Anyone see ABC's story on 'purity balls' and girls promising daddy they'll remain virgins?

[sinkingfeeling]

Interesting point was that 88% of the teenage girls who have signed these pledges admit to having sex. And it's only costing us taxpayers $200 million!

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2928607&page=1
Edited to add link


<snip> " today's day and age, if the daughters are sexually active before they're married that ceremony really is meaningless because the father's not giving anyone away," says Angela's father, Bret Markel. "I'm going to stay pure until I'm married and I'm not going to date or kiss a boy," says 12-year-old Sarah Markel.

This is partly fueled by government support. The current Bush administration's annual funding for abstinence initiatives has more than doubled to around $200 million.

In fact 88 percent of pledgers wind up breaking their pledge and having sex before marriage, according to a study by Peter Bearman, the chair of Columbia University's Department of Sociology, and Hannah Bruckner of Yale.


The study examined the sex lives of 12,000 adolescents and found teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage have the same rates of sexually transmitted diseases as those who don't pledge abstinence.

[aquart]

1. How did the taxpayers get involved?

What have we got to do with the Virgins of America? Aside from siphoning their blood for Cheney.

[TomInTib]

3. I believe they get some of that "Faith-based" money. eom

[TheMorph]

25. My tax dollars are going to THIS?

One of the most common things I see on their broadcasts is tape of pissed-off conservatives saying, "I don't want MY tax dollars going to THIS" or that or the other thing. So I'm watching this "Purity" nonsense tonight and thinking to myself, "So my tax dollars are paying for a bunch of whitebreads to go out to dinner and say, 'No Daddy, I won't have sex until my wedding night!'"?

I will admit that anything that gets parents and their children talking is a good thing, but who are they kidding?

[TomInTib]

2. That whole thing is just too weird.

Daddy takes Ashley to the Virginity Ball.

This always leaves me with some creepy mental images.

"OK, Baby, let Daddy show you what not to do".

[Turbineguy]

4. $200 million for a 12% success rate

One of the RW's more successful ventures I'd say.

[cynatnite]

5. An article was posted to DU about this some months ago...

Reading it was disturbing. Watching it was disgusting.

[GOPisEvil]

6. Sounds like a way for parents to maintain denial.

MY daughter, having SEX?! No way. She signed a PLEDGE. :eyes:

[dapper]

7. Sorry, my fault...

I slept with about 2% of them.

Dapper

[Diane R]

8. This is really yucky. I'm thinking not a few of these dads go home and commit incest.

[question everything]

9. All I could think was: what about the boys?

One obnoxious dad said how bad he was as a boy so he wants to protect his girls from boys the way he used to be. What about their sons, if they have any? Shouldn't they raise their sons to respect girls. Why is "purity" important for girls but not for boys?

And do they encourage their daughters to be cheer leaders? Do they buy them dresses like Paris and Britney?

The only way they teach their daughters is hypocrisy and double standards.

[AlinPA]

11. Bingo.

[Truthiness Inspector]

22. Exactly

And to add to your great post, why do the girls pledge their virginity to their "daddies" instead of just a general pledge?

Ewww.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. The dad talking about if a girl has sex before marriage then there's no point in a wedding

since he'd have nothing to 'give away', is what got to me. His daughter is just something he owns and can decide to give away to some other guy or maybe not.

[kestrel91316]

12. No DATING and no KISSING before marriage?????

:wtf:

Betcha they'd prefer no education other than reading, writing, and basic arithmetic for their Handmaids and Marthas, too, if they could get away with it.

[sendero]

13. Do they HAVE to..

... call them BALLs? What kind of message are they sending :)

[TheCowsCameHome]

14. Are they nuts?

[musette_sf]

15. "I'm going to stay pure until I'm married and I'm not going to date or kiss a boy,"

a member of the Jill Sobule Fan Club?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. Sex of course is so completely evil

Instead of having impure sexual thoughts, these young girls should fill their heads with thoughts of one day joining the military and engaging in the pure and healthy activity of killing other people overseas.

[Gin]

18. I saw the story and thought it was weird too.......one girl promises

to not even kiss a boy until she gets married....yep...these girls understand what they are doing...sure they do. And to think...my tax dollars are funding this shit.

[Hardrada]

17. The phrase "Purity Balls" is oddly fascinating.

I think at Confirmation, us young guys were supposed to pledge to something like that>

[Yavin4]

19. If I Had A Daughter, I Would Accept The Fact That She's Going To Have Sex Before Marriage

In fact, I would prefer that she had sex with someone that she loved and that he would respect her. I'd give her all of the information in the world, and hoped that she'd do the right thing.

Forcing virginity down their throats will get you two results: (1) marriage at a really, really young age or (2) unprotected and somewhat dangerous sex.

[Initech]

20. The concept of those dances is weird on so many levels.

Like the "Motherboy" dance on Arrested Development.

[AnnieBW]

21. Dad Always Threatened To Send Me To the Convent

He didn't have to worry - they just fattened me up and nobody would look at me until college. :D

[mitchum]

23. If Daddy can't have it, no one else can...

sick fucks

[HuffleClaw]

24. ok, that is justdown right creepy

really, it makes those child pageants seem normal in comparison.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

26. They do not know the real cause of sex!!

because they don't believe in science, they don't know what causes boys AND girls to have a sex drive!!!

Testosterone! Responsible for the survival of the human race! They'd outlaw it if they knew about it. It's produced by both sexes.