Remember my panel presentation earlier this year on the gendered rhetoric of abstinence only programs? And my related posts (Abstinence Only Plus To Hit The Schools)? Well, here's a movie that goes into it, and I can't wait to view it (hopefully I can score a copy through the library)!
If you want some background, here some of my research I've presented on this very subject:
Whether it’s on the big screen or within the halls of our schools, teenage pregnancy has been more or less viewed as an all out epidemic, and is being framed as this great American failure that is begging for a solution. For the past decade, the answer directed at teens has been the rather controversial abstinence only movement, a movement that has gone from a niche market contained mostly within churches and spiritual outreach to a booming industry supported by 1.5 billion federal dollars aimed at high schools across the nation.
This solution, however, has had some answering to do itself about the tactics it is using to persuade teenagers to just say no to sex. These programs ground themselves in traditional, conservative rhetoric that emphasizes abstinence until marriage and social value through moral purity. Interestingly enough, the rhetoric used within these programs directly hold girls, rather than boys, responsible for upholding these values for purity and chastity by centering them as keepers/destroyers of social morality.
My research in particular is focused on analyzing the rhetoric that works to maintain girls as these sort of gatekeepers to morality by examining images from the National Campaign to prevent teen pregnancy. This campaign has a large presence in a lot of mainstream media shows, websites and vocal abstinence only groups. Their posters and propaganda has been put in high visibility areas throughout high schools.
While such images line the hallways of our schools, what is being taught in the actual classrooms only reinforces these messages: for girls that did have sex, student workbooks had devastatingly negative remarks about what that meant for their futures. Not only were they destined for financial ruin but they would also suffer low self esteem and have to battle tendencies to later commit suicide. Worst yet, the books gave the impression that these girls were permanently damaged.
These messages are obviously a shame based way to promote abstinence, yet this is not the only tactic that the campaign uses to make the message clear. The Candies Foundation, a partner to the National Campaign that uses celebrities to advocate abstinence, decided that shame was just not sexy enough for them. Candies indeed, agrees that sex sells; in this case, sexiness, even when it’s applied to a teenager, even a teenager that is supposed to be abstinent. Even a teenager that has the word sex written across her chest. A sexless sexy teenager.
Their slogan ‘I’m sexy enough to keep you waiting’ again puts the girl at the center of social morality; it is her duty to tell you she’s strong or sexy or smart enough to do the right thing for both her and her boyfriend. The design concept clearly equates a girls ability to be socially valued (ie: sexy or attractive) with her ability to maintain chastity.Messages like these are the heart of the abstinence only curricula used in classrooms across the nation. These are two excerpts pulled from student workbooks:
-Girls need to be aware they may be able to tell when a kiss is leading to something else. The girl may need to put the brakes on first in order to help the boy.
-A young man's desire for sex is already strong due to testosterone...females are being culturally conditioned to fantasize about sex.
What these statements are doing is painting male sexuality and behaviors as normal, uncontrollable and unavoidable while framing female sexuality as reactive and controllable…all of this, while still placing the female as the enforcer of morality. Not only is it her job to sense sexual desire, but it is also her job to cease these desires while all the while of course, looking sexy.
Getting these girls to adhere to all of this goes beyond mere sex or shame convincing, the movement demands a commitment from them, a commitment in the form of a contract, or pledge that guarantees their abstinence. Whether this takes place at school, at church, or some other community based center, they are taught the ultimate commitment is to either sign virginity vouchers, commitment cards or purity pledges.
The most elaborate display for commitment comes through purity balls, a ceremony in which essentially the daughters agree to pledge their purity/virginity to their fathers until they are married, and then hand this duty of protecting their purity, to their husbands. At these ceremonies, the girls are given ‘purity’ rings by their fathers, vows are exchanged between the father and daughter, big fluffy white dresses are worn, and pledges are signed.
Here is one example of such pledge:
There is a pledge the father must repeat:
He acknowledges himself as the ‘authority and protector of her virginity
One for the girl to repeat if she is still a virgin
That proclaims her virginity as her most precious gift she will be able to offer her future husband and states she will pledge this purity to her father and future husband
And one for the “Secondary Virgin”
For those who have engaged in ‘promiscuous behaviors’ but wish to recommit themselves to purity. She states that she realizes her prior sexual activity was a mistake, one she regrets deeply, and that she will now maintain purity until marriage for her husband.
Although there are many different companies and organizations that now put on purity balls, the founder, Randy Wilson talks about his ideas about the founding and mission of these balls:
He said about founding it:
The idea is for fathers to model what a relationship can be as a daughter grows from a child to an adult. He says these purity balls are focused on girls rather than boys because: Premarital sex is more destructive towards girls, who suffer more because they are more emotional than boys.
And lastly, he puts out a call to all our dads, proclaiming that their daughters are desperately waiting for them in a world waiting to exploit them to swoop in and rescue them. As you can see, it is still the girls that are at the focus as the ones needing protection, meaning they are the ones that have something of value to be protected, and that they are the ones that need to model purity and morality to the community.
