From Rings to Regulations: How Purity Culture Shaped a Nation

What exactly is Purity Culture?

While commonly linked to the white, American, Evangelical Christian Purity Movement of the early 1990s, the foundational ethics of purity culture extend beyond this specific group; the control of gender and sexuality as prescribed by purity culture is not exclusive to any single religious or cultural group.

Gender Roles and Stereotypes

Linda Kay Klein, author of Pure, writes:

“In purity culture, gender expectations are based on a strict, stereotype-based binary. Men are expected to be strong, “masculine” leaders of the household, church, and (to a lesser extent) society. Women are expected to support them—to be pretty, “feminine,” sweet, supportive wives and mothers.”

The principles of purity culture are based on rigid and fixed gender roles and equally rigid sexual practices. These include limiting sexual activity to marriage, demanding any relationship structure to be monogamous and heterosexual, prescribing a monogamous and heterosexual relationship structure, and focusing solely on vaginal penetration.

Legislative Influence and Policies

Emma Cieslik reminds us that, during the 80s and 90s, Purity Culture infiltrated multiple facets of our lives, including public and educational policy:

“Different Christian communities enforce this guilt and shame surrounding the female body and sexuality in different ways, through commercial products, such as signed purity pledges and rings inscribed with Bible verses, and with church- and school-wide events, these include Father-Daughter purity balls and youth ministry lock-ins, which grew in popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s as part of the Purity Movement."

The largest wound from Purity Culture is its integration into larger public life. At the height of its popularity, purity culture involved government-funded abstinence-only sex education programs, which were initiated by the Clinton administration in 1996. Recipients of these funds, including state education departments and local school districts, are mandated to teach exclusively that sex outside of marriage can lead to harmful psychological and physical effects, and that a faithful monogamous relationship within marriage is the expected norm for sexual activity.

Generational Effects

Purity Culture affected more than just Evangelical Christians; it impacted two generations of Americans—Gen X and millennials. Despite reduced funding for abstinence-only education in public schools during the 2020s, some funding still remains. The remnants of this culture continue to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha through social media.

Purity Culture profoundly affected several generations of Americans; you didn’t have to grow up in the Evangelical movement to get fucked over by it.

Sexvangelicals is about putting the pieces back together for two generations of folks—Christians and non-Christians—who learned that sex is something to be feared, surveilled, and ultimately avoided, with grave consequences for all people.