the purity myth by the purity myth

Author:the purity myth [myth, the purity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePub Bud (www.epubbud.com)
Published: 2011-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

in Virginia even introduced a bill in 2005 that would make it a crime—

punishable by a year in jail—for a woman to fail to report her miscarriage to

the police within twelve hours.32#

So, you might ask, what does all this have to do with virginity: C-sections,

abortion bans, miscarriage laws, and the FDA? Everything, really. The

point of the purity myth is not only to valorize women who are “virgins,” but

also to prop up the idea of the perfect woman as a blank slate, as powerless,

* The law bans “partial-birth abortion,” which is not a recognized medical term or procedure

but refers to common abortion procedures used in a woman’s second trimester. The

legislation is written so vaguely that it could apply to any abortion (which is, of course, its

intent). In fact, in 1998, doctors in Wisconsin stopped performing abortions pretty much

overnight when the ban was enacted in their state, for fear of going to jail.33

† Incidentally, racial and sexual harassment costs them only $250.

# Just in case you’re unsure about how this one is related to purity, consider that the same

lawmaker—who seems to have a penchant for legislation that involves women’s bodies—

is the man behind a bill that requires strippers to wear pasties.34

Jessica Valenti 143

and in need of direction. Women who want to control their lives, especially

their sexuality, don’t adhere to the purity model. “Pure” women aren’t just virgins—

they’re women who accept what extremist pharmacists tell them, who

trust legislators over their own instincts, who don’t question the notion that

men should be in charge. In the past (as in the case of American female suffragists),

women were told they shouldn’t foul themselves by getting involved

in the dirty business of politics. Likewise, women today are told to trust that

their government knows what’s best for them, their bodies, and their families.

Power is not pure, so women shouldn’t have it—and they should be punished

for trying to obtain it.

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145

CHA P TER 7

publ ic puni shments

“Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what

rape was. Rape, when I was learning these

things, was the violation of a chaste woman,

against her will, by some party not her spouse.”

s e n a t o r d o u g h e n r y ( d - t n ),

2008

The gang rape of a California teenager was caught on video: While

the sixteen-year-old was unconscious, she was raped vaginally and anally

with pool sticks, a Snapple bottle, and lit cigarettes while her three assailants

danced around her in between their assaults. At one point during the attack,

the girl urinated on herself. In her rapists’ 2004 trial, the defense argued that

the girl was eager to make a porn video and was just “acting” for the camera.

The trial resulted in a hung jury.*1

A nineteen-year-old university student in Washington, D.C., after being

drugged and sodomized in 2007, was denied treatment at local hospitals

* Thankfully, the second trial delivered guilty verdicts, but not before one of the boys was

arrested for raping another sixteen-year-old at a party held the night of his mistrial.

146 the purity myth

because she “appeared intoxicated”—not so surprising, given the nature of

her attack.

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