«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

It's strange. I think that both "Girls Gone Wild" videos and abstinence-only education classes tell women that what's most valuable about them is their sexuality. Porn has all of this “barely legal” and “virgin porn” stuff, where the most fetishized woman is the virgin. It's the same thing with abstinence-only and the purity pushers: The most revered person in their world is the female virgin.The virginity movement tries to fight against porn, but not really in the ways that you would expect. They spend a lot of time talking about pop culture and TV, not talking about poor conditions for sex workers -- things that actually impact women's lives. Instead, they target consensual sexual encounters between adults and little old ladies selling vibrators at, you know, [sex toy] Tupperware parties. The purity movement needs porn, so they can point at it and say, “ Look, look see all this terrible stuff that is happening!” And then they don't actually do anything about it.

What do you think about the young woman who auctioned off her virginity?

I don't know why we're so surprised by it. This is going to sound terrible, but that's essentially the same thing the abstinence movement is saying: “Hold off until you can auction off your virginity to the person with the biggest ring.” It's really the same thing, only done in a more explicit and economically honest way.

Jessica Valenti
Salon
May 16 2009