MXMFW 5: Purity Culture Part 2
Explicit content warning
08/23/21 • 54 min
Last week we learned about the history of purity culture, and this week Theo, Maggie, and Bridget dive in and discuss how Purity Culture effects people today. They discuss how Purity Culture leads to internalized sexual shame, how it promotes rape, rape culture, and child abuse, and they also discuss how unsuccessful abstinence-only sex education really is.
CW/TW: This episode contains discussions of sexual abuse, rape, rape culture, child abuse, misogyny, sexual shame, and racism
**Thank you to Tiktoker Rachel Cain (@iblamebill) for the metaphor about the vertical vs. horizontal view of sin
**Peggy Reeves Sandy is the researcher mentioned who researched the characteristics of rape prone cultures
Episode Transcript Available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11vsX6TPwQwaG5PYfLibPOTgSV_e1IHS6/view?usp=sharing
Sources for this episode
“Rape-Prone Versus Rape-Free Campus Cultures” by Peggy Reeves Sandy
Rachel Cain, @iblamebill on TikTok
“I Have the Power in My Body to Make People Sin': The Trauma of Purity Culture and the Concept of 'Body Theodicy” by Katie Cross in Feminist Trauma Theologies: Body, Scripture & Church in Critical Perspective.
“Daddy’s Little Girls” by Breanne Fahs
“Producing High Priests and Princesses: The Father-Daughter Relationship in the Christian Sexual Purity Movement” by Elizabeth Gish
“‘ARE YOU A ‘TRASHABLE’ STYROFOAM CUP?’: Harm and Damage Rhetoric in the Contemporary American Sexual Purity Movement” by Elizabeth Gish
“Suffer the Children: National Crisis, Affective Collectivity, and the Sexualized Child” by Susan Knabe
Developing a measure of Purity culture: Sexual messages in evangelical Christian culture, an unpublished doctoral dissertation by Amanda Ortiz
“Broken Promises: Abstinence Pledging and Sexual and Reproductive Health” by Anthony Paik, Kenneth J Sanchagrin, and Karen Heimer
“What is the Prosperity Gospel” by Dr. Anderew Spencer
The Impact of Patriarchal Religions on the Creation of Oppressive Cultures of Female Purity and the Contribution to Rape Culture, and unpublished doctoral dissertation by Haley Stepp
The purity myth: How America's obsession with virginity is hurting young women by Jessica Valenti
Last week we learned about the history of purity culture, and this week Theo, Maggie, and Bridget dive in and discuss how Purity Culture effects people today. They discuss how Purity Culture leads to internalized sexual shame, how it promotes rape, rape culture, and child abuse, and they also discuss how unsuccessful abstinence-only sex education really is.
CW/TW: This episode contains discussions of sexual abuse, rape, rape culture, child abuse, misogyny, sexual shame, and racism
**Thank you to Tiktoker Rachel Cain (@iblamebill) for the metaphor about the vertical vs. horizontal view of sin
**Peggy Reeves Sandy is the researcher mentioned who researched the characteristics of rape prone cultures
Episode Transcript Available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11vsX6TPwQwaG5PYfLibPOTgSV_e1IHS6/view?usp=sharing
Sources for this episode
“Rape-Prone Versus Rape-Free Campus Cultures” by Peggy Reeves Sandy
Rachel Cain, @iblamebill on TikTok
“I Have the Power in My Body to Make People Sin': The Trauma of Purity Culture and the Concept of 'Body Theodicy” by Katie Cross in Feminist Trauma Theologies: Body, Scripture & Church in Critical Perspective.
“Daddy’s Little Girls” by Breanne Fahs
“Producing High Priests and Princesses: The Father-Daughter Relationship in the Christian Sexual Purity Movement” by Elizabeth Gish
“‘ARE YOU A ‘TRASHABLE’ STYROFOAM CUP?’: Harm and Damage Rhetoric in the Contemporary American Sexual Purity Movement” by Elizabeth Gish
“Suffer the Children: National Crisis, Affective Collectivity, and the Sexualized Child” by Susan Knabe
Developing a measure of Purity culture: Sexual messages in evangelical Christian culture, an unpublished doctoral dissertation by Amanda Ortiz
“Broken Promises: Abstinence Pledging and Sexual and Reproductive Health” by Anthony Paik, Kenneth J Sanchagrin, and Karen Heimer
“What is the Prosperity Gospel” by Dr. Anderew Spencer
The Impact of Patriarchal Religions on the Creation of Oppressive Cultures of Female Purity and the Contribution to Rape Culture, and unpublished doctoral dissertation by Haley Stepp
The purity myth: How America's obsession with virginity is hurting young women by Jessica Valenti
Previous Episode
MXMFW 4: Purity Culture Part 1
What is Purity Culture? How did it emerge and evolve in the United States? How is it related to American Christianity's history of racism and misogyny? How did it become politically terrifying? How is it related to the Lavender Scare and the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey?
Join us for this episode of My Ex and My Future Wife as we discuss the history of Evangelical Purity Culture in the United States.
**Episode Correction: Nat Turner—not Nat Taylor—lead the 1831 slave revolt mentioned in this episode.
CW/TW: This episode contains discussions of racism, abusive theology, misogyny, sexual abuse, rape, rape culture, and child abuse
Sources:
“I Have the Power in My Body to Make People Sin” by Katie Cross, found in the book Feminist Trauma Theologies
“Daddy’s Little Girls: on the perils of chastity clubs, purity balls, and ritualized abstinence” by Breanne Fahs
“Producing High Priests and Princesses: The Father-Daughter Relationship in the Christian Sexual Purity Movement” by Elizabeth Gish
“Suffer the Children: National Crisis, Affective Collectivity, and the Sexualized Child” by Susan Knabe
“It’s like Playing with a Nuclear Bomb” by Sara Moslener
Developing a measure of Purity culture: Sexual messages in evangelical Christian culture by Amanda Ortiz
The Impact of Patriarchal Religions on the Creation of Oppressive Cultures of Female Purity and the Contribution to Rape Culture by Haley Stepp
“‘Some Could Suckle over Their Shoulder’: Male Travelers, Female Bodies” by Jennifer Morgan from Women’s America Refocusing the Past Ninth Edition
Beyond Loving: Intimate Racework in Lesbian, Gay, and Straight Interracial Relationships by Amy C. Steinbugler
Maggie’s True Crime Obsession
Next Episode
MXMFW 6: Lilith
In this episode, Bridget speaks uninterrupted about midrashic figure Lilith for a truly shocking amount of time. Eventually Theo and Maggie weigh in on whether Lilith is a scary demon who will eat your babies, a girlboss to end all girlbosses, or something else entirely. If you've ever wondered "was Adam's first wife a lesbian demon?" or "is Theo just thinking about Jennifer's Body every time someone brings up she-demons?" then you're going to want to give this episode a listen.
CW: Discussion of sexual violence/abuse, and miscarriage
Episode Transcript Available Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tq0Tswoq4sW6vn0OVaCOuSmRMnyDPDCe/view?usp=sharing
Sources Cited:
James Joyce's Ulysses
Isaiah 34:14
"The Coming of Lilith" by Judith Plaskow
The Wikipedia Page for Lilith Fair
Some tik tok one of us sent into the group chat and then fact-checked
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/my-ex-and-my-future-wife-612033/mxmfw-5-purity-culture-part-2-79888951"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to mxmfw 5: purity culture part 2 on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy