8 Memoirs Exploring the Damage of Purity Culture
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Purity culture. The more Christians begin deconstructing their religious beliefs—often ones imposed upon them as children—the more the subject surfaces. Below, I’ve picked out eight eye-opening memoirs exploring the damage of purity culture.
It began as an Evangelical Christian movement in the 1990s. Those of us who grew up in its shadow remember True Love Waits pledges and purity balls. Having sex before marriage meant being compared to random, “dirty” objects—such as used cars and lint-covered lollipops.
Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped for nine months and raped repeatedly at age 14, excoriated purity culture back in 2013. “After that first rape,” Smart said, “I felt crushed. Who could want me now? I felt so dirty and so filthy. I understand so easily all too well why someone wouldn’t run because of that alone.” Smart details this experience and more in her 2014 memoir, My Story.
Although not all of the purity culture memoirs on the list below come from Evangelical Christian authors, the vast majority detail white women’s experiences. I’d love to see more memoirs exploring the damage of purity culture in the Black church, in the vein of Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl by Joya Goffney, Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body by Lyvonne Briggs, and Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective by Kelly Brown Douglas.
Below, find eight memoirs exploring the damage of purity culture in the Evangelical Church and beyond.
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