Valenti's Girlhood And Adolescence

The issues women faced, demonstrates the influence of family structures. The relation of socioeconomic status in race and ethnicity is looked upon as a strong association to sexual behavior. The length of time parents communicating sexual issues, have shown a significant role in adolescences. The repetition of sexuality virtues impacts gendered sexual expectations. Mothers teach their daughters, the importance of being a virgin until marriage. Lopez states, “Women construct premarital virginity as a commodity that can be rated in a patriarchal society for financial stability and happiness via marriage” (pg. 222). Maintaining premarital virginity represents stability and happiness. With virginity specifies, mothers are over protected towards their daughters. Mothers strive to protect their daughters from gendered inequalities. Gender expectations represents the inequality

“Virgins,” a short story by Danielle Evans is a coming of age tale that details the arduous journey of upcoming womanhood taken by a young girl and her friend. This young girl is named Erica and her friend is named Jasmine they are both black teenaged girls living in a lower income neighborhood. As one reads, the question emerges of how Evans presents a commentary on the issues that girls on the verge of womanhood must overcome, appears. What aspects must be portrayed to fully paint a picture into this world? Danielle Evans uses teenage ideals of self worth, themes of maturity, and a common disregard of morals to present a commentary on the issues girls on the verge of womanhood must overcome to fully prosper.

There seems to be a myth of sexuality and virginity because neither exist. It is time to teach young women that their ability does not depend on whether or not they are sexually active but that their ability to be good people depends on actually being good people. Valenti states that this book is for women who are suffering every day because of the lie that virginity exists, and that it has some bearing on who we are and how good we are. When it comes to understanding the myth, young women are taught about morality, but there is hardly ever any talk of compassion, kindness, courage, or integrity. There is a lot of talk about hymens: if we have them, when we will lose them, and under what circumstances we’ll be rid of them. By fetishizing youth and virginity, we are supporting a disturbing message: really sexy women are not women at all- they are girls. A strong statement that has probably touched the heart of those that have read this book states that: “A women’s worth lies in her ability or her refusal to be sexual… their bodies and their sexuality are what make them valuable. The sexual double standard is alive and well, and it is irrevocably damaging young

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.

One of the norms Kincaid questions is virginity, whether sex is actually meaningful, that it could be enjoyable without the feeling of love. As a nineteen-year-old girl, Lucy is new to what a sexual relationship could have

Did you know that 24 states in the US require their public schools to teach sex education and HIV education to their students (NCL.org)? Do they even need to understand sex or STDs? Well of course not. That’s why schools should not even teach these students sex because it’s just going to be too much for the high school students’ young mind, sex education will definitely motivate the students to have sex—regardless of their sexuality--, and it’s up to their not so busy parents to explain sex—and all its glory—to their children who are attending high school.

Intersectionality is one of the most integral aspects of modern feminism because it recognizes that multiple factors - such as race, age, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, etc. - contribute to one’s personal experience with sexism. Thus, one solution may not be the solution for everyone woman. One example that portrayed how important of a concept intersectionality is in modern feminism was, The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti, because it showed how the sexual lives of younger women are held at different standards compared to that of older women. Jessica Valenti shown a light on how many young women are raised to believe that their “virginity” is the most important quality a young woman can have. Valenti also showed that even if young women aren’t directly told that their

Purity balls and chastity pledges tend to, whether it is explicitly acknowledged or not, normalize oppression of women’s bodies and endorse rigid gender roles. Breanne Fahs’ explains this phenomenon in her article, Daddy’s Little Girls: On the Perils of Chastity Clubs, Purity Balls, and Ritualized Abstinence. Fahs states that “The culture of chastity makes for highly gendered social spaces that normalize the control of women’s bodies and sexuality through family, school, religion, and media messages” (Fahs, 2010). These social spaces focus heavily on women’s sexuality and give young women “tools” for how to guard their virginity for their husband. Since chastity clubs and purity balls mainly focus on young women’s virginities rather than young men’s virginities a double standard is created. “Cultures try to impose order and meaning on a chaotic, meaningless world through classifying some things as ‘dirty,’ ‘polluted,’ ‘dangerous,’ or ‘taboo’ while other things are labeled as ‘clean,’ ‘pure,’ and ‘safe’” (Fischer). They do this to scare people from deviating to what they see as the wrong

