Purity Balls Research Paper

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Purity balls are an Evangelical Christian phenomenon that has recently captured the attention of the world for its odd properties. Purity balls are dances that promote sexual purity, to the extent of saving the girl’s first kiss for their wedding day. Purity balls should be outlawed or strongly discouraged culturally and organizations who receive government funding should lose that funding because purity balls promote forced abstinence policies towards young women, promote heteronormativity, and leaves young women in the dark about their bodily autonomy as well what a healthy relationship is. Randy Wilson and his wife Lisa hosted the first purity ball in Colorado Springs in 1998. The purpose of the first purity ball was to engage fathers in their daughters’ lives because women who are closer to their fathers than those who are not have …show more content…

Only by experience can people learn how these relationship boundaries should be drawn, and what makes them comfortable. By being discouraged to date and experience sexual activities, women lose the ability to demand a healthy relationship because they don’t know what a healthy relationship is. Purity balls discourage women building healthy relationships from experience because the participants feel that dating, and developing healthy sexual relationships without parental input leads to “getting used, betrayed, [and] having guys deceive [them].” (Baumgardner) While that care is well intentioned it promotes a double standard between young men and young women. Feminists like Amanda Paul believe that purity balls promote double standards between the sexes, because of the use of “purity rings… and overprotective parenting.” These are not commonly seen with young men (Paul) and by neglecting the idea of male sexual purity, it promotes the double standard between young men and young women that is pervasive in Western

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