Up the chastity belt

I feel the need, the urge, the desire to post about my favourite bugbear …. morality. Or to be more precise, sexual morality. Sitting on the train this morning I was reading a piece in the Guardian called Chastity is chic.

Wendy Shalit, the guru of Modesty has just written a book about the benefits of chastity and even better, she's involved in a blog called Modestly Yours.

“An informal community for young women who don’t have a voice in the mainstream media… whether you are a virgin waiting until marriage, or just against casual sex more generally, you can find a safe harbour here to share your ideas, interests and goals for the future”.

It has got me reaching for the chastity belt already!

This ongoing modesty campaign has created a cottage industry of products such as swimwear called WholesomeWear (it is a layered garment made of spandex and nylon….soooo sexy!) and other “appropriate clothing”…..

Another book in the process of being written is Dawn Eden’s The Thrill of the Chaste: finding fulfilment while keeping your clothes on (it reminded me of that song way back in the 80s by Germaine Stewart, We don’t have to take our clothes off for a good time. Yeah Germaine, but it helps).

Eden argues: "When you become chaste, you'll notice for the first time that women who have sex outside marriage don't really appreciate men".

Really Dawn, where's your evidence?

Casual sex and sex before marriage is eroding the sanctity of marriage and the heterosexual nuclear family. Lesbians should be on the margins of society, they argue, as they transgress from the norms of society and feminism has got rid of chivalry. Hiss boo to feminism.

These people are scarily loathesome and I wonder about how much of an impact these homophobic nasty little puritans are having on women and also men.

The ideology behind these groups is a concerted effort to push women back years and that includes all the gains we have fought for. Dressing modestly and behaving modestly is keeping women under control and under the thumb. The chastity lot preach choice but what it really is about is returning to traditional patriarchal gender roles. Women belong in the home chained to the kitchen sink barefoot and pregnant with the words kinder, kueche and kirche ringing in their ears. That choice? Well, maybe it is for them. They also perceive women are “naturally” modest, “naturally” maternal and anything which goes against this is obviously dangerous = unnatural.

What is so wrong with sex? People fuck and it can be fun, pleasuable and enjoyable. To these people sex is dirty, sex is wrong. Women have the right to express their sexuality without being constrained and lectured by these people.

The added pressures these people and society as a whole put on women whether it be committing yourself or pledging yourself to be a virgin until your wedding night, no to casual sex, one-night stands and anything else which goes against these puritanical norms, it is all about control and denying women to make their own choices and be to make their own decisions about sex not puritanical moralists who have their own ideological axe to grind.

I am tempted to set up a campaign called "Stroppybloggers for immodesty and casual sex"....