The article highlights the gendered expectations surrounding female sexuality in a Seventh-Day Adventist school. Mr. Walsh, a teacher, uses metaphors like a dirty shirt to convey the idea that women are to be seen as 'new' or 'unused' before marriage. The school's curriculum emphasizes strict adherence to sexual morality, blaming girls for male sexual impulses and controlling how they present themselves. This oversight creates a culture of shame and scrutiny for young girls regarding their bodies and choices, underlining the damaging impacts of such religious teachings.
Girls, when a man goes to the store to buy a shirt, does he pick up the old one on the floor that's been tried on and wrinkled? Or does he want a shirt straight out of the package, all nice and clean?
Of course, a man always wants a brand new shirt! He doesn't want the dirty one that other men have worn out!
In my Seventh-Day Adventist church school, we didn't have sex ed. We had obligatory 'marriage and family' classes in which the devil-influenced slide from handholding to fornication was carefully charted.
Girls - and our appearance - effectively carried the entire weight of our faith's fanatical fear of sex: It was our fault if we strayed and it was our fault if men strayed.
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