Growing Up Pure - 9781479838448

New York University Press

Growing Up PureWhite Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture\nAuthor(s): Lauren D. Sawyer\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: New York University Press, United States\nImprint: New York University Press\nISBN-13: 9781479838448, 978-1479838448\nSynopsis\nTakes seriously youths' ownership of their sexual choices within purity culture\n\nGaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. \n\nThis book examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they wer.