Thinking it Through: No Surprise Here
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Matt Corely at Think Progress reports that a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that those who sign onto "virginity pledges"--an ever-so-popular practice in abstinence only programs--are as likely to engage in premarital sex as teens who don't promise abstinence. In addition, those virginity pledgers are even less likely to use condoms or other forms of birth control when they do have sex.
File this under "No Shit Sherlock."
This, of course, isn't the first study to demonstrate that abstinence programs are not only ineffective but dangerous. Kids subjected to these programs do not learn anything about conception or contraception and are instead become objects of libidinous patriarchal desire.
"Purity Balls" have become part of this save-it-til-marriage-abstinence-schtick. In these horrific displays, young girls take vows, exchange rings, and enjoy a first dance with their daddies. They are, in effect, pledging their virginity to their fathers. While this may represent the more extreme part of the abstinence only movement, it is still really creepy. These ceremonies are designed to mimic a wedding--here with the father marrying the daughter! They're sanctioning incest.
So, on the one hand we have abstinence only programs that don't work, and on the other we have purity balls that sanction incest.
I propose a new program: Just say NO to Evangelicals.
Those purity balls make plain the real motivation behind the abstinence schtick: the preservation of daddy's right to own women.
Posted by: Aspasia | Jan 08, 2009 at 06:43 AM