What I've present here is just a small analysis of a growing persuasion that is seeking to constrain female sexuality, however the issue is much more complex. These programs also:
-Make assumptions about roles of women in society
(social worth as ‘sexy’, but virginal/pure)
-Ignore any conversations outside of heterosexuality
(these programs only discuss healthy relationships between men and women, rendering gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual students invisible; the entire goal of these programs is to get the students to wait until marriage, as well. This is one right that a majority of GLBTQ have not yet been given)
-Avoid any conversations about contraception
(By law they are not allowed to tell student how to use them or what methods are best::: actually they are only allowed to mention contraception if they are referencing its failure rates
If kids do ask where to obtain birth control::: they tell the students they do not need to know where to get them because abstinence does not require contraception)
-Exaggerate and falsify failure use of contraceptives
(2004 congressional review by house committee on govt reform-studies showed 11/13 most popular/most used ab only curricula were falsified and exaggerated information on the incidence and transmission of STD’s)
-Deny girls full access to reproductive health
(deny contraceptive use but also esp. pertains to information about abortion: claims made in textbooks and seminars stated that some women will never again be pregnant after having abortions, and if they did, their children would suffer premature births and mental retardation. One kid actually filmed an abstinence only speaker that came to his school saying that they ground up the aborted fetuses and used them as a base for lipstick---this is here on youtube -begins at 3:30-)
-Define/associate female worth with her purity,
(virginity, moral worth//fetishizing virginity; placing value on the sum of her sexual parts rather than on any other defining factor that is acceptable for boys)
-Exaggerate and falsify results of premarital sex
(girls that have premarital sex are prone to suicide, drug abuse and high stress levels; financial ruin, and unlikely to find someone to marry them)
I feel that my research and research like mine is important because these programs are damaging to girls on many levels of forming their own sense of identity about empowerment, value and worth, ideas on motherhood, sexuality and life goals and the roles they will play , and not to mention the public health failure it has become by not allowing girls to make well informed decisions about their bodies and their lives.
And on that note, now off to see if I can grab this film through ODU library or interlibrary loan. Apparently you cannot order it currently because it is on backorder and there is a waitlist. You can emailwaitlist@jayebirdproductions.com to be placed on this list. Educators, film reviewers, and film festivals may email info@jayebirdproductions.com for a screener.
[[[[Intellectual property disclaimer: All research ideas/content/thesis were of my own creation unless otherwise noted (linked back to the originator). This may very well be part of my thesis, so please, please link back to phem if you repost or share and give credit where it's due. If you use these visuals, please link back to phem or to me-brook buesking as well. thank you!]]]]
Whether it’s on the big screen or within the halls of our schools, teenage pregnancy has been more or less viewed as an all out epidemic, and is being framed as this great American failure that is begging for a solution. For the past decade, the answer directed at teens has been the rather controversial abstinence only movement, a movement that has gone from a niche market contained mostly within churches and spiritual outreach to a booming industry supported by 1.5 billion federal dollars aimed at high schools across the nation.This solution, however, has had some answering to do itself about the tactics it is using to persuade teenagers to just say no to sex. These programs ground themselves in traditional, conservative rhetoric that emphasizes abstinence until marriage and social value through moral purity. Interestingly enough, the rhetoric used within these programs directly hold girls, rather than boys, responsible for upholding these values for purity and chastity by centering them as keepers/destroyers of social morality.
My research in particular is focused on analyzing the rhetoric that works to maintain girls as these sort of gatekeepers to morality by examining images from the National Campaign to prevent teen pregnancy. This campaign has a large presence in a lot of mainstream media shows, websites and vocal abstinence only groups. Their posters and propaganda has been put in high visibility areas throughout high schools.
While such images line the hallways of our schools, what is being taught in the actual classrooms only reinforces these messages: for girls that did have sex, student workbooks had devastatingly negative remarks about what that meant for their futures. Not only were they destined for financial ruin but they would also suffer low self esteem and have to battle tendencies to later commit suicide. Worst yet, the books gave the impression that these girls were permanently damaged.
These messages are obviously a shame based way to promote abstinence, yet this is not the only tactic that the campaign uses to make the message clear. The Candies Foundation, a partner to the National Campaign that uses celebrities to advocate abstinence, decided that shame was just not sexy enough for them. Candies indeed, agrees that sex sells; in this case, sexiness, even when it’s applied to a teenager, even a teenager that is supposed to be abstinent. Even a teenager that has the word sex written across her chest. A sexless sexy teenager.
Their slogan ‘I’m sexy enough to keep you waiting’ again puts the girl at the center of social morality; it is her duty to tell you she’s strong or sexy or smart enough to do the right thing for both her and her boyfriend. The design concept clearly equates a girls ability to be socially valued (ie: sexy or attractive) with her ability to maintain chastity.Messages like these are the heart of the abstinence only curricula used in classrooms across the nation. These are two excerpts pulled from student workbooks:
-Girls need to be aware they may be able to tell when a kiss is leading to something else. The girl may need to put the brakes on first in order to help the boy.
