Objects Purity Culture Compared Me To

Growing up in purity culture in the 90s, there wasn't a shortage to the metaphors young girls were compared to if they ever were sexually impure. The amount of shame and messaging around being: Unworthy, impure, and worthless. Were you also compared to any of these objects?

There is something so damaging and demoralizing to compare young women to things like:

• a chewed up piece of gum
• used car
• toothpaste squeezed out of the tube
• an unraveled sweater
• free milk (why buy the cow when you get the milk for free)
• a piece of tape that has lost its stickiness
• a crumpled up piece of paper
• rotten fruit
• a cupcake with the icing licked

What we should have been taught was education around our bodies, what consent was, and how to grow into an autonomous adult. We really needed:

And even though the damage has been done, there are still ways we can reparent ourselves as adults and start healing some of these wounds caused from Purity Culture. Check out this post for some great book recommendations. Also check out these posts to help with your recovery from the harm done to your body from all these messages. 

What messages were YOU given about your worth?