Abstinence-Only Snow: The Virginity Movement
Virgin snow: clean, white, untouched snow. This snow is pretty to look at until it is touched and becomes brown, wet, mush. This snow is considered the best snow, to get to snow first accompanies a sense of pride. This view on snow is parallel to how girls and women are viewed. In America, there exists a phenomenon that is referred to as the ‘Virginity Movement’. The Virginity Movement’s main goal, although many say otherwise, is convincing women to remain virgins until their marriage. This movement has inspired new policies such as ‘Abstinence-Only Sex Ed’, a form of sexual education that only teaches abstinence, and does not teach ways to have safe intercourse. Although abstinence only education directly correlates with a rapid increase
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The Virginity Movement, seems to believe that this can be done by censoring and covering up anything sexual, like women. However, in the case of celebrities that choose to be “out and about town sans panties” The Virginity Movement seems to deduce that they are simply asking for any sexual attention that comes their way, even though they never asked for someone to stick a camera up their skirt while sitting (92). The Virginity Movement is rarely there to defend poor and women of color victims of rape or sexual assaults, and it is never there for anyone who has “sullied themselves” (lost their virginity) except to offer “redemption” and shame (77). Some women even go as far as to surgically implant a “hymen” so that their husbands may take their virginity again, even if a hymen doesn’t actually indicate their virginity (75). This is because, Valenti argues, the porn industry and The Virginity Movement sexualize the idea of being young and girlish, and a hymen is attached to that stigma. The hymen surgery can result in nerve damage, hemorrhaging, and loss of sensitivity, but women are flocking to be loved as virgins (76). A virgin, according to The Virginity Movement is the best thing a woman can be. Valenti argues that “whether it’s actual porn or mythologized purity, the end goal is to be desirable to men, and what women want for themselves, sexually or otherwise, is lost”
The Virginity Movement, seems to believe that this can be done by censoring and covering up anything sexual, like women. However, in the case of celebrities that choose to be “out and about town sans panties” The Virginity Movement seems to deduce that they are simply asking for any sexual attention that comes their way, even though they never asked for someone to stick a camera up their skirt while sitting (92). The Virginity Movement is rarely there to defend poor and women of color victims of rape or sexual assaults, and it is never there for anyone who has “sullied themselves” (lost their virginity) except to offer “redemption” and shame (77). Some women even go as far as to surgically implant a “hymen” so that their husbands may take their virginity again, even if a hymen doesn’t actually indicate their virginity (75). This is because, Valenti argues, the porn industry and The Virginity Movement sexualize the idea of being young and girlish, and a hymen is attached to that stigma. The hymen surgery can result in nerve damage, hemorrhaging, and loss of sensitivity, but women are flocking to be loved as virgins (76). A virgin, according to The Virginity Movement is the best thing a woman can be. Valenti argues that “whether it’s actual porn or mythologized purity, the end goal is to be desirable to men, and what women want for themselves, sexually or otherwise, is lost”