Posted on 01/22/2010 4:17:12 AM PST by Kaslin
When the cable network VH1 planned a news special called "The New Virginity," an abstinence backer might have felt optimistic that teenagers and young adults were going to get a refreshing jolt of publicity about the option of premarital celibacy. That is, unless you looked at the network's promotional fine print.
Words have meanings. So when VH1 promised to explore the "roots of our current obsession with chastity" as it's advocated by popular teenage celebrities, you knew the fix was in. They suggest these stars just cannot be sincere. Instead, playing to "virgin mania" is just a marketing scheme: "Virginity doesn't stop celebs from looking and acting provocatively -- playing both sides with impressive marketing results."
Now, I suppose it's possible that some parents and agents of teen stars are in fact conducting crass marketing exercises on the side. But those really aren't the ones who bother today's sexual libertines. It's the sincere virginity campaigners that truly drive them crazy -- so nutty that channels like VH1 are out there warning the public that every purity pledger is a fraud, or weeks away from becoming a fraud.
Virginity "appeals to parents who feel that their kids should only buy books, TV shows, movies, or CDs from stars who have good morals," said jaded New York dating columnist Julia Allison. Speaking of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, Jared Shapiro from Life & Style magazine added, "There was several hundreds of millions of dollars in sales waiting to be sold to children all across America and all you had to say was 'virgin.'"
Aw, come on. Not everyone is as callous as the guardians of today's pop culture. Parents whose children adore the pop stars on the Disney Channel are not hit over the head with "virginity" lobbying in Disney-produced TV shows, movies and CDs. These products are simply made safe for pre-teen children, with the subtle assumption that perhaps the whole teen sex vs. virginity debate is best left to the rest of the entertainment universe. And somehow, there's something ... wrong ... with that?
VH1's designated experts on virginity included Jessica Valenti, the feminist author of a book called "The Purity Myth," which neatly matched the channel's assumption that purity can't possibly be reality. Biology is destiny. Lust always wins. "There's now an iPhone application that's a purity ring that you can have on your phone to show that you're a virgin. I guess it's actually kind of useful because once you lose your virginity -- like most kids who take virginity pledges do -- you can just trash it."
Why wouldn't VH1 match the cynicism of Valenti with an author who has sincerely championed chastity? Take Dawn Eden, the author of "The Thrill of the Chaste." She would make a wonderful spokeswoman for -- and defender of -- chastity.
Here's the surprise: They did interview Eden last fall in New York. Here's the end of the surprise: They left her on the cutting room floor. She was informed with the usual cliches from producers that "the big guys above us" took the show "in a different direction," as they say. Translation: You were too good.
"I'm not surprised. This also happened the last time I did an interview for this type of program," she told my colleague Tim Graham. "It was clear that they were looking for a caricature of an ultra-right-wing evangelical, not a three-dimensional woman who had discovered a happier lifestyle choice."
Eden is not a caricature of an "ultra-right-wing evangelical." She came to the idea of chastity at age 31, after working in her 20s as a rock journalist. She was born in a Reform Jewish household as Dawn Eden Goldstein, dropping the last name when she became a writer. Chastity came naturally -- or as VH1 would insist, anything but naturally -- as a new spiritual commitment as she came to embrace the idea of Christianity and the Catholic faith.
She found the questions she was handed suggested a clear bias, like this one: "Teenagers have been horny since the dawn of time, no?" And "Critics say abstinence-only sex ed leaves kids clueless about sex. ...Talk about the agenda of abstinence-only education groups. What dangers does this kind of teaching pose?" Then there was: "Is it creepy that young girls are pledging purity to their dads until they are passed on to a husband?"
Even as they thanked her for participating (and getting censored), VH1 producers marveled at the "obsession" they could find in the media on the topic of virginity. So who's speaking honestly and prayerfully? And who's just cynically exploiting the topic?
VH1's whole concept should be turned around: Why should the advocates of premarital virginity be accused of insincere marketing? Especially by Viacom's "music video" channels that have long made their billions by selling the coolness and inevitability of sexual corruption to teenagers?
That's true, and it's a problem. However, it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't sincere, just that they haven't thought it through all the way. Reading Dawn Eden's book would be a good idea!
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Thanks Kaslin for another great find!
I reject that view. Moral principles used to have more acceptance within society, and they did help a number of people moderate their behavior. Sure, human nature being what it is, there were always a few who made mistakes. But by and large people tried to behave themselves. Nowadays its quite different. Trying to be moral is a good way to be socially ostracized. This sort of celebration of immorality is new and it is damaging to society.
Bears repeating!
Ping. FRegards ....
Not exactly school related, but an issue of concern to homeschoolers.
I wish the author had gone into explaining what is at the root of the Left’s rabid investment in promiscuity and having our reproductive organs being regarded as chiefly pleasure organs.
Intractable sexually transmitted diseases? Having young women being generally expected to audition for marriage in mens’ beds? Having our babies replaced by people who come from places that do not value our culture and freedoms?
There is such a hedonistic obsession with $ex on the left.
on the other side, i've known Christian families who really try to live out their faith whose daughters openly talk about how they are virgins and are waiting for marriage... and they bring it up all of the time... only to get to high school or go off to college and have premarital sex... i just don't see the need to always mention that you are a virgin...
Well, the mention it because we are told over and over again that virgins are extinct!
That's total cr*p! New virgins are born every day.
“Is it creepy that young girls are pledging purity to their dads until they are passed on to a husband?”
Girls don’t pledge their purity TO their dads. They pledge to let their dad’s be the “keepers” of their hearts until they turn it over to their husbands. And NO that is not creepy. It is sweet and innocent and everything I desire for my daughters.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.