I have to say, it would be really easy for somebody like me to go to an event like that [that is, a purity ball] and just slam it because, you know, it’s kind of creepy. But when I do that kind of reporting, I always like to think what can I learn from this? What can I get out of it? And what really struck me at the purity ball was that, yes, I completely disagreed with the content of their conversation. I completely disagreed with what they were saying. I know from research that what they were doing does not work at all in terms of promoting abstinence or more responsible ethical sexual behavior.

But this was the only place where I saw fathers talking to their daughters. It was the only place where fathers were communicating with their daughters about their values and their ethics around sexuality. And when I was in more liberal communities, the alternative to that was pretty much silence. Mothers might talk about birth control, about consent, about disease protection. Fathers said basically nothing. So I was really struck and I was really moved that the fathers were trying - and again, I didn’t like what they were saying about it - but I was really moved by the fact that the fathers were stepping up to support their daughters at this really critical time in their lives.

—Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls and Sex, in an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, March 29, 2016.  (via nbr)