Strange Country Ep. 261: Purity Culture

You know how every little girl dreams of the day her dad signs a pledge promising to keep her vagina penis-free until she marries. Wait, you don't? Well, sit back, slap on your purity ring, superglue your legs together and get ready for a Strange Country episode on purity culture. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Beaty, Katelyn. "Opinion | In wake of Atlanta shooting, Christian communities need to rethink purity culture." The Washington Post, 18 March 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/03/18/purity-culture-atlanta-shooter-women-sexuality/. Accessed 7 May 2023. Filipovic, Jill. "'Purity' culture: bad for women, worse for survivors of sexual assault | Jill Filipovic." The Guardian, 9 May 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/09/elizabeth-smart-purity-culture-shames-survivors-sexual-assault. Accessed 15 April 2023. Haberman, Clyde. "How an Abstinence Pledge in the '90s Shamed a Generation of Evangelicals (Published 2021)." The New York Times, 12 April 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/abstinence-pledge-evangelicals.html. Accessed 9 April 2023. Klein, Linda Kay. Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free. Atria Books, 2018. McEwan, Melissa. "George Bush's sex education failure | Melissa McEwan." The Guardian, 20 July 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/20/george-bush-teen-pregnancy-abstinence. Accessed 29 April 2023. "Teen Pregnancy Rates by State 2023." World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/teen-pregnancy-rates-by-state. Accessed 29 April 2023. Roach, David. "True Love Waits pioneer defends sexual purity movement." Baptist Standard, 8 January 2019, https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/baptists/true-love-waits-pioneer-defends-sexual-purity-movement-2/. Accessed 30 April 2023. Valenti, Jessica. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women. Basic Books, 2009.