Purity Pledge Gross Out

I just watched VH1's special "The New Virginity."  It made me roll my eyes.  It went over Jordin Sparks and Miley Cyrus' purity pledges, Brittney Spears and Jessica Simpson's supposed virginity, the Jonas Brothers, selling one's virginity, and purity balls.  Gag.  The most disturbing thing I saw was the iPhone Purity Pledge ap.  It read:

My Pledge

I pledge my purity to my father, my future husband, and my Creator.  I recognize that virginity is my most precious gift to offer to my future husband.  I will not engage in sexual activity of any kind before marriage but will keep my thought and my body pure as a very special present for the one I marry.

After that screen, there was a screen with a rotating purity ring.

The purity balls were awful, too.  Girls from age 4 to 20somethings, showed up in princess gowns with their fathers to have dinner, dance, and pledge that they will honor their fathers by saving themselves for marriage.  I squirmed when the girls then made their promises and each laid a white rose at the foot of a cross to seal their pledge to God.

The whole thing is ridiculous.  First of all, I find the princess culture in and of itself damaging to young women.  Girls are made to think that they will experience mutual "love at first sight," that their mate will be a perfect prince charming with whom they never experience any conflict, and that they will live happily ever after.  It's preposterous and it sets them up for failure and disappointment in their relationships with men.

That aside, the entire purity movement is pulling feminism a step backwards.  Girls are essentially told that they are the property of their father, and that they need to be respectful of their father's property by keeping it intact and untainted while it's in his care.  When they become the property of their future husband, then they can (and need to) submit to his will.  It's disgusting and beyond repulsive.

I was so icked out that I had to stop my internet research.  It was turning my stomach.  I also now feel the need to start some kind of young women's empowerment program.  Like a weekend retreat in which we talk about being feminists, taking control of our futures, knowing about birth control and our options (of which chastity is one) while having time away from men.  Sigh.  Maybe that would be something fun to do in the future when I have a pubescent girl.  We'll see.  In the meantime, I'm tempted to find out if there are any purity balls in my area and protesting them.  I'll wear my Birkenstocks, a trucker shirt over a wife-beater.  Maybe I can get dropped off in a Subaru.