When you think of ‘purity’, do you think of ‘not having sex’? There’s a conscious effort afoot to play up just that aspect of the word.

Here’s a recent example: a ‘purity ball‘. It’s like a regular dance, but devoted to purity. Fathers take daughters, and there’s absolutely no sex allowed. (Thank goodness.) Link courtesy of the abstinence-only folks at Abstinence Clearinghouse and Alpha Center. Isn’t that in that one state where they banned all abortions?

Here’s the blurb, sorry there’s no permalink:

Fathers:
Would you like to show your daughter just how much you love her, but don’t quite know how? We are offering the perfect opportunity for you to do this at the Father-Daughter Purity Ball. This is your chance to lavish your princess with your high regard for her and her future. Does your daughter know you as her protector? You can demonstrate your concern to promote her physical, emotional, and spiritual security and need for protection. Show her at the Father-Daughter Purity Ball.

Daughters:
Have you ever wanted an opportunity to grow closer to your daddy? The Father-Daughter Purity Ball is the stellar event for you to be honored as his beautiful princess. By the end of the afternoon you will know without a doubt that your daddy really loves you. Plus, how many opportunities do you have to see your dad try ballroom dancing? Seeing is believing!

Creep factor: high.

I deplore the Victorianisation of words. Take morality. To me, morality involves doing the right thing by people, trying to be honest, and so on. Being a moral person is a worthy goal. But now try out the word in this sentence: “We need to make sure that young people stay moral.” You thought sex, didn’t you? For lots of people, especially the religious kind, the sexual aspect of morality has become the most salient.

The same thing has happened to virtue. It’s a wonderful word that comes from the Latin virtus, or ‘man’. Virtue was the set of qualities that made a man (or woman — sexists!), including valor and moral perfection. But now? It’s about the sex.

Why are the sexual aspects of words so salient for them? They’re simultaneously drawn to sex, and horrified by it.

And now the New Victorians want ‘pure’. Haven’t they had enough word mangling yet?

One more thing: the over-reliance on the word ‘princess’ in the blurb above is raising all kinds of Lakoffian framing flags for me. If I know one thing about Christians, they feel constantly afraid and threatened by ‘the world’ outside. These people are suckers for a fortress frame. Imagine: you’re in a big safe castle with an alligator-stocked moat around it. You live in a (repressively) feudal society where everyone knows their place. All the bad is outside. You’re a king, you’re safe, and you’re in control. And your daughter is… what else? a princess.

They do a pretty good job of hiding it, but sometimes the fortress mentality leaks out.