TPMCafe is having a Book Club for Jessica Valenti's new book The Purity Myth, and I've been asked to blog for it. I used by first blog post to explicate the two general arguments for the necessity of controlling and punishing female sexuality, what you might call the malevolent and benevolent patriarchy arguments. The latter argument is just a PR stunt, and I don't really see too many strong believers in it that don't come across as feeble-minded (like K-Lo), but it's the preferred strategy right now, because it just reads better in mainstream media spaces to say that you want to control female sexuality for women's own good. Occasionally, you'll see this patronizing attitude get labeled as "feminism", which you get with the group Feminists For Life, who actually claim that they want college women who have sex to be forced to bear children for their own good.*
