{"id":19385,"date":"2012-07-25T04:32:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T08:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=19385"},"modified":"2013-04-03T22:30:18","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T02:30:18","slug":"amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Marcotte’s problem with purity"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"\"In response to my July 20 article<\/a> on birth control, I got a little guff for referring to abstinence opponents as \u201clibertines,\u201d a term which denotes<\/a> unrestrained indulgence of sensual pleasures.<\/p>\n

As if on cue, the reliably radical<\/a> Amanda Marcotte, writing at the equally extreme<\/a> RH Reality Check, proved my point on Tuesday with a piece<\/a> not merely arguing against the effectiveness of purity balls and pledges, but condemning the very messages they send to young girls about sex (language warning<\/strong>):<\/p>\n

I do worry that Breslaw\u2019s post might result in people taking this to mean that we shouldn\u2019t worry generally about the Christian right\u2019s obsession with making sure women\u2019s vaginas are always in possession of a man, be it husband or father, and never owned by women themselves. (After all, they don\u2019t trust us with the immense responsibility that comes with owning a vagina. Women known to believe their vagina belongs to them also do things like believe they have a right to have sex on their own terms and even—gasp!—decline the chance to risk a baby every time we have sex. And, distressingly, some women even use vaginas to have sex with other women.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know we\u2019re in for a wild ride when insanity like this is the opening act. As should be too obvious to need mentioning, the \u201cChristian right\u201d isn\u2019t interested in \u201cpossession\u201d of anyone\u2019s reproductive organs – merely preventing the killing of the children created by their use. And Marcotte speaks as if conservatives place all the responsibility with girls and leave boys to their own desires. It\u2019s apparently lost on her that, under the conservative sexual ethos, a guy has to earn a girl\u2019s trust and prove his commitment to her before he gets any action.<\/p>\n

Marcotte goes on to mock \u201cpurity balls\u201d (dances where girls promise their fathers they\u2019ll remain abstinent until marriage, a practice she admits is rare) and complain that purity rings (signaling a commitment to abstinence) are popular enough that even \u201csupposedly classy\u201d jewelers beyond the \u201cChristian kitsch market\u201d are selling them:<\/p>\n

[T]here\u2019s serious moral problems with pressuring young people who haven\u2019t matured to the point where they really want sex yet to promise not to have it. It\u2019s exploitative to extract promises from people who don\u2019t have full information yet, and young teens and pre-teens really don\u2019t have any idea of what they\u2019re going to feel about sex when they actually have a chance to start dating. For most young people, taking a purity pledge just means going through unnecessary guilt and drama when they go ahead and have sex anyway.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let me get this straight: we shouldn\u2019t try to instill in kids the value of abstinence because<\/em> they\u2019re too young to fully understand sex? Really? Even taking into account that pro-choicers see the world differently from how we see it, it\u2019s distressing to think things are so far gone that the backwardness of that logic needs to be explained.<\/p>\n

The whole point of education<\/em> is imparting vital knowledge and healthy habits to the young because<\/em> they lack the life experience and mental development<\/a> necessary to make responsible decisions – especially when it comes to instincts and temptations that weigh against their best long-term interests. We don\u2019t think twice about taking sides when it comes to anything else – drugs, careers, driving, study habits, etc. – so what makes sex so different in the left\u2019s eyes?<\/p>\n

From a public health perspective, these pledges are a nightmare, because young people who take them approach sex from a shame-and-guilt perspective instead of from a pleasure-and-education perspective. A famous federal study in 2008<\/a> demonstrated that the pledges didn\u2019t do anything to prevent young people from having sex, which is no surprise considering the manipulative tactics used to extract the pledges. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, the Heritage Foundation\u2019s 2008 assessment<\/a> of 21 abstinence education studies found positive results for five out of six virginity pledge studies. Even so, I\u2019m not particularly attached to pledges alone; truly effective sex education needs to include discussion of sex\u2019s potential consequences, the limitations of birth control, and individuals\u2019 ability to choose the safest path. To see the true effectiveness of such education, click here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, or here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the pledgers were less likely to use protection when they did have sex, which is also unsurprising since they were given no resources to do so, and just told instead to just say no.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One can\u2019t help but wonder what Marcotte means by \u201cresources\u201d – condom distribution? Instruction on use and procurement of birth control? But it means everything in determining whether this complaint is valid. If such programs were actually deceiving students about contraception, that would be one thing. But if a teen is told about the effectiveness rates<\/a> of various birth control measures, understands the risks of sex, and still takes his or her chances, then who\u2019s really at fault?<\/p>\n

The heart of Marcotte\u2019s mania can be found at the very end:<\/p>\n

Even if it doesn\u2019t convince people that all non-marital sex is wrong, it helps prop up the myth that there\u2019s such thing as \u201ctoo much\u201d sex, and that it\u2019s legitimate to judge a person\u2019s moral worth by how much they like or have sex.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There you have it: in Amanda Marcotte\u2019s world, the very possibility of too much sex is a \u201cmyth,\u201d and those of us who buy into it are accused of judging people\u2019s moral worth by their sexual habits (and this from someone who has no problem<\/a> judging moral worth by such meaningless criteria as physical appearance). If that\u2019s not deserving of the libertine label, then words have no meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Libertines will be libertines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmanda Marcotte's problem with purity - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amanda Marcotte's problem with purity - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Libertines will be libertines.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-25T08:32:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-04T02:30:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/march_group_photo_og-1-700x467.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"467\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Calvin Freiburger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb2bf94c8064b71953ba137bf413c4d\"},\"headline\":\"Amanda Marcotte’s problem with purity\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-25T08:32:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-04T02:30:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/\"},\"wordCount\":980,\"commentCount\":55,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/amanda-marcottes-problem-with-purity\/\",\"name\":\"Amanda Marcotte's problem with purity - 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