Misogyny in Christian purity culture

Last updated 9/15/2024

Christian misogyny and sexism

Purity culture is a term used to describe the culture that has grown around Christian teachings about women dressing modestly and people abstaining from sex until one is married. It has been criticized for being misogynist and steeped in rape culture.

Note that because much of Christian theology is deeply cissexist, womanhood is equated with one's body parts.

1. Purity culture perpetuates the myth that men want mainly sex and women want mainly romance. This often means portraying women with libidos higher than perceived average as not being proper women and thus worthy of scorn. This also means hypersexualization of women whose sexuality and expression of it are deemed abnormal.

Uncritical examples

Doing Things Right In Matters of the Heart Study Guide by Joshua Krohse | Northbrook Baptist Church (contains multiple examples)

Archived on Wayback Machine

Commentary

Gender and race in the cult of true womanhood | Are Women Human? (September 2011)

The Great Sex Rescue: Sex Drive | Tell me why the world is weird (November 2023)

In Purity Land, Only Straight Men Are Allowed To Have A Sexuality | Tell me why the world is weird (November 2016)

2. Christian purity culture also places most of the onus of preventing heterosexual fornication on women.

Uncritical examples

None yet

Commentary

How Creepy Conservative Christian Modesty Doctrines Harm Young Women by RH Reality Check and Sierra | Alternet (November 2011)

The Story of Me and Modesty | Tell me why the world is weird (January 2013)

Memoirist: Evangelical Purity Movement Sees Women's Bodies As A 'Threat' by Terry Gross | National Public Radio (September 2018)

Don't Discount Evangelicalism as a Factor in Racist Murder of Asian Spa Workers in Georgia by Chrissy Stroop | Religion Dispatches (March 2021)

Purity Culture is Also About National Purity: Anti-Asian Hate and Purity Culture [Audio] by Bradley Onishi | Religion Dispatches (March 2021)

Gender and race in the cult of true womanhood | Are Women Human? (September 2011)

3. Christian purity culture tells women to dress ”modestly”. How they define that varies, but there's a general line of thinking that women who aren't ”modest” are causing men to think ”impure” thoughts, and thus men are less likely to treat them well.

Uncritical examples

A Dad's Perspective: Why I Tell My Daughters to Dress Modestly by Peter Chin | Christianity Today (July 2013)

Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today

A Letter to our Teenage Daughters About How They Dress | Shaunti Feldhahn (April 2019)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Bible Verses About Modesty by Fritz Chery | Bible Reasons (May 2023)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

Commentary

I don't know, why do you tell your daughters to dress modestly? | Sarah Over The Moon (July 2013)

Women Are Never Going to Cover Themselves Enough to Get Men to Shut Up About Us | Not Peer Reviewed: By Laura Robinson (May 2023)

4. Christian teachings on abstinence often compare people (especially women) who have premarital sex or dress ”immodestly” to objects. This has included chewed gum, mangled roses, and broken-down cars.

Uncritical examples

The Bikini Question by Rachel Clark | Made In His Image (May 2013)

Archived on Wayback Machine

Commentary

”You'll LOVE chewing one piece of gum every day for your whole life” | Sarah Over The Moon (May 2013)

Women Aren't Cake, Part 2: The Cake Is a Lie | Abi Bechtel (June 2013, discusses disordered eating)

5. Purity culture constantly tells women that sex is awful and sinful before marriage. But when they get married and still feel sex is dirty and degrading, they don't get much support. Or they get a display of purity culture advocates saying they sympathize with women who still felt sexual shame after marriage while fully endorsing the same crap that lead to that shame.

Uncritical examples

Livid at the Evangelical Sub-Culture & Its Epidemic of Sexless Marriages | Musings Of A Hardlining Moderate (February 2014)

Archived on Wayback Machine

I Didn't Wait And Wish I Did: An open response to Samantha Pugsley by Esther Rich | Chastity Project (December 2014, responds to one of the articles listed below)

Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today

Commentary

The Answer To Sexual Shame is Not MORE Sexual Shame, Carson T. Clark | Sarah Over The Moon (March 2014)

My Christian virginity pledge nearly destroyed me by Samantha Pugsley | Salon (August 2014)

”You'll LOVE chewing one piece of gum every day for your whole life” | Sarah Over The Moon (May 2013)

6. Christians who worship at the altar of marital sex claim it is necessary for women to have sex with their husbands. Some go as far to say you can't refuse him even if you're tired or not in the mood because it makes him feel unmanly and unloved.

See this document for examples.

More about misogyny in purity culture

IR: Modesty, Dignity, and Gnosticism | Hanna Hettinger (August 2013)

You Are Not Your Own: Benevolent Sexism as the Solution to Hostile Sexism | Sarah Over The Moon (June 2013)

I Know Why Evangelical Women Support Brett Kavanaugh. I Was Raised To Do The Same. by Carly Gelsinger | Huff Post (October 2018)

The Flaw at the Center of Purity Culture by Angie Hong | The Atlantic (March 2021, discusses sexual abuse and uses some derogatory terms for sex workers)

To End Sexual Abuse in Churches, Dismantle Purity Culture by Leslie Goldman | Marie Claire (October 2020)

Post-Purity Culture: The New Online Frontier of Evangelical Sexual Ethics by Erika Veurink | The Revealer (July 2021)

BREAKING NEWS: Purity Culture Adherents Completely Miss the Point | Tell me why the world is weird (February 2017, criticizes evangelicals who don't see a difference between a woman being shown in a sexual manner and a woman being treated as an object for men's pleasure)

Further information

Sex Education | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (August 2015, addresses some of the issues with abstinence-only education)

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