truthe to be told,

Present-day American society—whether through pop culture, religion, or institutions—conflates sexuality and morality constantly. Idolizing virginity as a stand-in for women’s morality means that nothing else matters—not what we accomplish, not what he we think, not what we care about and work for. Just if/how we have sex and whom we have it with. That’s all.

Just look at the women we venerate for not having sex: pageant queens who run on abstinence platforms, pop singers who share their virginal status, and religious women who “save themselves” for marriage. It’s an interesting state of affairs when women have to simply do, well, nothing in order to be considered ethical role models … Staying “pure” and “innocent” is touted as the greatest thing we can do. However, equating this inaction with morality is problematic because it continues to tie women’s ethics to our bodies, but also is downright insulting because it suggests that women can’t be moral actors. Instead, we’re defined by what we don’t do—our ethics are the ethics of passivity.