Purity Balls: The New Trend in the Chastity Movement
Amanda Sposato
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It's a mixture of prom and a wedding. Young girls get dressed up for a lovely dance. Once there, rings are presented, vows are spoken, and the atmosphere is one of closeness and family. This is neithe 
r a prom nor a wedding. It's a Purity Ball, the new trend in the Christian evangelical movement to keep young women chaste until they are married by making a vow to their fathers to remain so.
Freudian? Perhaps. An ambitious idea? Very. A good plan? Depends.
The Purity Ball trend began in 1998 when Pastor Randy Wilson and his wife threw one as part of their Christian ministry in Colorado, Generations of Light (Baumgardner, Jennifer. "Would you pledge your virginity to your father?." Glamour . Feb 2007). The idea came from the desire to allow women to feel good about themselves without needing inappropriate male attention. Lisa Wilson says "I believe if girls feel beautiful and cherished by their fathers, they don't go looking for love from random guys" (Baumgardner, 2007). The movement has become huge, with the Wilsons sending out 700 planning brochures a year.
The abstinence movement embraces these balls. For one, it makes vowing to remain a virgin "cool," a must-have characteristic when trying to appeal to young men and women in the hormonal stage of their development. The government has even gotten in on the trend, pushing for sexual education that emphasizes abstinence as the only form of birth control. Proponents of the abstinence movement feel that teaching adolescents about birth control and safe sex method only sparks their desire to want to have sex.
Statistics show however that 88% of those vowing to remain virgins until marriage break that vow, and that the percentage of those who promise abstinence that have STDs is about the same as those who don't (ABC News. March, 2007. See url). One reason for this is the lack of training on birth control and safe sex methods. Once a young woman takes a vow of chastity, all involved naively believe that they need learn no more. After all, a vow is a vow and there's nothing to worry about until marriage.
Freudian? Perhaps. An ambitious idea? Very. A good plan? Depends.
The Purity Ball trend began in 1998 when Pastor Randy Wilson and his wife threw one as part of their Christian ministry in Colorado, Generations of Light (Baumgardner, Jennifer. "Would you pledge your virginity to your father?." Glamour . Feb 2007). The idea came from the desire to allow women to feel good about themselves without needing inappropriate male attention. Lisa Wilson says "I believe if girls feel beautiful and cherished by their fathers, they don't go looking for love from random guys" (Baumgardner, 2007). The movement has become huge, with the Wilsons sending out 700 planning brochures a year.
The abstinence movement embraces these balls. For one, it makes vowing to remain a virgin "cool," a must-have characteristic when trying to appeal to young men and women in the hormonal stage of their development. The government has even gotten in on the trend, pushing for sexual education that emphasizes abstinence as the only form of birth control. Proponents of the abstinence movement feel that teaching adolescents about birth control and safe sex method only sparks their desire to want to have sex.
Statistics show however that 88% of those vowing to remain virgins until marriage break that vow, and that the percentage of those who promise abstinence that have STDs is about the same as those who don't (ABC News. March, 2007. See url). One reason for this is the lack of training on birth control and safe sex methods. Once a young woman takes a vow of chastity, all involved naively believe that they need learn no more. After all, a vow is a vow and there's nothing to worry about until marriage.