways that feel more accessible to them, like through social media. I think that also makes purity culture even more dangerous, as viral social media posts containing false or harmful information can so easily impact young people.
I really enjoyed the flow of your project, it was very well structured, argumented and impactful. I think it is very important to acknowledge the ways purity culture has translated into our modern spaces of sex, and how now through social media we might not even realise how we are being influenced. I also appreciate how you made the project more personal by integrating personal experiences. Thank you again for bringing awareness of purity culture in todays context!
I thought this project was really well done. The Mean Girls formatting made it very entertaining and keeps the attention of readers. I also really liked your mention of purity culture moving more towards social media. Of course, they have to do their best to keep up with what is popular in order to get the message out, and most social media has younger users which is the perfect audience for the message. As disheartening as it may be, at least to me, getting the “purity culture” message out through social media is likely quite effective. I also appreciate your inclusion of the impact of sex education, or I suppose the lack thereof in most purity culture situations. It demonstrates how important comprehensive sex education is, as well as conversations between parents and their children.
I really enjoyed listening to your presentation about the history of how purity culture was taught in contrast to how it is being spread throughout social media in the 21st century. That youtube video that you showed in class was particularly interesting in how less formal and more forgiving the teachings/ sharing of experiences regarding purity culture is today. I also really agree with how you mention that sexual education in both the education system and from parents should be improved. In my project, two of my interviewees had not even received sexual education from their schools at all, due to them being private Catholic high schools. It’s crazy to think about how oblivious and curious teenagers who don’t receive sexual education must be about sex, in addition to how potentially dangerous and damaging the absence of this education may be on their physical and mental health .
Ashley, this was an awesome project! I especially really loved the mean girls theme throughout the presentation. I thought it was really interesting that among Evangelical Christian teen there’s only a small delay in having sex and that when they do they are less likely to use contraception. It seems like purity culture’s tactics are not effective at all and instead lead to no sexual education among teens who are still going to have sex. Not good! I also thought it was crazy that some peoples parents just give them a purity ring instead of having a real conversation with their children about sex and how to do it safely. Makes me feel very lucky about my own sex education from my parents.
First of all, I loveeeeeeed the theme! I think Mean Girls was a really good choice as a base theme since it was one of the first mainstream films that talked about teens having sex, whereas comparable films that came before it, such as 16 Candles was much more (for lack of a better word) ‘prude’ in its discussion of teen sexuality. I also just love the concept of comparing how purity culture has changed throughout the years because people of different generations will all have different perceptions of purity culture. I can tell you put a lot of work into this, and your presentation was very captivating.
First of all, I LOVED the Mean Girls references; I think it was perfect for the concept of purity culture because there are many references to purity culture, or refraining from sex, in the movie. I appreciated how you talked about modern purity culture and how it has evolved. The general approach to purity culture, especially in the video about the recently married couple that you added to this presentation, is that the people still partaking in this culture recognize that they are in the minority. The guy (everything he said made me so mad btw) prefaced the discussion by acknowledging the fact that most people think having sex only after marriage is awkward. That video reminded me of the youtube account “Girl Defined” that I used to see reaction videos of as a kid. They had a similar video explaining how one of the girls only waited to kiss her partner until after they got married, it was surreal to watch but it gave an insight as to how modern purity culture is being advocated for in the media. Overall, well done! This was a very thought-provoking project.
I loved the Mean Girls references, I think that they fit so well and made the presentation aesthetic very fun. I think it’s so interesting how incredibly different each school’s sex education curriculum can be and I do think that purity culture can play a role in this. I personally did not have the “sex talk” so I had to rely on my school’s health class, which was still rather abstinence-based leaning, but was more comprehensive than many other school’s curriculums in the U.S. I feel like purity culture is usually NOT effective, and having a comprehensive sex education is so so important in decreasing risk to one’s physical and mental/emotional wellbeing. I have noticed that there are many young “influencers” on social media who talk about how/why they waited until marriage and I think that this shift in the ways of spreading purity culture is very interesting as many of these people have young audiences. Interesting topic, great job!
Ashley, this project was such a fun and informative way to explore the topic of purity culture! Your slide on how impurity is labeled as being used in metaphors such as used gum was particularly striking to me as those were comparisons that I had heard before in the past and still bother me. I also loved how you brought in the modern perspective of how purity culture is conceptualized now. I have seen TikToks making parodies out of modern day purity culture couples and their wait for marriage, so it was very interesting to see real examples of this.
I really loved your project, I especially liked the mean girl’s background on it. I think you brought up such a great point in comparing how purity culture has been taught differently to different generations. From everything we have learned about purity culture in this class, and with your presentation, it has really become evident how damaging it is. Overall really great project!
Ashley, your presentation was very well done and I loved the Mean Girls theme! One thing that stood out to me was the video that you included as an example of what purity culture looks like now on the internet. Just as hookup culture has been glorified through media, so has purity culture through videos such as the one that you showed. The part about metaphors about impurity was also interesting, as it shows just how much the language that we use about women’s bodies and sexuality has made an impact on how women see themselves and are viewed at large. If you are referred to as a piece of gum, it is only natural that your sense of self worth will disintegrate.