Likelihood of Success

Interview with a “Prude”

Apr 25, 2008 Faith and Works, Homo sapiens, O Mores!

John Hawkins at Right-Wing News talks with with Carol Platt Liebau about her book, Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (and America, Too!):

A lot of people think the only downside for premarital sex is STDs and pregnancy and if you avoid those problems … then you might as well enjoy yourself. Let’s say a person isn’t religious and they don’t get STDs or get pregnant; why shouldn’t they have sex before marriage?

That’s the key question that I was trying to strike at the heart of Prude.

You know what? You may avoid an STD, you may never confront an unwedded pregnancy, but even so, giving too much, too soon, to too many people is still a terrible idea. It’s terrible idea because there are many, many, emotional and psychological consequences that often these little girls are never told about.

Like what?

They include regret, anxiety, shame, the inability to trust men, and trouble forming permanent committed relationships later. You know, John, it all makes sense. If you’re the kind of young woman who doesn’t understand why it’s important not just to have sex with any guy that wants you to, you’re probably going to be prone to seeing some of the less attractive sides of male behavior. If you see that over and over again…it’s going to be difficult to learn how to trust men because you’ve never gotten to see the finer or noble side of men. Of course, it’s going to be difficult to forge long term relationships later, because if you don’t trust men, then on what basis are you building when you finally find a man you’d like to spend your life with?

This is, of course, territory covered recently, and successfully, by Dawn Eden in her book, The Thrill of the Chaste.  I would be interested in knowing how the books differ.  If anyone has read reviews comparing and contrasting — I couldn’t find one — or otherwise has a clue (such as by reading them, perhaps?), I would be interested in knowing.