"Earn your right to wear white"???

by Julia Kaye, Health Policy Associate
National Women’s Law Center

A fabulous new product is out on the market. (Watch the video for more...)

Looking for an ironic birthday present? Look no further.

...but with that said –- before you click “Buy,” consider whether regressive abstinence-only messages deserve any more of our money...

For more on NWLC’s take on abstinence-only programs, check out our testimony for the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing, “Domestic Abstinence-Only Programs: Assessing the Evidence” (April 23, 2008).

Why kNOw, a curriculum used by seven federal grantees states: “In heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately 31 percent of the time” (91). For more examples of the inaccurate, misleading and blatantly false information taught by federally-funded abstinence-only programs, see the Staff of the House Committee on Government Reform’s Report on the Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Programs (2004).

The Heritage Keepers’ abstinence-only curriculum warns young women: “Females need to be careful with what they wear, because males are looking! The girl might be thinking fashion, while the boy is thinking sex. For this reason girls have an added responsibility to wear modest clothing that doesn’t invite lustful thoughts.”  For an excellent analysis of the harm that abstinence-only programs do to women and girls, read Legal Momentum’s Sex, Lies & Stereotypes.

Also, check out Rose’s earlier post on the True Love Waits pants sold at Kmart.

Thanks to Feministing for finding the abstinence-only thong!

Comments

[bint alshamsa]

This is mind-boggling! Back when I was growing up in the fundamentalist world, all we were allowed to wear were granny panties. No one I knew even owned a thong. Boy they sure have come a long way, uh right?? O_o

[Renee]

I went into a state of shock when I saw these disgusting panties. When < href="http://www.womanist-musings.com/2008/07/earn-your-right-to-wear-white.html">I blogged about it someone suggested that they be worn ironically but I simply don't believe that it is possible. Imagine a reminder on your vagina to keep it pure, will the disciplining never stop?