"Purity Balls"

[Toto]

It's that time of year again - Dancing the Night Away with a Higher Purpose (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/us/19purity.html).

COLORADO SPRINGS — In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the arms of their much older male companions.

. . .

But after dessert, the 63 men stood and read aloud a covenant “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.”

The gesture signaled that the fathers would guard their daughters from what evangelicals consider a profoundly corrosive “hook-up culture.” The evening, which alternated between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing, was a joyous public affirmation of the girls’ sexual abstinence until they wed.

* * *

“The culture says you’re free to sleep with as many people as you want to,” said Khrystian Wilson, 20, one of the Wilsons’ seven children, including five girls. “What does that get you but complete chaos?”

I'm not sure if this is seriously creepy, or just American kitsch.

In any case, the slide show is worth seeing, if only for the ballet dancers on number 4 doing a weird ritual around the cross. Do these people even know what the cross is about?

[Eldarion Lathria]

Fathers drooling over their virgin daughters. Sounds like a porn movie.

Eldarion Lathria

[bilby]

Purity? Balls.

[DancesWithCoffeeCups]

I confess to sometimes getting great satisfaction from knowing these women will never experience an orgasm. :devil1:

[openeyes]

I wonder how many of these fathers were inexperienced on their wedding nights?

I really don't see how these women will do better in the long run.

[Acetylhexene]

I thought this was going to be a topic on orbs that are placed inside the body to ensure no penile penetration could occur.

Like an internal chastity belt.

[Toto]

I confess to sometimes getting great satisfaction from knowing these women will never experience an orgasm. :devil1:

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Victorian repression had some unforeseen consequences.

[nanaimo]

I confess to sometimes getting great satisfaction from knowing these women will never experience an orgasm. :devil1:

That's sad. I think their fathers pushing this crap on them are the ones that deserve a lifetime without orgasms.

[WVIncagold]

it is worse in some cases there was a show o tv about this crap and fathers actually "date" their daughters. its really sick Imho.

[Karalora]

Khrystian Wilson, 20,

If this is representative of the young women attending the ball, then they are legal adults and their fathers have no business policing their sexuality. If the women sincerely believe that pre-marital sex is wrong, that is their decision, and it is their task to enforce it upon themselves. If they want to ask a parent for advice and moral support, they should ask Mom, not Dad. The whole "purity ball" phenomenon is beyond creepy.

[ziffel]

This is fundamentalism at close to it's worst, IMO. This is so far beyond creepy ...

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/ziffel66/purity.jpg

Where is her hand??

[Trout]

These things are just freakin creepy. A very bizarre offshoot of American fundy christians

[AtheistVirus]

This is just disgusting, more people should know about it..

[arricchio]

It's that time of year again - Dancing the Night Away with a Higher Purpose (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/us/19purity.html).

COLORADO SPRINGS — In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the arms of their much older male companions.
....

The gesture signaled that the fathers would guard their daughters from what evangelicals consider a profoundly corrosive “hook-up culture.” The evening, which alternated between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing, was a joyous public affirmation of the girls’ sexual abstinence until they wed.

* * *

“The culture says you’re free to sleep with as many people as you want to,” said Khrystian Wilson, 20, one of the Wilsons’ seven children, including five girls. “What does that get you but complete chaos?”

I'm not sure if this is seriously creepy, or just American kitsch.

In any case, the slide show is worth seeing, if only for the ballet dancers on number 4 doing a weird ritual around the cross. Do these people even know what the cross is about?

How very medieval - believing that it's the woman's sexuality that must be rigorously controlled. Are there similar "purity balls" for young men? Or is that a personal question?

[Karalora]

How very medieval - believing that it's the woman's sexuality that must be rigorously controlled. Are there similar "purity balls" for young men? Or is that a personal question?

The young men's version is called an "integrity ball," and the gist of the message is that an honorable man doesn't go around spoiling other men's future brides. They're not even trying to pretend not to consider women's sexuality the property of men.

[arricchio]

How very medieval - believing that it's the woman's sexuality that must be rigorously controlled. Are there similar "purity balls" for young men? Or is that a personal question?

The young men's version is called an "integrity ball," and the gist of the message is that an honorable man doesn't go around spoiling other men's future brides. They're not even trying to pretend not to consider women's sexuality the property of men.

