"The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women" by Jessica Valenti - general discussion

[[deleted user]]

We'll be reading The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti through the end of July.

This thread can be used to give book reviews as well as for a general discussion of the book. Please feel free to start a new discussion in the book club folder if you'd like to focus on specific aspects of or ideas from the book.

[Xdyj]

I remember the professor talking about this topic in gender studies class, & according to her it's even more damaging in China & some other non-western cultures.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

Finished it tonight. The book couldn't be more important in that not only does it pull together all of the crazy fevered responses to the sexuality of females in America (purity balls, sexualizing little girls through clothes, restricting birth control, refusing to prosecute rape crimes if the woman doesn't seem pure, hymen restoration surgery, pornography, virginity = high moral value trumping any other measure like kindness generosity or honesty, white blondes are more pure than women of color) but by pulling it together all in one place, the utter insanity of American society about female sexuality is crystal clear. If daughters are having a tough time figuring out a coherent message from all of this sweaty worry from parents and religiously-based custom backed by society and the law, it's because it all IS incoherent and psychotic.