On Wednesday, November 6, 2019, the news that Rapper T.I. Said He Goes To The Gynecologist With His Daughter Every Year To “Check Her Hymen” went viral. The problems with Purity Culture are already well documented and United Nations agencies (UN Human Rights, UN Women and the World Health Organization) called for ban on virginity testing. According to the UN, ‘Virginity testing’ is a human rights violation with no scientific basis. Virginity testing is used to control and punish women worldwide and is part of Purity Culture that harms girls, women, and all people assigned female at birth. Purity Culture is also part of Rape Culture—rape and purity are not about sex—it’s about control. This pyramid was created to help demonstrate the how normalization of virginity and purity ultimate leads to more egregious and violent behaviors.
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#Accessibility Image Description: A graphic titled “Toxic Purity Culture” that has a triangle with words and a background gradient of darker red at the top peak, orange in the center, and yellow at the bottom. On the side of the pyramid is an arrow and 3 works, explaining the the gradient. Normalization leads to Degradation which leads to Assault. The text under the pyramid explains the relationship: “Tolerance of the behaviors at the bottom supports or excuses those higher up. To change outcomes, we must change the culture. Virginity is not a medical or scientific term. The concept of virginity is a social, cultural and religious construct that reflects gender discrimination against women, girls, and all people assigned female at birth.” The words inside the pyramid, starting with the top and most severe: Purity killings, Vitriol attacks, Genital mutilation, Marital rape, Virginity tests & hymen checks, Abstinence-only sex education, Using anal sex to “preserve” virginity, Threats & jokes made to daughters and their current/future male partners around virginity and purity Fetishizing virgins, Slut Shaming, Victim Blaming, Dress Codes, Hymen myths, Enforced modesty, Virginity pledges Purity balls
More information & sources
Purity Culture:
- It’s time we addressed our society’s toxic ‘purity culture’ – Rape culture and purity culture are two sides of the same coin—and women lose, no matter the outcome of the toss
- It Isn’t Just T.I. — Virginity Testing Is a Worldwide Problem – Virginity testing is used to control and punish women worldwide — and in the United States, it’s more common than you’d think
- The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women – book by Jessica Valenti
- Is it time to reclaim the word ‘virgin’ to its original meaning? – Once upon a time, the word ‘virgin’ was used specifically to describe a free woman – independent, autonomous, untied.
- Purity culture harmed thousands of evangelical teens; what did the Church get wrong about sex?
Purity / Honor / Adultery Killings:
- The Horror of “Honor Killings”, even in the US
- Preliminary Examination of so-called “Honour Killings” in Canada
- Honor Killing Is Not Just a Muslim Problem – It’s the most extreme form of institutionalized violence against women on the planet
- Honor Killings: Everything You Should Know, and Why They Aren’t Honorable
Vitriol (Acid) Attacks:
- Why we can blame the Victorians for today’s acid attacks
- Acid attacks: Crimes of hate rather than honour
- Acid Attacks: A Growing Form of Honor Violence
- Acid attacks are on the rise and toxic masculinity is the cause
Genital Mutilation:
- Female genital mutilation (FGM) – Prevalence of FGM (World Health Organization)
- U.S. Government Fact Sheet on Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting
- What you need to know about female genital mutilation – How the harmful practice affects millions of girls worldwide
- Under the Radar: Female Genital Mutilation in the United States
- FGM in Europe
Marital Rape:
- Marital Rape: New Research and Directions
- Inside One Woman’s Fight to Rewrite the Law on Marital Rape – Most states have loopholes on the books that make it more difficult to prosecute rape by an intimate partner. Jenny Teeson is fighting to change that in Minnesota.
- UN Urges Countries to End Marital Rape and Close Legal Loopholes – A dozen countries also allow rapists to avoid prosecution by marrying their victims.
