Women Like Sex | Ep. 10: The Impurity of Purity

Artwork by Ted Nunes

We’ve come a long way, baby…kinda. Because we still base so much female sexuality on what men from millennia ago deemed correct and proper. Especially in the kind of evangelical culture in which this week’s guest was raised, and which she says sexualizes girls while simultaneously cutting them off from their own intuition and bodies. Sarah was taught that a girl’s and woman’s worth is intrinsically tied to “purity.” To virginity, shame, and that sneaky talking snake.

She was also taught that girls and women are gatekeepers of the sexuality of boys, and men. In other words, messaging that most  of us get, but to the nth degree.    

Sarah is a friend and freshly divorced mom who has been on a journey of unlearning, and loving herself. After protesting abortion as a child and suppressing some of her deepest desires for years, she has been shedding the body-and-soul shame of purity culture and its myths.

These are hard but necessary journeys, and Sarah’s has led to rediscovering her body, spirit, joy—and, yes, great sex too! 

A full transcript of our conversation, as well as Isabelle Meiring’s poem, can be found here.