Thanks. And you're exactly right.

[Clivedurdle]

How is the real thing being more awful than any possible parody defined on a Poe's Law continuum?

Poe's Law relates to fundamentalism (http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Fundamentalism), and the difficulty of identifying actual parodies of it. Generally, it suggests that it's hard to tell fake fundamentalism from the real thing, since they both sound equally ridiculous.
The Law states:
“ Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing.[1] (http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Poe%27s_Law#_note-0)

Anti -poe's law?

[Toto]

Oh, my. Integrity Ball aka the Oedipal Ball (http://feministing.com/archives/006375.html#comments)Baker also told them that while they might not believe it at the time, the girl they may date in high school is probably not going to be the one they will marry. “So you’re dating someone else’s future wife,” he told them. He also told them that someone else may be dating their future wife.

“If you knew somebody was with your future wife,” Baker asked them, “touching her in ways you wouldn’t like, pressuring her, how would that make you feel?”

...

Speaking of self-control and the meaning of sex, Baker told the young men, “Having sex doesn’t make you a man. Dogs have sex, but it doesn’t make them a man. Guys, separate yourselves from the animal kingdom.”

...

Mothers and sons then had an opportunity to get out on the dance floor together, enjoying songs such as “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, “Old Time Rock & Roll” by Bob Seger and others.

The link to the original article is dead, but is is here: wayback (http://web.archive.org/web/20070125182554/http://www.dakotavoice.com/200701/20070115_1.html)After the meal, Jackie Detweiller spoke to the gathering about her experiences. Detweiller is an attractive 19-year-old young woman who is practicing abstinence. She told the tale of a person who had waited a long time to buy the car of their dreams, but when the day arrived to drive it home, the dealer told them that the steering had problems, that it had a lot of mileage on it, and had been in a few wrecks. She likened this word picture to sexual purity and the hopes for a future spouse.

[iLoveKnowledge]

I can't help laughing every time I read "purity Balls."

[Clivedurdle]

I can't help laughing every time I read "purity Balls."

It does sound like a brand name for

http://www.godfrey-diy.co.uk/pest-control/moth-balls-and-repellents/moth-balls/item38002560.html

[Karalora]

Exactly, Toto.

“If you knew somebody was with your future wife,” Baker asked them, “touching her in ways you wouldn’t like, pressuring her, how would that make you feel?”

Emphasis mine. See what I mean?

She told the tale of a person who had waited a long time to buy the car of their dreams, but when the day arrived to drive it home, the dealer told them that the steering had problems, that it had a lot of mileage on it, and had been in a few wrecks. She likened this word picture to sexual purity and the hopes for a future spouse.

Another excellent example of their thinking. Women are compared to inanimate possessions (cars), and premarital sex is equated with damage. The irony of this analogy is that nearly everyone would agree that buying a car without taking it for a test drive first is foolish.

[GenesisNemesis]

"The culture says you’re free to sleep with as many people as you want to,” said Khrystian Wilson, 20, one of the Wilsons’ seven children, including five girls. “What does that get you but complete chaos?”

I don't see anyone committing crimes because they slept with a lot of people, but I have seen that people commit crimes for other reasons.

Naivety!

[iLoveKnowledge]

It does sound like a brand name for

http://www.godfrey-diy.co.uk/pest-control/moth-balls-and-repellents/moth-balls/item38002560.html

Moths..........virgins..........vacancy.....never was there a more appropriate image. And that's assuming they even make it to the wedding night still untried.

[Porky Pine]

What percentage of these girls are going to wind up pregnant in 2 year's time?

[ziffel]

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/ziffel66/freud.jpg

[Zenaphobe]

I found their sponsor http://www.ironhymen.com/

[iLoveKnowledge]

Parody? Please be a parody............

[Toto]

The ironhymen site is a parody, part of the Landover Baptist empire, if that's what you meant. The Purity and Integrity Balls are just unintentional self-parody.

[Clivedurdle]

To never have premarital sex, because Jesus doesn't want anyone messing around inside my girly hole until after His church makes some money off a wedding.From Ironhymen site.


