![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In this work, we make a historical and theoretical case for expanding the conceptual reach of purity culture’s control of bodies assigned female at birth to include body shape and size. Purity culture is a sub-cultural phenomenon primarily recognized as a Protestant Evangelical abstinence movement, though recently seeing further attention in the academic literature. We utilize the visceral, embodied language of an original poetic work from Rebekah Vickery, one of the authors, to weave experiential knowledge into our analysis. We utilize the theories of biopower and stigma, as well as the materiality of the female body, to understand purity culture’s control and discipline of the female body in and through three mechanisms: mind–body dualism, white supremacist patriarchy, and appetite control. We contextualize these mechanisms by tracing their historical roots leading up to the purity culture movement, and then utilize theoretical frameworks to understand the impacts of this history in purity culture.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Stankorb, “Inside the Scam of the ‘Purity’ Movement,” 2019; Beaty, “How Should Christians Have Sex?,” 2019.
2 Klein, Pure, 2018.
3 Fahs, “Daddy’s Little Girls,” 2010.
4 House, “The Afterlife of Purity Culture,” 2020; Houser. “Altared Bodies,” 2021.
5 Foucault, History of Sexuality, 1978.
6 Ibid.
7 Natarajan et al, “Decolonizing Purity Culture,” 2022; Schultz, “Purity Culture’s Racist Fruit,” 2022; Chávez, “The Body,” 2018.
8 Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 2019, 39
9 Ibid, 23.
10 Cleveland, God is a Black Woman, 2022.
11 Goffman, Stigma, 1963.
12 Arboleda-Flórez and Stuart, “From Sin to Science,” 2012.
13 Van Oort, “Dancing in Body and Spirit,” 2009; Cusack, “From Beasts to Souls,” 2014.
14 Ross, “Pleasure and Pain,” 2022.
15 Lister, A Curious History of Sex, 2020.
16 Descartes, Discourse, 1637.
17 Williams and Bendelow, “The ‘Emotional’ Body,” 1996.
18 Ibid, 25.
19 Marjanan, “Gnosticism,” 2009.
20 Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, 1563.
21 Bordo, Unbearable Weight, 1986, 439.
22 Lloyd, The Man of Reason, 1984.
23 Ibid.
24 Williams and Bendelow, “The ‘Emotional’ Body,” 1996.
25 Weber and Kalberg, The Protestant Ethic, 2009.
26 Lister, A Curious History of Sex, 2020; Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast, 1987.
27 Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, 1997.
28 Gothard, Research in Principles of Life, 1981.
29 Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, 1997.
30 Goffman, Stigma, 1963.
31 King, “The Prisoner of Gender,” 2004; Lipsitz Bem, The Lenses of Gender, 2008, 249.
32 Hill Fletcher, “Women in Inter-Religious Dialogue,” 2013.
33 Mellor and Schilling, Re-Forming the Body, 1997; Jovanoski and Jaeger, “Demystifying ‘Diet Culture’,” 2022.
34 Natarajan et al., “Decolonizing Purity Culture,” 2022
35 Hartman, Scenes of Subjection, 2022.
36 Strings, Fearing the Black Body, 2019.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid, 212.
39 Pride, The Way Home, 1985.
40 Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, 2021.
41 Klein, Pure, 2018.
42 Sharp, Irony and Meaning, 2009.
43 Matthew 5:29; Klein, Pure, 2018.
44 Lomax, “Jezebel Unhinged,” 2018; Gentles-Peart, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made,” 2020.
45 Klein, Pure, 2018.
46 Cleveland, God is a Black Woman, 2022.
47 CCSP, “Faith Communities Today,” 2020.
48 Brumburg, Fasting Girls, 2000.
49 Espi Forcen, “Anorexia Mirabilis,” 2013.
50 Brumburg, Fasting Girls, 2000.
51 Bordo, Unbearable Weight, 1993.
52 Barnhouse, “Medieval Fashion,” 2006.
53 Strings, Fearing the Black Body, 2019, 61.
54 Ibid.
55 Gross, Vagina Obscura, 2022.
56 Terrell, “The Battle Creek Diet System,” 2020.
57 Klein, Pure, 2018.
58 Gerber, Seeking the Straight and Narrow, 2011.
59 Gerber, Seeking the Straight and Narrow, 2011.
60 Griffiths, Born Again Bodies, 2004.
61 Marjanan, “Gnosticism,” 2009.
62 Castellini et al., “Bridging,” 2022; Piran, Journeys of Embodiment, 2017; Levine and Piran, “The Role of Body Image,” 2004.
63 Menzel and Levine, “Embodying Experiences,” 2011.
64 Sammis, John H. “Trust and Obey,” 1887
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rebecca Wolfe
Rebecca Wolfe is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco where she is completing a dissertation on evangelical purity culture and the development of eating disorders.
Rebekah Vickery
Rebekah Vickery holds an MA in Counseling Psychology from the Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working in private practice where she focuses on religious trauma and abuse. Together, they have co-authored an essay entitled ‘Graham Crackers and Good Girls: Manifestations of Purity Culture in the Female Body’.