Purity Culture 2.0?
Is Purity Culture getting a makeover?
At least once or twice a week, I find myself googling weird questions about purity culture and sex (broadly speaking). What are the fundamentalist up to these days? In news this week, I found an article in a (somewhat obscure) magazine making the case for building a “new” kind of purity culture. Purity 2.0? Like me, you might be asking what was wrong with the old one? Well, it was toooo sexy. I’m being a little cheeky, but this person is actually hitting on something that purity culture scholars have studied for a while, namely that 1990s purity culture was hyper-fixated on sex. There was an obsession with regulating it which also required a lot of surveillance around sexual behaviors, sexual thoughts, sexual anything. So. Much. Sex. Just don’t do it or think about it, right?
The article I’m talking about here was making the case for a new kind of purity culture, one where men and women should be friends and (groundbreaking) actually get to know each other while still avoiding sex, of course. Promoting healthy marriage, they argue, is the most effective way to promote purity. So, where is the difference from the old purity culture? The only real difference that I can see is that this form of purity culture is asking for young evangelicals to not reduce marriage to a conduit for sex and instead try to see it as a loving partnership. Not necessarily revolutionary, but alright, I’ll give them a little credit for bringing purity culture in the 20th century.
Reader Stories
I want to know what you are thinking about, processing, questioning. What are your thoughts on Purity Culture 2.0?? Or other stories from purity culture, religion and sex, deconstruction, reconstruction, and so on. You can submit yours to this form. I’ll respond to these in a bi-weekly column on here where I’ll share specific research, insight, encouragement, and so on for readers who share their stories and queries.
When I started this Substack, I had over a hundred anonymous responses from people sharing their stories about purity culture and the ways that they were impacted by growing up in that context. I found myself wanting to reply to each one individually, and that is what gave me the idea to start this forum. Your responses will (of course) be kept anonymous because you will not need to share any identifying information like names or emails. I look forward to hearing from you all!
The Sexy Jesus Podcast
Meet your co-hosts: Sean McGrath and Dr. Victoria Houser
For years, I’ve been playing around with ways to get into some of the more bizarre material from purity culture. I mean the stuff that is just extremely bananas. A podcast is always the place I go to for this kind of thing. Every time I told people that I was thinking about starting a podcast, I felt just a little cringe because it is such a saturated medium, and I just didn’t know that much about the editing and production side of actually getting this going.
Then, a few months ago, I met Sean McGrath who does know a ton about production and editing (and is incredible). Sean and I immediately clicked when we started talking about the ideas for a show about purity culture, religious identity, deconstruction, Christian Nationalism and so on. I can now enthusiastically say that we’re launching a podcast called Sexy Jesus!! The name grew out of our exploration on topics that questions why and how things like purity culture are appealing for so many people.
We’re going to share the first episode later this week, and you can find it on our Patreon page here. Follow along for some of the more intense and (at times) ridiculous stories from purity culture and Christian nationalism.
Reading Log
This is a section that I’ll be adding to the newsletter! For my work on purity culture, I typically read through 2-3 books in a week, on topics related to relationships, trauma, shame, embodiment, and sex and love. There are a ton of smart, beautiful, and insightful books out there on these topics! So, for these newsletters, I’ll start to share reviews and highlights from my reading list. If you have anything you want me to read and review here, please share recommendations in the comment section or on the Typeform with your reader stories. Up next week is a book that I’ve been re-reading: The Woman They Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wifeby Shannon Harris—stay tuned!!
