Roundtable: Purity Culture Beyond Abstinence Only

While "purity culture" is most associated with the evangelical abstinence teachings and rituals of the 1990s-2000s, featuring purity rings, purity balls, and abstinence pledges, scholars of the movement have recognized how purity culture transcends white evangelicalism, infiltrating broader US culture and policymaking. This Feminist Studies in Religion roundtable convenes interdisciplinary feminist scholars to discuss how purity ideology operates as a dangerous and often invisible force driving the current wave of antiqueer healthcare rollbacks, the Make America Healthy Again movement, proposed pronatalist policies, US foreign relations, and other current events. They engage the following questions: Where do purity culture logics show up in specific policies or ideologies of the Trump administration 2.0? How can understanding these policies/ideologies as rooted in purity logics help us better challenge and dismantle them?

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https://doi.org/10.2979/jfs.00072