Purity culture and its Impurity

 

 

 

    I have been watching anime since 1998, and I can honestly say that as a hardcore anime fan, this shit can get weird...like REALLY weird at times!  Take the 1998 OVA "Virgin Fleet", it is a series about these women who pilot fighter jets, but get this, they have a special power that allows them to pilot the jets!  Can you guess what that power is?  It's being a virgin; this anime says that women who are virgins have the ability to access great powers.  Now, I can go on a massively long rant about what does it mean to be a virgin and how penetrative sex is not the only kind of sex in the world......but that's a different argument!  Instead I want to talk about this whole purity thing and how it can cause more harm than good.

    

    Throughout my entire life, I have went to religious schools, but by the time I got into junior high school, that's when the purity culture came into effect.  We were constantly told that we needed to save ourselves for marriage and combined with the idea that those who did not save themselves would find a hard time finding love.  I can honestly say that despite being a virgin at the time.....there's no difference!  I mean it is ultimately a combination of how you act towards people, personality, and how you take care of yourself that matters most.  Never the less, in a perfect world, no one is pressured to keep or lose their virginity, people are adults who can make these decisions for themselves and not force religion on others so they can fall in line.  Back when I was deep in the church, they would really hype up on how being a virgin was the greatest thing, and that waiting on to lose your virginity during your wedding night would be perfect.

    I remember feeling like I was superior to those that were not virgins.  Then to make matters worse, I was treated like royalty; the next leader of the free world.....all because I never had sex.  These thoughts and feelings I had were ingrained into me when I was young.  I didn't know any better, I just stuck with what the church told me and rolled with it and accepted this as fact.  And just so you all know, I was a virgin until the age of 27........so yeah...this shit I am saying is real!  

   In my personal opinion....this wrong...like VERY wrong!  Purity culture does not only talk about abstaining from sex, they talk about abstaining from ANYTHING sexual!  This means no masturbation of any kind, no dirty thoughts; hell in some places its wrong to even kiss too!  Imagine getting married to someone you have never kissed, you both have never done anything sexual, and you both plan to have sex during your wedding night with zero idea on how to do anything.  Purity culture, is more than not fucking, it is repressing how you feel, then expecting to go in and do it when you're married with zero knowledge on HOW to do it...does this make any sense!?  

    Through purity culture, you are taught that being aroused is sinful, engaging in masturbation is sinful, looking at anything sexual is sinful.  In fact, you might as well say existing is sinful!  But in reality, the whole notion is if it is anything sexual, then it is sinful, and the less sexual you are, the more superior you are in comparison to others.  There is no education, just the bible and if you question it, then guess what, that's sinful and wrong!  Wow.........I can't believe I came from that whole life.......but I am not finished yet!

    Due to this way of thinking, people tend to just break mentally as well as marriages might not last long due to people being sexually incompatible, or people discovering their sexuality during sex.  I want to make this known, that I do not have a problem with people being virgins by choice, after all it is your life and if that is what makes you happy go for it.  However, I do have a problem with people who refuse to learn anything about their bodies or how things work as well as people who push purity stuff on others.  

     But, when it comes to purity culture, the thing that really infuriates me about it, is how sexist it is towards women!  Going back to that series Virgin Fleet, men do not have any special powers when they are virgins, it is only the women.  Already that is a strong sign that it's sexist!  But lets go further beyond the world of fiction into real life; you have these events called purity balls where young girls get dressed up and attended a dance with their fathers and pledge to them that they will not have sex until they are married.  Ok, there are so many things wrong with what I just said, but the key thing is that......you know what fuck it's everything!  As I write this blog post the very thought of purity culture is just fucking gross because it is all about controlling a woman's body at the end of the day.  

    Yet, there is a question we should ask, what about the guys?  How does this affect them?  Simple, it hardly does.  Purity culture treats men like they are kings, they have the power to determine if someone is worthy of them based on purity.  It paints the picture that the man is always right and knows what he is doing, meanwhile the women need to take extra steps and precautions to make sure they do not make a mistake.  Now some may feel that I am over exaggerating this claim, but let provide a couple of examples!

     This is Clifford Joseph Harris Junior but I feel like we know him more famously as the rapper known as T.I!  Did you know that he would annually take his daughter to the gynecologist to to receive a "Viginity test" aka checking to see if her hymen was still intact.......yeah.....that was a thing and it traumatized his daughter.  There is sooooo much wrong with that but, don't worry she cut him out of her life thankfully! Yet, this is about to get worse...

     I am fairly positive we know of Andrew Tate and his insecurities towards strong independent women, but take a look at the lady next to him.  That is H. Pearl Davis, she is a firm believer of purity culture for women.  She also thinks that men can do whatever they want with women  and it doesn't matter if men are "pure" its that women must be the pure ones...she also thinks slavery was overly exaggerated too but that's just called brain rot!  But I have a question, what if purity culture was the norm in society?  What if this was our way of life and everything?  Well I have an answer to that!

 

 

    We would ultimately be unhappy!  No one could explore their bodies, and learn about what they like.  Hell, people would have ZERO idea on how sex works, or how to have great sex.  This is a world where the government has full control of not only women's bodies, but everyone's bodies; and where you can go to jail just but hosting a sex education lesson to help people become safe.  In short, life would become a more sexist version of Shimoneta!  Ok I know some of the things I have said may seem like an exaggeration, but sometimes it feels like that when you watch the news....gotta love election years.....yuck.

   
 

    Now wait a second, what I said was bleak and depressing....but how is it that I along with others broke away from purity culture?  Well, to tell you the truth, it was not easy.....and a very interesting story that I will share at some point, but the fact of the matter is that it took year's and a realization that what was being taught in purity culture is a lie and that when armed with knowledge you can make a change, and shatter the chains of oppression and let that sexual rebellious flags fly freely!  I want to repeat, if you feel abstinence is good for you, then kudos to you, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be smart and learn important facts or push it on others!