An abstinence movement in the United States has gained popularity among kids. Groups like the Silver Ring Thing, Celibrate, True Love Waits and Free Teens (actually one of cult leader Sun Myung Moon’s social action groups) are promoting the positive effects of holding out on sex until marriage.
Many, although not all, of these groups are religiously motivated, formed and funded by Christian organizations, as a way to fight the rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unwanted pregnancies among teenagers, and as an alternative to our hyper-sexualized Western culture. The groups also provide emotional support to individuals who choose not to have a sexual life.
There are similar groups popping up in the UK as well, such as The Prim and Proper Pussy Club, but certain US groups, like the Silver Ring Thing, which have also established branches in the UK have been ridiculed for being too anti-sex and unrealistic for UK values. SRT did have some UK members though and last year, Lydia Playfoot of Horsham, West Sussex, took her school to the High Court of Justice, claiming that her rights had been violated when her school forbade her from wearing her virginity ring. Although the court ruled against Playfoot, she has since left the school and may appeal the case.
A recent Columbia and Yale University study counteracts claims that the abstinence movement is having a positive effect on teen sexuality and health. The study found the same proportion of STDs among teens who had pledged abstinence and those who hadn’t. Many of these virginity pledgers were also more likely to engage in oral and anal sex, as an alternative to intercourse, the study found. Finally, more than 75% of the teens who took part in the abstinence programs did engage in sexual intercourse before marriage.
The choice to engage or not in sexual activity is a very personal one and one that each individual should feel free to make. But the abstinence movement raises some questions about our very definitions of sex. How exactly is abstinence defined? What exactly does it mean to be a virgin? A double standard has always existed, with virginity being perceived as a virtue for women and a stigma for men, but does ‘losing one’s virginity” necessarily mean having heterosexual genital intercourse? And where does the definition of virginity leave lesbians, gays and bisexuals? And finally, how exactly does one become a “born-again virgin? Some women, are actually getting hymen surgery to replace their “virginity” for their naïve future husbands. But that is perhaps, a whole other article.
This article was published Wednesday, January 2, 2008.
