Throughout history, boys have been taught that the things that make them men -- good men -- are transcendent ideals like courage and honesty and integrity.
Girls have been led to believe that a woman's moral compass lies somewhere between her legs, literally.
In this alternately hilarious and enraging film adaptation of her bestselling book, The Purity Myth, pioneering feminist blogger Jessica Valenti shows how this double-standard is alive and well today.
This is due to a well-funded coalition of virginity-obsessed political conservatives bent on vilifying feminism and rolling back women's rights.
Valenti trains her sights on what she calls the "virginity movement" -- an unholy alliance of evangelical Christians, political activists, and policy wonks spreading irrational fears about women's sexuality.
Their goal is to shape government policy, public education, and even popular culture in their own traditionalist image.
And whether Valenti's focus is on the exploding popularity of dad-and-daughter "purity balls," or the millions of dollars American taxpayers are forced to shell out each year for failed abstinence-only programs, her baseline target is the same: the myth that the worth of a woman depends on what she does or does not do sexually.
In the end, The Purity Myth shows why commercial culture's hyper-sexualization of women -- condemning them in school and at church while pimping them on the growing number of freeway strip club billboards -- is too serious a problem to be left to ideologues.
Arguing that the antidote to our "pornified" culture is a set of reactionary policies that replace one form of sexism with another is no answer. Instead, we must embrace women's autonomy and power. More
In this alternately hilarious and enraging film adaptation of her bestselling book, The Purity Myth, pioneering feminist blogger Jessica Valenti shows how this double-standard is alive and well today.
This is due to a well-funded coalition of virginity-obsessed political conservatives bent on vilifying feminism and rolling back women's rights.
Valenti trains her sights on what she calls the "virginity movement" -- an unholy alliance of evangelical Christians, political activists, and policy wonks spreading irrational fears about women's sexuality.
Their goal is to shape government policy, public education, and even popular culture in their own traditionalist image.
And whether Valenti's focus is on the exploding popularity of dad-and-daughter "purity balls," or the millions of dollars American taxpayers are forced to shell out each year for failed abstinence-only programs, her baseline target is the same: the myth that the worth of a woman depends on what she does or does not do sexually.
In the end, The Purity Myth shows why commercial culture's hyper-sexualization of women -- condemning them in school and at church while pimping them on the growing number of freeway strip club billboards -- is too serious a problem to be left to ideologues.
Arguing that the antidote to our "pornified" culture is a set of reactionary policies that replace one form of sexism with another is no answer. Instead, we must embrace women's autonomy and power. More
No comments:
Post a Comment