Health
Virginity Pledges
Choosing a virginity pledge at a young age is a personal choice to make.
Virginity pledges are commitments made by youth to refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage. They have become more prevalent in today’s society, with famous celebrities such as the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus openly displaying their purity rings.
Purity rings are usually worn on the left hand with the implication that the wearer will remain abstinent until it is replaced with a wedding ring. Junior Sarah Bradley currently wears a purity ring that has the words “True Love Waits” engraved on it.
“I have a purity ring but it doesn’t mean that I have to keep it, but I’m choosing to. I got it two years ago,” Bradley said.
There are even formal events called purity balls for fathers and their daughters, which promotes virginity until marriage for teenage girls, and are often associated with Christian churches, particularly fundamentalist churches. Two prominent virginity pledge programs are True Love Waits and the Silver Ring Thing, which have used religion to promote the pledge.
However recent studies have shown that virginity pledges may be ineffective. Harvard public health researcher Janet Rosenbaum made a report that teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do engage in sexual intercourse.
Junior Cory Wenger blames this statistic on teenagers’ inexperience with love.
“I think it is because teenagers are gullible and fall in ‘love’ with “the ‘one.’ Maybe they just don’t know what they are doing,” Wenger said.
This stirs controversy over whether abstinence-only sex education should be the only type of sex education for pledgers. Senior Joe Peppers believes that all teenagers should be given sexual education on all forms of safer sex.
“I think it’s kind of good to let people know, even if you’re not gonna do it, because most people will do it sometime,” Peppers said.
Virginity pledges can prove controversial in terms of how effective they are. Bradley said that it just depends on the individual.
“If you really want to be a virgin until you fall in love, it’s effective, but it really just depends on the person,” Bradley said.
Wenger personally does not believe in virginity pledges due to societal reasons.
“Personally, I don’t believe in them because it seems pretty unrealistic considering the society we live in. Every song, movie, TV show and whatever has sex in it, and if people grow up around that, then that’s what they will know,” Wenger said.
Another aspect to point out are gay and lesbian couples. Since they do not have legal rights to marry in most cases, it is difficult to swear to abstaining from sex until marriage.
Rather than taking a virginity pledge as doing it as part of a program or from a parents’ influence, it might depend on the individual’s commitment that judges the effectiveness of the pledge. Peppers has his own views on the role a parent should have in their child’s decision.
“I think that parents, no matter what they try to do, can’t control their kids and should just teach their kids how to prevent diseases and support their children the best that they can,” Peppers said.
On the other hand, data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, shows that the behavior of adolescents who have made a virÂginity pledge is significantly different from that of peers who have not made a pledge. For instance, positive behavioral outcomes and lowered teenage pregnancy rates are benefits that result from virginity pledges.
“I think if the person has the will, then they won’t break it,” Wenger said.
You really shouve interviewed both sides! all i read was a guy who did not believe in it! this article was poorly written! You shoudve intervewied a person who does believe in it!
Melissa, try reading the whole story before writing a comment like that. It’ll make you look smarter…