Consider another abstinence product: a gold rose pin handed out in schools or at Christian youth events. The pin is attached to a small card that reads, “You are like a beautiful rose. Each time...

I’ve always found the idea of ‘saving’ your virginity intriguing: it’s not as if we’re packing our Saran-wrapped hymens away in the freezer, after all, or pasting them in scrapbooks. But packed-away virginities aside, the...

I couldn’t tell anyone how I felt because I knew they wouldn’t understand. Oh, poor little Christina, falling for the bad man who treats her like dirt because she didn’t know any better. And isn’t...

People only picked the pretty, sweet-smelling flowers. The ones with thorns were left alone.

Innocence could be lost more than once after all.

The desirable virgin is sexy but not sexual. She’s young, white, and skinny. She’s a cheerleader, a babysitter; she’s accessible and eager to please (remember those ethics of passivity!). She’s never a woman of color....

For women especially, virginity has become the easy answer- the morality quick fix. You can be vapid, stupid, and unethical, but so long as you’ve never had sex, you’re a “good” (i.e. “moral) girl and...