-A young man's desire for sex is already strong due to testosterone...females are being culturally conditioned to fantasize about sex.
What these statements are doing is painting male sexuality and behaviors as normal, uncontrollable and unavoidable while framing female sexuality as reactive and controllable…all of this, while still placing the female as the enforcer of morality. Not only is it her job to sense sexual desire, but it is also her job to cease these desires while all the while of course, looking sexy.
Getting these girls to adhere to all of this goes beyond mere sex or shame convincing, the movement demands a commitment from them, a commitment in the form of a contract, or pledge that guarantees their abstinence. Whether this takes place at school, at church, or some other community based center, they are taught the ultimate commitment is to either sign virginity vouchers, commitment cards or purity pledges.
The most elaborate display for commitment comes through purity balls, a ceremony in which essentially the daughters agree to pledge their purity/virginity to their fathers until they are married, and then hand this duty of protecting their purity, to their husbands. At these ceremonies, the girls are given ‘purity’ rings by their fathers, vows are exchanged between the father and daughter, big fluffy white dresses are worn, and pledges are signed.
Here is one example of such pledge:
There is a pledge the father must repeat:
He acknowledges himself as the ‘authority and protector of her virginity
One for the girl to repeat if she is still a virgin
That proclaims her virginity as her most precious gift she will be able to offer her future husband and states she will pledge this purity to her father and future husband
And one for the “Secondary Virgin”
For those who have engaged in ‘promiscuous behaviors’ but wish to recommit themselves to purity. She states that she realizes her prior sexual activity was a mistake, one she regrets deeply, and that she will now maintain purity until marriage for her husband.
Although there are many different companies and organizations that now put on purity balls, the founder, Randy Wilson talks about his ideas about the founding and mission of these balls:
He said about founding it:
The idea is for fathers to model what a relationship can be as a daughter grows from a child to an adult. He says these purity balls are focused on girls rather than boys because: Premarital sex is more destructive towards girls, who suffer more because they are more emotional than boys.
And lastly, he puts out a call to all our dads, proclaiming that their daughters are desperately waiting for them in a world waiting to exploit them to swoop in and rescue them. As you can see, it is still the girls that are at the focus as the ones needing protection, meaning they are the ones that have something of value to be protected, and that they are the ones that need to model purity and morality to the community.
What I've present here is just a small analysis of a growing persuasion that is seeking to constrain female sexuality, however the issue is much more complex. These programs also:
-Make assumptions about roles of women in society
(social worth as ‘sexy’, but virginal/pure)
-Ignore any conversations outside of heterosexuality
(these programs only discuss healthy relationships between men and women, rendering gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual students invisible; the entire goal of these programs is to get the students to wait until marriage, as well. This is one right that a majority of GLBTQ have not yet been given)
-Avoid any conversations about contraception
(By law they are not allowed to tell student how to use them or what methods are best::: actually they are only allowed to mention contraception if they are referencing its failure rates
If kids do ask where to obtain birth control::: they tell the students they do not need to know where to get them because abstinence does not require contraception)
-Exaggerate and falsify failure use of contraceptives
(2004 congressional review by house committee on govt reform-studies showed 11/13 most popular/most used ab only curricula were falsified and exaggerated information on the incidence and transmission of STD’s)
-Deny girls full access to reproductive health
(deny contraceptive use but also esp. pertains to information about abortion: claims made in textbooks and seminars stated that some women will never again be pregnant after having abortions, and if they did, their children would suffer premature births and mental retardation. One kid actually filmed an abstinence only speaker that came to his school saying that they ground up the aborted fetuses and used them as a base for lipstick---this is here on youtube -begins at 3:30-)
-Define/associate female worth with her purity,
(virginity, moral worth//fetishizing virginity; placing value on the sum of her sexual parts rather than on any other defining factor that is acceptable for boys)
-Exaggerate and falsify results of premarital sex
(girls that have premarital sex are prone to suicide, drug abuse and high stress levels; financial ruin, and unlikely to find someone to marry them)
I feel that my research and research like mine is important because these programs are damaging to girls on many levels of forming their own sense of identity about empowerment, value and worth, ideas on motherhood, sexuality and life goals and the roles they will play , and not to mention the public health failure it has become by not allowing girls to make well informed decisions about their bodies and their lives.
And on that note, now off to see if I can grab this film through ODU library or interlibrary loan. Apparently you cannot order it currently because it is on backorder and there is a waitlist. You can emailwaitlist@jayebirdproductions.com to be placed on this list. Educators, film reviewers, and film festivals may email info@jayebirdproductions.com for a screener.
[[[[Intellectual property disclaimer: All research ideas/content/thesis were of my own creation unless otherwise noted (linked back to the originator). This may very well be part of my thesis, so please, please link back to phem if you repost or share and give credit where it's due. If you use these visuals, please link back to phem or to me-brook buesking as well. thank you!]]]]
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