The first sentence of chapter five states, “of all the things that people do in the name of God, killing a girl because she doesn’t bleed on her wedding night is among the most cruel” (p. 81). In class we have talked about and I have read in the readings that female purity is important in many religious countries. I understand that virginity is valued in many societies, but it is hard to comprehend that people will kill a woman if she does not bleed the first time she has sex. Sex does not always hurt

The Samoan culture and how socialization turns into sexuality for young girls is very different compared to our culture. In the Samoan culture sexuality in Samoan girls is seen differently than we see it in our culture today. Margaret Mead elaborates on this idea because of how she views the sexuality of a Samoan girl when she mentions “Virginity is a legal requirement for her” (Mead 69). When Mead discusses this, it is interesting how in that culture virginity is a requirement and that is something we don’t see as a requirement in our society today. This demonstrates how the sexuality of a Samoan girl is not the same as we see it. The way girls are seen because of their sexuality is incomparable to girls in our society today and that’s important to observe since Samoan culture is by far very different to what we view as part of culture today.

Abstinence is a remarkable topic to be taught, however, should not be the only choice taught, and it’s impractical to expect the youth to hold out until marriage. Abstinence, along with STD and pregnancy prevention is imperative for the youth in the nation. It is factual that accepting promiscuity as part of our culture might cause a rise in STD's, teen pregnancy, and Aid’s. These increases are the reason we must begin early in educating children about the diseases, how to prevent them, and how to practice safe sex. Schools are insane for not lecturing the importance, or proper use of

Today’s society is filled with a lot of pressure among our young people. They’re a lot more bold, and liberal which causes a lot of influence and problems. For an example, it’s almost rare to go to middle school, and not be exposed to drugs, sex, and violence. Drugs are used to experiment, and in most cases, it becomes a bad habit as young as 15 years old. Kids are taught that it’s cool if you go against authority, and do the complete opposite. Tweens are more sexually active than before, that it’s almost abnormal to be a virgin at age 14. Most boys lose their virginity before 15 years old, and the percentage among young girls have increased over the years. It soon becomes “un-cool” to be a virgin, and they’re forced into peer pressure to have sex and lose their childhood. Young men usually lose it before young girls, so most of the time, it’s the young men who are pressuring the girls to conform. Most young boys don’t think of oral sex to be actual sex, they just write it off as “fooling around.” In that case, they feel it’s okay to do it, and girls are more prone to take part in it, because in their eyes, it’s not the real thing. I can remember as far back to 6th grade, my best friend was 11, and she was pregnant. Her family was actually proud that she was having a baby, while my family no longer allowed me to be friends with her. Families are a big factor when it comes to

The subject of virginity in the United States has changed immensely throughout the years. With the emerge of new social aspects such as feminism and gay rights movements, the value of the term has altered meanings. (Carpenter, 2002) Numerous studies were conducted in the 1970s and 1980s on sexuality. The results indicated that “young women, while more permissive than in previous decades, continued to value virginity,

The future conditions of the woman’s potential marital worth were much poorer than any punishment the violator could have received. Once a woman was raped, her virginity was no longer available for her husband to have. “‘Virginity is the ornament of morals, the sanctity of the sexes, the peace of families and the source of the greatest friendships.’ Its existence was a precondition for marriage. To publicly breach it was to compromise honor, rank, even life; a ‘deflowered’ girl inevitably became a ‘lost’ girl. . . ‘The ravishing of virginity was the worst rape of all.’” (Cite Book 1) An innocent woman had now completely lost her worth to society and her own dignity due to a man’s egocentric and merciless actions.

Coinciding with the onslaught of the new millennium, schools are beginning to realize that the parents are not doing their job when it comes to sexual education. The school system already has classes on sexual education; these classes are based mainly on human anatomy. Most schools do not teach their students about relationships, morals, respect, self-discipline, self-respect, and most importantly contraceptives. Everyday students engage in sexual activity, many of them with out condoms. This simple act jeopardizes these students' futures and possibly their lives. An increasing amount of school systems are starting to combine messages involving abstinence from sexual activity,