Unraveling Catholic Purity Culture, Part 1: The Landscape of Authority

To quote the illustrious Theoden: "So it begins."

A Short Introduction Before We Begin This Whole Thing

This is the first snippet of some of the work I’ve been doing on purity culture, with the potential of a forthcoming book on the topic. Though the book as a whole is tabled for now, the research I’ve been conducting since early spring still begs to be chewed on…so here we go.

As part of that research process, I surveyed and interviewed dozens of women on their experiences in purity culture. Their honesty and vulnerability was at times heartbreaking, uplifting, and always convicting. As one woman boldly said, “I don’t know a single woman my age who has not been adversely affected by this.” I also re-read several books that were part of either their or my own upbringing that, looking back, are resources that spread purity culture messaging. I interviewed a therapist specializing in purity culture trauma, and reached out to several authors of those books from our upbringing to understand more of their process. It’s been…an interesting few months, to say the least.

I’ll post bits and pieces as I go along, in no particular order—basically just determined by what I feel like doing. Some topics to come will be on actually defining purity culture (is it just any teaching that advocates for abstinence outside of marriage, as many seem to say? Is it distinctly Protestant? What is it?), thorough analyses of books and resources, rewriting harmful narratives, and other “silly stuff,” as I call most weird and unexplainable things when I describe them to my toddler.

Most of these posts will be only fully accessible behind a paywall, because of the sensitivity of the topic—and because these thoughts are still in their early stages (a beta stage, if you will). I’ve been diving into the harm done by purity culture for years now, both personally and professionally. But to treat it with the reverence, nuance, and consideration it deserves? Well, that’ll continue to take time. Join for the ride, share your thoughts and experiences if you desire. I look forward to hearing it all.

Unraveling Catholic Purity Culture, Part 1: The Landscape of Authority

Purity Culture as Meme

When you think of the word “meme,” what comes to mind? Depending on your generation, perhaps it’s Grumpy Cat, Bad Luck Brian, or that GIF of Chris Pratt from Parks and Recreation (in listing these, I know I just dated myself before accomplishing anything else). Images or GIFS that encapsulate a cultural reaction are certainly a version of a meme, specifically called an “Internet Meme.” But the actual definition of meme contains something much more efficacious: a meme is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.”

Purity culture, in many ways, carries the characteristics of a meme in the proper definition. It became popular at a particular time in culture–for reasons both proactive and reactive–and passed effectively from person to person, creating a mob mentality that’s difficult to depart from. When a culture, including just a microcosmic religious culture, embraces particular memes, it can feel like betrayal or isolation to deviate from that collective embrace; further, the more meaningful a culture is, and the more authoritative its presence in your life, the harder it is to depart from those cultural norms it determines within itself. I don’t care much about the microcosmic culture of Mormons, for instance, since I am not a Mormon. What is widely perceived as “normal”--the memes of Mormon culture–does not affect me, as Mormonism is not an authoritative space in my life. But trade Mormonism in for Christianity as a whole, and more specifically Catholicism, and you have a culture that is far more authoritative in my life, and I’m guessing in yours as well. Even within Catholicism, we find more “subcultures” that can pinpoint authority over our ideas and behaviors more than the wider culture of Catholicism as a whole does: think the subculture of “Traditional Catholicism,” “Progressive Catholicism,” “Charismatic Catholicism,” and so on. We find authoritative voices in the subcultures we inhabit, and we absorb the set of norms determined by that subculture.

It’s important to distinguish again between meme and doctrine–between the prescriptions placed on us by purity culture, and the foundational truths they falsely depended upon for their justification. When I refer to the reality of meme, I am referring to such prescriptions that fall outside of the doctrinal realm, not those truths that we hold collectively and irrefutably as part of our sexual ethics (such as the truth that sex is reserved for marriage). The point of tying purity culture to the phenomenon of meme is to help in the process of distinguishing between fact and elaboration, or true practice and prescription. Purity culture had, as its name indicates, cultural power, even if it doesn’t have doctrinal power. 

But, the “person to person” chain necessary to a meme has to begin somewhere, and finding the beginning of those chains has been one of the most compelling parts of researching this topic for me. As I’ve already stated several times, purity culture is a web that’s difficult to untangle–in doing so, we must hold onto objective truth, offer people grace, and not just negate, but carve a path forward. Part of untangling this web is finding the key players in its construction, whether willing or not–and, as I will describe, most of the authoritative voices we’d recognize in the “purity” or “chastity” space far from intended ever causing harm. How they did cause harm, though, doesn’t come down to what they said as much as the authority they were given in saying it. Who creates a meme–a cultural idea or behavior that spreads effectively--and where does that power come from? What determines the authorities in the subcultures we inhabit?