Posted on 08/02/2014 4:45:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
Back in the 1950s, C.S. Lewis saw chastity as under attack with "all the contemporary propaganda for lust that makes people "feel that the desires we are resisting are so 'natural,' so 'healthy,' and so reasonable, that it is almost perverse and abnormal to resist them."
You can now safely delete the word "almost."
Today virginity isn't a virtue but a burden. Chastity is a freak show and anyone who chooses to keep it is a carnival barker. In today's entertainment world, weirdos -- especially sexual weirdos -- drive a juicy plot, so virgins are in vogue, as a target or merely as an anthropological curiosity.
MTV has a new reality show called "Virgin Territory" where four young participants explain their "very tumultuous journey" in the "tricky world of virginity." MTV sells it as pathos: "Whether they're trying to lose their V-cards or keep them safely tucked in their pockets for as long as possible, being pure is really starting to grate on them."
MTV's Executive Vice President of Series Development Lauren Dolgen tried to make this sound like a public service. Because of a partnership with The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, she claimed, "MTV will continue this tradition by elevating the discussion of responsible sexual health to include the topic of virginity in a way that our audience might find surprising."
Translation: MTV's challenge is to find "a way" to introduce the virtue of virginity without projecting its virtue.
As TV critic Willa Paskin at Slate.com explained, the show "tries to get into psychological explanations for all of this unwanted virginity, because like the participants' friends, MTV thinks it's weird." Variety TV critic Brian Lowry nailed it on the head. "Some networks will pimp kids out -- under cover of sex education -- to score ratings."
Then there's the new film "Very Good Girls" in which two college-bound Brooklyn, New York, girls resolve to lose their virginity over the summer, but both target the same boy who vends ice cream at the beach. It's not a teen sex comedy; it's meant to be more profound. "When we lose our innocence, we have to find ourselves," announced the trailer.
Susan Wloszczyna at RogerEbert.com wasn't impressed. "(They) decide to relieve themselves of the burden that is their virginity," she wrote. To celebrate their decision, they strip down and run stark naked on a crowded public beach before leaping into the water." She called the film "a very bad excuse" to see the former child actress Dakota Fanning "flash her bare fanny, fondle herself provocatively and cavort in her underwear for no dramatic purpose." Director Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal described these two characters revolting against their virginity as "serious, interesting, committed girls about how they become women." She said this movie is rare, because women "don't often see themselves with any reality on screen."
There it is again. "Reality" is defined by Hollywood's sexual-liberation ethos. Women who decide to retain their virginity are somehow not "real" women and certainly can't expect to see their "reality on screen." The "contemporary propaganda for lust" just never stops coming.
Now I have heard of "poetic license" but this is ridiculous. How in the hell can you "accidentally" inseminate. Can someone explain that to me.
case of mistaken identity.
Unwashed hands or instruments? The erroneous transmission of a sperm could be explained in several grossly unsanitary ways.
When was that?
When was that?
Good question. Organized religion features in our oldest historical knowledge of human beings - that is, in ancient Egypt.
All societies, even contemporary hunter-gatherers, have controls on sexuality, because the society benefits when both childbearing and intense personal relationships are kept within bounds. Even men who don't "love" or care about a woman in a personal way care about ownership of a sexual service provider, or just ownership itself.
In many cultural traditions, we find instances of chosen sexual continence for adult men or women. Sometimes it's to avoid parenthood; other times it has a religious significance.
And yet somehow, I managed to get through the first decade or so of my life without even thinking about it, much less having it.
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It's not just the Catholic Church, ALL true/U> Christians and Jews recognize that sex outside of wedlock is sinful and wrong.
Going without sex is freakish and unnatural.
Prior to a couple generations ago, waiting until marriage had been the norm (e.g. natural state) for six thousand years.
Sex is good. Sex is fun. We are going to do it.
So troll, at what age do you suggest children first engage in sexual intercourse?
We are guided by our instincts, tempered by our upbringing and our values. That said, sex is one of our most base instincts.
Yes, and YOUR SUGGESTION that we discard six thousand years of Judeo-Christian values is the problem.
And as for you, miss marmelstein, there are plenty of girls born WITHOUT a hymen, or it is broken by regular physical activity that has NOTHING to do with sex. You seem to share the attitude voiced by some in the more extremist Muslim countries.
Now troll, I realize that you've only been on FR for a few months (if this is your first time), but I've noticed that many trolls compare Christians to the Taliban, jihadists or something similar just before they are zotted.
This article was supposed to be about our attitudes regarding sex being shaped by the weirdo perverts in HollyWEIRD. How about you get back on topic instead of trying to ding me?
However, YOU share Hollywood's agenda.
Disease and abortion are natural? They are a consequence of making sex the all American past time.
Lack of self control is a liberal trait.
IBTZ
This thread prompted me to do some research on virginity - which, as you say, has been a staple of most societies for at least 2 millenium. I was especially interested to read up on the Vestals - those powerful women of Rome who guarded the temple of Vesta. I’ve visited the remnents of that temple in the Roman Forum. Admirable women, who, if “I, Claudius” is to be believed, also guarded the wills of the Emperors.
Virginity was also believed (and perhaps rightly so) to be excellent for fertility. Fertility and the cult of virginity were very big in the ancient world.
IBTZ
I doubt it, especially with a screen name like that.
“Gods plan for sex is the best. Anything outside of His plan will bring problems, heartache and misery.”
Add to that diseases.
Yeah, he took off in a strange direction. But then as a member of the Taliban I may have misread his remarks.
“Gods plan for sex is the best.”
Didn’t sex start only after Eve ate the forbidden fruit?
No, sex preceded the Fall (Genesis 2:24-25).
Well, it isn’t exactly an original insult, is it?
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