Book Review: The Purity Myth

I was pretty excited to read this book when it came out. The author, Jessica Valenti, has a blog called Feministing that I frequently read. And also, I grew up in a culture that placed heavy influence on saving yourself for marriage (i.e., no pre-marital sex). When I was younger I bought what was taught to me hook, line, and sinker, but since getting older my views have changed. So this is a subject that I'm very interested in.

Valenti's main position is that the obsession with "purity," "chastity," and "virginity" is harmful to young women because it creates a dichotomy that allows women to be only either virgins or whores. She does a good job supporting her position, and even if it is not a perfect representation of society, I think she raises a lot of good points that really require us to think about.

I had only one beef with this book. There was virtually no discussion of how the purity myth harms the women that buy into it as well. There were a couple of allusions to how sex can't magically go from being evil and dirty to being wonderful after a person is married, but I wish that she had explored that a little more. The basic idea was there, but never developed. But of course, a book can't cover everything, so it's not necessarily a weakness. It's just something that I would have appreciated. I think that the purity myth can be harmful to women even if they don't "mess up" and have pre-marital sex, I guess is what I'm trying to say.