Daily Dose: 108

Feminism in 3D: Defy, Disobey, Disrupt

Logo: Sheyam Ghieth

When I was teaching at the University of Oklahoma in 2010, one of my students told the class that she had signed a purity pledge with her father, vowing to wait until she married before she had sex. It was a useful reminder that a cult of virginity is specific neither to my birthplace, Egypt, nor to Islam. The shame around sex taught by evangelical Christianity is not limited to those who sign its purity pledges. In schools across the U.S., girls are sent home from school because the way they are dressed is said to make cis male teachers and boys “uncomfortable.” Until men and boys are sent home, they are being absolved of responsibility for their own behavior. Until men and boys are sent home instead of girls in tank tops, men and boys are taught that girls are “temptresses” and it is the burden of girls alone to ensure they don’t “tempt” them.