Now assuming God designed everything equally well to the same high standards and quality control (and it was very good)

how does one explain

The echidna and the platypus are the only two existing monotremes (egg-laying mammals) in the world. Believed to originate some 200 million years ago, these furry mammals retain certain reptilian skeletal features. They are a strange mix with such unusual features such as the duck bill and webbed feet.
Monotremes (from the Greek monos 'single' + trema 'hole', referring to the cloaca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaca))

[premjan]

What is poor in quality in the monotremes?

[Clivedurdle]

We have two holes, they have one. OK ours is not that good - the pleasure grounds and the waterworks are together, sewage separate, and all three are together in monotremes.

We are discussing purity here!

[premjan]

There are animals that eat and excrete from the same hole, so the monotremes aren't that bad.

[Clivedurdle]

I don't have a concept of good and bad about life - if it is around it has found a way to be here, it is a very chaotic set of circumstances. Wasps that lay eggs inside something else that is then eaten from the inside.

These ijots have concepts of God being good and pure and holy and everything being well designed and god's will and proper.

I was playing with the concept of girly holes! Has anyone ever designed a chastity belt for the other passage (s)?

Who was it married to an emperor in the 4th century said there are four?

[Clivedurdle]

All the references to moths in the bible!

http://www.bible-topics.com/Moth-The.html

[xrey]

From the article:
Recent studies have suggested that close relationships between fathers and daughters can reduce the risk of early sexual activity among girls and teenage pregnancy. But studies have also shown that most teenagers who say they will remain abstinent, like those at the ball, end up having sex before marriage, and they are far less likely to use condoms than their peers.

Living in denial does have consequences.

[Apostate1970]

I think those iron hymen people are going to make a big fat pile of pure money. Are they publically traded?

OK, so anyway, serious question. Are there any reputable studies that show who actually gets more sex? Fundamentalists or Infidels?

I think that you could form a sort of Neo-Pascalian Wager here if it turned out to be the fundamentalists. "You should believe it because it gets you laid.". Well no actually, come to think of it now this is a misstatement. The whole point of the wager is that you could already reach the conclusion regardless of whatever the truth about the real connection was.

1) Either believing in fundamentalism get you laid more or it does not.
2) If it does not then it doesn't get you laid any less.
3) Therefore you should believe in it.

Hmm... I think someone could make big fat pile of pure money if they could sell that one.

[Clivedurdle]

Today's New Scientist reports James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth

You could almost see the abstinence only movement as the sexual health equivalent of creationism

[sigmadog]

[QUOTE=Toto;5345089]Are there similar "purity balls" for young men?

Yes. They are called "Blue Balls".

[KatAutumn]

It's that time of year again - Dancing the Night Away with a Higher Purpose (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/us/19purity.html).

COLORADO SPRINGS — In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the arms of their much older male companions.

. . .

But after dessert, the 63 men stood and read aloud a covenant “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.”

The gesture signaled that the fathers would guard their daughters from what evangelicals consider a profoundly corrosive “hook-up culture.” The evening, which alternated between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing, was a joyous public affirmation of the girls’ sexual abstinence until they wed.

* * *

“The culture says you’re free to sleep with as many people as you want to,” said Khrystian Wilson, 20, one of the Wilsons’ seven children, including five girls. “What does that get you but complete chaos?”

I'm not sure if this is seriously creepy, or just American kitsch.

In any case, the slide show is worth seeing, if only for the ballet dancers on number 4 doing a weird ritual around the cross. Do these people even know what the cross is about?

I have no problem with fathers wanting to bond with their daughters. My father worked very hard; many long hours throughout my entire childhood. I wished I could have been around him more often than I was; however, it is unhealthy and borderline disgusting for a father to have such a vested interest in his daughter's sexuality. The fact that the daughter is not trusted with her own sexuality is troublesome. The fact that her sexuality is contracted out to her father to later be contracted out to her husband is probably the most damaging aspect of this movement. The bottom line is that her body never belongs to her. It either belongs to her daddy or belongs to her husband. Never in her life will her body belong to her, for her to make choices regarding it. It's a shame that in the 21st century, Christians are still so misogynistic.

What's worse, is that guys are encouraged to abstain not because it's as important as a girl's "purity". No, it's so he won't sully some other man's "property" (her father and future husband). It's just appalling.

[Thor Q. Mada]

This is fundamentalism at close to it's worst, IMO. This is so far beyond creepy ...

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/ziffel66/purity.jpg

Where is her hand??

Where her mouth will be soon it looks like.:rolleyes: