Purity culture describes the culture that was created in evangelical spaces as a result of the widespread acceptance of teachings from the 1990s purity movement.
The Purity Movement sought to get adolescents to comply with what they defined as “Godly Sexuality”. This is, in a world of sexual licentiousness, Godly sex can only occur within heteronormative marriage. In maintaining one’s virginity until marriage and transforming oneself to the Bible and Christ in the meantime, individuals will have an amazing, God-ordained marriage.
What Are Some of the Features of the Purity Movement?
This list is not exhaustive.
Abstinence Before
Heteronormative Marriage
Absolute Denial of Sexual Self Before Marriage
Female Bodies Are Responsible for Protecting Male Lust
Lack of Dating in the Pursuit of a Courtship
Compulsory Heteronormativity
“Biblical Gender Roles” Masculinity and Femininity
Complementarian Marriage Structure (Submission)
Male Sexual Gratification Post-Marriage
What Were Some of the Impacts of Purity Culture?
This list is not exhaustive.
Shame, Guilt, Self-Gaslighting and Paranoia
Gender and Sexual Policing
Eating Disorders and Chronic Illnesses
Religious Trauma or Complex-PTSD related to Religion
Lack of Friendship with the Opposite Sex: Perceived Sexual Threat
Gender Segregation to Avoid Policing
Victim Blaming or Being Seen as Impure After Assault
Struggling to turn on Sexual Self After Marriage; Sex Problems
Gendered Pressure and Limitations in Relationships
Marital Rape
Disembodiment, Dissasociation, and Dysphoria
Depression, Anxiety, and Suicial Ideation
Though purity culture specifically refers to the 1990s iteration directed at adolescents, purity movements have always existed.
As Dr. Sara Moslener has argued in Virgin Nation, purity movements seemed to arise when conservatives felt a weakening in their political influence.
“Sexual-purity rhetoric proved an asset to evangelicals seeking to maintain political and cultural supremacy. By asserting a causal relationship among sexual immorality, national decline, and impending apocalypse, evangelical leaders shaped purity rhetoric that positioned Protestant evangelicalism as the salvation of American civilization.”
-Dr. Sara Moslener, Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescents.
Leading up to the 1990s purity movement, many things were happening that were threatening evangelical influence, such as multiple feminist movements, sexual liberation, sex education, the changing role of women, and increasing divorce rates which led to the disintegration of typical nuclear families, adolescent freedom, a societal shift towards science and psychology, immigration, diversification, abolitionist movements, and activist movements.
Purity and Apocalypse