- Sexual Assault in Marriage: Prevalence, Consequences, and Treatment of Wife Rape
Virginity Testing / Hymen Checks:
- ‘Virginity testing’: a human rights violation, with no scientific basis
- It Isn’t Just T.I. — Virginity Testing Is a Worldwide Problem – Virginity testing is used to control and punish women worldwide — and in the United States, it’s more common than you’d think
- A Test With No Answer – No procedure exists that can prove virginity, yet dangerously unscientific virginity tests occur regularly—even in the United States
- Women suffer the myths of the hymen and the virginity test
- Virginity Testing: Violating the Rights of Women
- Virginity testing: a systematic review
Abstinence-Only Sex Education:
- How We Teach Purity Culture Isn’t the Problem—Purity Culture Itself Is the Problem – A preoccupation with purity is not a realistic approach to sexuality, and it does not empower us to make responsible, holistic decisions regarding sex.
- Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Are Ineffective and Harmful to Young People, Expert Review Confirms – Updated Policy Recommendations Emphasize the Importance of Scientific Evidence Guiding Sexuality Education Programs
- Sex education: Why an abstinence-only approach is problematic
Using Anal Sex to Preserve Virginity:
- Going Most of the Way: “Technical Virginity” among American Adolescents
- Are you still a virgin after anal sex? – La Vista Church of Christ
- Like a Virgin… It’s pretty ironic that Christian virginal teens are partly responsible for the spread of STDs and goes to show that there’s no room for naivety when it comes to protecting ourselves.
- The Poophole Loophole: Exploring the paradox of having anal sex to preserve purity
Threats & jokes made to daughters and their current/future male partners around virginity and purity:
- Are Overprotective Fathers Cute Or Controlling? Why Overprotection Actually Harms Young Women
- 4 Reasons Why Dads Threatening Their Daughters’ Boyfriends Aren’t Funny – No guns, threats, or creepy infringement on their privacy necessary.
- This Republican Politician Jokingly Threatens a Teen With a Gun in His New Campaign Ad
- Command and Control: Trophy daughters and overprotective dads
Slut Shaming:
- On Slut Shaming & Rape Culture
- Witch, Slut, Murderer: Shaming and Other Tools of Patriarchy
- Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free
- The Long-Term Effects Of Slut-Shaming
Victim Blaming:
- How Purity Culture Reinforces Rape Culture through Victim Blaming
- ‘Purity’ culture: bad for women, worse for survivors of sexual assault – Virginity has no bearing on a person’s worth, yet ‘purity balls’ and shaming victims make our culture more medieval than modern
- When Purity Culture’s Gatekeepers Fail to Address Sexual Violence
- Why Many Conservative Evangelicals Still Blame Victims
- Impure: Purity Culture is Rape Culture
- Evangelical Purity Culture Taught Me to Rationalize My Sexual Assault – Then I discovered #ChurchToo.
Enforced Modesty / Dress Codes:
- What Not To Wear: The Strange & Scary History Of Women’s Dress Codes
- Sexualization, Sex Discrimination, and Public School Dress Codes
- How School Dress Codes Shame Girls and Perpetuate Rape Culture
- The Troubling Connection Between Modesty Culture and Rape Culture
Hymen myths:
- The Hymen: Breaking the Myths (Our Bodies Ourselves)
- Everything You Know About The Hymen Is (Probably) Wrong
- Why the Link Between the Hymen and Virginity Is Overstated
- 5 myths about virginity, busted – The answers to all your questions about virginity and its mythical guardian, the hymen.
- The Hymen: A Membrane Widely Misunderstood
Fetishizing virgins:
- Living Myths About Virginity – Vacuums of reliable information and sexism in popular culture can have serious consequences for women’s health.
- The virginity fetish
- Virginity Around the World
- Virgin Auctions: Big Business for Some Adults, Brutal Slavery for Many Children
- Virginity Sex For Sale- Auction Danger -Big Little Lies
Virginity Pledges / Purity Balls:
- Whatever Happened To Those Girls Who Signed “Purity Pledges”? Hint: It’s Not Good
- Inside the Scam of the “Purity” Movement
- Abstinence pledges still don’t work, still encourage unprotected anal sex
- After the promise: the STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges.