Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free
By Linda Kay Klein
(Touchstone)
Imagine your sexuality as a lollipop. Who’s going to want a lollipop that someone’s already sucked on? This is the type of metaphor at the root of the trauma author Linda Kay Klein experienced at the hands of the white evangelical purity movement. When she’s not immersing readers into the same world she spent years trying to free herself from, Klein is sharing research, statistics, and anecdotes describing its consequences on people’s lives. Internalized shame, anxiety, and PTSD related to sex and relationships are just a few ways in which the purity movement has wreaked havoc. From one woman’s parent asking her, “What were you wearing?” in response to her rape, to another being humiliated and isolated after her parents discovered her childhood sexual experimentation, Klein’s jarring reporting is impossible to forget. (3/5)
By Robyn Smith
Pure was released September 4, 2018
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2018 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!
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