A purity ball (also known as a father-daughter purity ball[1] or purity wedding[2]) is a formal ball dance event attended by fathers and their daughters. Purity balls promote virginity until marriage for teenage girls, and are often closely associated with U.S. Christian churches, particularly fundamentalist churches. Typically, daughters who attend make a virginity pledge; a pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. Fathers who attend pledge to protect what they view as their young daughters' purity of mind, body, and soul. Proponents[who?] promote a strong father-daughter relationship as a means to affirm what they consider to constitute spiritual and physical purity.
Criticism[]
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Writer and feminist Eve Ensler criticizes purity balls for what she sees as the position of inferiority it puts the daughters in:
- "When you sign a pledge to your father to preserve your virginity, your sexuality is basically being taken away from you until you sign yet another contract, a marital one...It makes you feel like you’re the least important person in the whole equation. It makes you feel invisible."[1]
Conservative journalist Betsy Hart, while supporting the idea of sexual abstinence prior to marriage, has expressed concerns that the strong focus of purity balls on the concept of virginity may actually sexualize youth, albeit in an unintended way.[3]
See also[]
- Silver Ring Thing
- Virginity pledge
- Purity ring
- Abstinence-only sex education
- Father-daughter dance
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Would you pledge your virginity to your father?; Glamour; January, 2007; Jennifer Baumgardner. See page 6.
- ↑ "Purity wedding for teenagers". http://www.drewrybroadcasting.com/kwescal/view_entry.php?id=132&date=20080801. "The graduates will have a wedding to celebrate their choice and desire to be chase."
- ↑ http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/8998958587896135679
External links[]
- The Purity Ball: Time Magazine photo essay of a purity ball
- Dancing the Night Away, With a Higher Purpose, New York Times article and photo essay on purity balls
- The Pursuit of Teen Girl Purity; Time Magazine; July 17, 2008; Nancy Gibbs