Series

Impurity Culture

Emily Joy Allison-Hearn
Hannah Boning

One of the main answers to undo purity culture is to do away with purity culture in general, and abstinence⁠ -only education in particular. Take the whole thing and dump it all in the trash. Don’t even keep a little bit. Replace abstinence-only with mandatory, comprehensive, age-appropriate, sex⁠ -positive, consent⁠ -based, LGBTQIA+-affirming sex education for all. Is that going to happen? Not in most of our schools, and certainly not in very many of our religious communities.  But in this series, Emily Joy and Hannah Boning pitch in with some of that here, and do so expressly with people who have been or are deeply impacted by purity culture.

Articles in this series

Welcome to Impurity Culture: Emily Joy and Hannah Boning on Sex and Relationships Education for Evangelicals and Exvangelicals

Heather Corinna

Meet Emily Joy and Hannah Boning, the columnists behind Impurity Culture, a new biweekly feature on Scarleteen.

Impurity Culture: Surviving Virginity

Hannah Boning

Maybe you grew up in purity culture. Even if you didn’t, you’ve probably encountered and have to live with its ideas about virginity. I want to unpack some of those things, and consider what’s true and what isn’t.

Impurity Culture: On Sexuality & Sin

Hannah Boning

What is sexual sin anyway? Impurity Culture's Hannah Boning offers her unique perspective on the bible, sin, and sexuality.

Impurity Culture: Masturbation Is Self-Care

Emily Joy Allison-Hearn

Masturbation is a topic you might need to do a little extra work on defining your values around if you grew up in purity culture being told that it was a sin—and that’s especially true during the pandemic, when pleasurable touch from others is not always safe or accessible to us and self-care has become more important than ever as we try to process all the painful things happening in our world. Self-pleasure can be an extremely important aspect of self-care even during non-pandemic times, and right now that is especially true.

Impurity Culture: Pregnancy and Fear

Emily Joy Allison-Hearn

If you grew up steeped in purity culture, it can be easy to see pregnancy as an automatic punishment for any sexual behavior. Here's how you can counteract those beliefs.

Impurity Culture: Learning to Support Reproductive Rights When Your Religion Doesn't

Emily Joy Allison-Hearn

Hello. I’m glad you’re here. I first just want you to know that I see you. I see you showing up here and maybe elsewhere, trying to learn, being open to new information and being willing to change and to grow. Intelligence, Stephen Hawking famously reminded us, is the ability to adapt to change. You’re smart, you’re doing your best and I believe in you. I know what it’s like to go your whole life being told one thing is true only to find out that actually, it isn’t. That’s happened to me so many times, on so many different topics, I’ve lost count. I know what it’s like to feel angry and disillusioned. I felt angry and disillusioned, too, when I began to realize that what I had been told about abortion was a lie.