Purity ball
A purity ball (also known as a father-daughter purity ball[1] or purity wedding[2]) is a formal ball dance event attended by fathers and their daughters. Purity balls promote virginity until marriage for teenage girls, and are almost exclusively associated with Evangelical Christian churches in the United States. Typically, daughters who attend make a virginity pledge; a pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage.[1] Fathers who attend pledge to protect what they view as their young daughters' "purity of mind, body, and soul."[3]. Proponents of these events contend that they encourage close and deeply affectionate, but chaste, relationships between fathers and daughters, thereby avoiding the fornication that allegedly results when young women seek love through relationships with men of their own age. Randy Wilson, a clergyman involved in the creation of purity balls, advises fathers to praise their daughters' physical attractiveness in effusive but polite terms: "I applaud your courage to look your daughter in the eye and tell her how beautiful she is."[1]
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[edit] Criticism
Writer and feminist Eve Ensler criticizes purity balls for purportedly putting young women in positions of inferiority and alleged interference with their personal freedom and autonomy in determining whether and with whom to engage in sexual relations.[1]
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health claimed that teenagers making virginity pledges such as those promulgated through purity balls usually do not adhere to the required standard of chastity, and are less prepared to utilize safer sex precautions in mitigating the risks of sexual activity when it does occur. Furthermore, the study asserted that the percentage of teenagers in a given area who have made virginity pledges is positively correlated to the frequency with which sexually transmitted diseases occur.[1] An article by TIME Magazine also echoed the same sentiments.[4]
Conservative journalist Betsy Hart, while supporting the idea of sexual abstinence prior to marriage, has expressed concerns that purity balls are pervaded by a preoccupation with physical chastity which may inadvertently imbue the social construction of girls attending them with erotic attributes, while shifting attention away from maintenance of the internal moral and spiritual virtue which she believes is required by the tenets of the Christian faith.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Would you pledge your virginity to your father?; Glamour; January, 2007; Jennifer Baumgardner.
- ^ "Purity wedding for teenagers". http://www.drewrybroadcasting.com/kwescal/view_entry.php?id=132&date=20080801. "The graduates will have a wedding to celebrate their choice and desire to be chaste."
- ^ http://generationsoflight.com/html/index.html
- ^ The Pursuit of Teen Girl Purity; Time Magazine; July 17, 2008; Nancy Gibbs
- ^ http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/8998958587896135679
[edit] External links
- The Purity Ball: Time Magazine photo essay of a purity ball
