I thought I knew everything there was to know about the American lifestyle - but apparently I did not - because when I was driving to work yesterday I heard about something I had never heard of before. The radio was reporting about a Swedish photographer who had an exhibition of photographs taken at "purity balls" in the United States.
According to
Wikipedia a
"purity ball is a formal dance event attended by fathers and their daughters which promotes virginity until marriage for teenage girls. Typically, daughters who attend make a virginity pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. Fathers who attend promise to protect their young daughters' "purity of mind, body, and soul." Proponents of these events contend that they encourage close and deeply affectionate relationships between fathers and daughters, thereby avoiding the premarital sexual activity that allegedly results when young women seek love through relationships with young men Critics assert that the balls promulgate messages encroaching upon women's freedom, promote anti-feminist ideals, and ignore homosexuality.(...) The girls can range in age from their college years to 4 years old, however the majority of girls are “just old enough… [to] have begun menstruating” as purity ball guidelines advise. (...) Participants are described as "dates", and, according to Glamour magazine, could be mistaken for heterosexual romantic partners in the absence of information about their consanguinity." The first event of this kind took place in Colorado Springs in 1998.
I was totally amazed and baffled when I heard about this newfangled custom. The first thing that struck me was that it was an extremely male chauvinist concept whereby the father seeks to control the sexual drives of the female members of his family. It also gave me a creepy sense of being sligtly incestuos, I am not quite clear on why this happened, but possibly it was because of my feeling that these fathers were meddling with their daughters sexuality.
From what I have seen in the pictures on Google Images the girls at these events are mostly dressed in all white ball gowns, while the fathers are in their tired tuxedos. That made me think about what my male family members and buddies would wear if I threw a purity party for them in SecondLife
I hope none of the guys take offence, but this is only me making - sometimes - completely uninformed guesses on their love life in SecondLife for a bit of semi-innocent fun. No harm or malice is intended. (If you object please tell me so and I will remove my remark about you.)
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| Apmel "The Six Year Old Virgin" Goosson |
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| sirhc "The One Woman Man" DeSantis |
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| Dejerrity "One At A Time" Mycron |
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| Butch "Mr. Discretion Personified" Diavolo |
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| Eddi "I Am Never Telling" Haskell |
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| Guyke "It's Great For My Complexion" Lundquist |
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| Kahvy "Boys Just Wanna Have Fun" Sands |
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| Ziggy "The Eternal Bad Boy" Starsmith |
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| Ryse "Mr. Professional Actor" Skytower |
