Ladies...Would you pledge your virginity to your father?

[xultar]

Would you pledge your virginity to your father? :puke:
It’s like a wedding but with a twist: Young women exchange rings, take vows and enjoy a first dance…with their dads. “Purity balls” are the next big thing in the save-it-till-marriage movement. Smart or scary? Tell us what you think here.

By Jennifer Baumgardner

In a chandelier-lit ballroom overlooking the Rocky Mountains one recent evening, some hundred couples feast on herb-crusted chicken and julienned vegetables. The men look dapper in tuxedos; their dates are resplendent in floor-length gowns, long white gloves and tiaras framing twirly, ornate updos. Seated at a table with four couples, I watch as the gray-haired man next to me reaches into his breast pocket, pulls out a small satin box and flips it open to check out a gold ring he’s about to place on the finger of the woman sitting to his right. Her eyes well up with tears as she is overcome by emotion.

The man’s date? His 25-year-old daughter. Welcome to Colorado Springs’ Seventh Annual Father-Daughter Purity Ball, held at the five-star Broadmoor Hotel. The event’s purpose is, in part, to celebrate dad-daughter bonding, but the main agenda is for fathers to vow to protect the girls’ chastity until they marry and for the daughters to promise to stay pure. Pastor Randy Wilson, host of the event and cofounder of the ball, strides to the front of the room, takes the microphone and asks the men, “Are you ready to war for your daughters’ purity?”

More discustingness @ http://www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/01/purityballs07feb?currentPage=1

[trumad]

1. Why is it

that I think these girls would be the first to go behind the barn with Willie?

[skypilot]

2. The young lady in that photo...

...looks as though she already regrets it.

[Mad_Dem_X]

3. This is just all KINDS of wrong

On so many levels...:scared: :puke:

I can't even imagine taking part in a function like that with my own father!

[Missy Vixen]

4. This is beyond creepy

It's too bad that the fathers in question have no more faith in the morality they've attempted to instill in their daughters, isn't it? Shouldn't the reward be their virtue, anyway?

:eyes:
Julie

p.s. Did I mention that my former fundie church had a large percentage of church "leaders" daughters turn up pregnant when we were all in high school?

[cynatnite]

5. My stepdad would blush and I would bust a gut laughing...

I told my RW fundie mom about this and she thought it was weird, too.

[PVnRT]

6. That's just wrong

n/t

[Mandate My Ass]

7. OMG! “Are you ready to war for your daughters’ purity?”

The older girls at the Broadmoor tonight are themselves curvaceous and sexy in backless dresses and artful makeup; next to their fathers, some look disconcertingly like wives. In fact, in the parlance of the purity ball folks, one-on-one time with dad is a “date,” and the only sanctioned one a girl can have until she is “courted” by a man. The roles are clear: Dad is the only man in a girl’s life until her husband arrives, a lifestyle straight out of biblical times. “In patriarchy, a father owns a girl’s sexuality,” notes psychologist and feminist author Carol Gilligan, Ph.D. “And like any other property, he guards it, protects it, even loves it.”....

When I ask Hannah Smith, 15, what purity means to her, she answers, “I actually don’t know.” Her older sister Emily jumps in: “Purity, it means…I don’t know how to explain it. It is important to us that we promise to ourselves and to our fathers and to God that we promise to stay pure until…. It is hard to explain.” I suspect that the girls’ lack of vocabulary has to do with a universal truth of girlhood: You don’t want to talk about sex with anyone older than 18, particularly your dad. At the same time, the girls seem so unsure of the reasons behind their vows that I can’t help but wonder if they’ve just signed a contract whose terms they didn’t fully understand.

That is some sick shit right there.

[Cabcere]

8. No.

I love my dad and all, but that just seems kind of creepy to me. And I'm pretty sure that my dad - a moral, religious, and politically independent/liberal man - would agree. My parents instilled certain values in me as a child, but they also raised me to think for myself and make my own choices...and something like this "Purity Ball" seems to go a little bit beyond the concept of "Daddy's little girl," IMO.

[Karenina]

9. Wars are fought over women's

bodies and clothing. Men WON'T back off voluntarily, we need to PUSH THEM OFF. What century is this, anyway? :freak: DOWN WITH PATRIRCHY!!! It's ICKY!!!

[AzDar]

10. Whatdaya mean..."would"? n/t

Edited to add: :rofl:

[jmowreader]

11. You gotta see this

This is a women's purity ring. I found it on line, at one of the stores in the DU ad strip.



They've also got one like it for men.

Okay, everyone: most of us wear rings of some sort. I'd like everyone to look at your hand and ask yourself if you'd really wear this ring. If your ring finger gets bent backward just a hair too much, your knuckle is going to get injured--cut at least.

[Cabcere]

13. Ouch.

That does look rather awkward and painful to wear - I wonder if that's supposed to be some kind of symbolism? :shrug:

[Clark2008]

15. I actually like it.

I like religious symbols as jewelry.

But, then again, I'm Catholic. I don't need to take some stupid purity vow to respect the cross.

[Cabcere]

17. I do think

it's a pretty design - it just doesn't look very practical for wearing to me. :)

[progressivebydesign]

12. Grotesque, draconian, creepy, and wrong.

I think that pretty much sums up my feelings about this. Frankly, after all of the press lately about married men with kids perusing websites for 14 year old girls and boys for sex, I can honestly say that there is nothing pure or innocent about men being so caught up in their daughter's virginity. It's creepy and smacks of sexual fascination by the fathers.

[derby378]

14. Translation: "Your pussy belongs to ME, not YOU"

Viewed in that context, I find the whole Purity Ball concept highly ritualized - and highly offensive.

A woman's sexuality is hers to give to whom she wishes. It does not need to be "safeguarded" by her dad, her husband, her uncle, a Taliban mullah, etc.

[Ilsa]

19. One step away from donning chastity belts. nt

[TexasLady]

16. what no ball for the sons?

dang!

[Ilsa]

20. Of course not. Their dads are encouraging them to go out

and "get some pussy" as W would say before they got tied down to the same woman they'd have to cheat on for the rest of their lives.

Seriously, I dated a man who insisted his daughter be a virgin and his son get it as often as possible without emotionaal involvement or regret.

[Cabcere]

21. Yeah...

...damn double standards. :thumbsdown: That's really messed up.

[Ilsa]

18. 25 and pledging virginity?

Is the horse already out of the gate or does she just want some fine jewelry?

[kath]

22. xultar et al, there's already a fairly lengthy thread here in GD discussing the

same article that was started on Saturday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3164702

C'mon by and jump in!

Oh, BTW, although barf-inducing, it is worth reading the entire Glamour article to get all the gory details.

Also see posts on the other thread about some of the lovely lock-and-key "purity jewelry" available.

[MetaTrope]

23. Well, maybe just a little fatherly fondling

[seabeyond]

24. delete

[bumblebee1]

25. No. My father never asked me.

We were born and raised Catholic. That kind of thing didn't go on. If you expect your daughters to be pure at marriage, the same thing should be expected from your sons. What is to stop these girls from getting married to the wrong man just to be able to have sex without guilt? This smacks of ownership with a "title" going from father to husband. This ritual makes these girls no better than a car.