Daily Readings: Pure Tyranny

I am really liking Judith Warner at the Times lately. She wrote this in response to the hymen restoration article and goes further to explore manifestations of patriarchy and sick attitudes toward sexuality in the U.S. The Purity Ball makes me shudder. Ugh. Especially since I'm reading Lolita, and I can see a resemblance of Humbert's possessive views surrounding Lolita's sexuality that is not unlike these evangelical dads and their emotional control of their daughter's "purity." Granted, I think it's wonderful for dads to affirm their daughters but to see them as the gatekeeper to their priceless virginity? I think this ball just reeks of taking it too far. And the pictures in themselves are disturbing with the cross and all that flowing white fabric and girls in prom dresses with their dads. Yes, Humbert raped Lolita repeatedly and physical force is different from emotional control. But both are still destructive, and if men can't stop emotionally demanding possession of a woman's body, whether for purity or sex, women will still be oppressed.