Schoolgirl fights for right to wear 'chastity ring'

[lyrasdaemon]

A 16 year-old girl is going to the High Court to gain the right to wear her 'chastity ring' at school. Read more here.

IMHO, this girl hasn't got a leg to stand on. The 'chastity ring' is not a Christian symbol, it is a symbol of a pledge made to remain sexually inactive until marriage, a pledge which can be made by those of all faiths and none. As the ring is not a uniquely Christian symbol, the girl's religious beliefs are not being discriminated against by being told she cannot wear it. For this very simple reason, the High Court should chuck out this case worthwith and tell the girl to get stuffed!!!

[DominiConnor]

Seems to me that a good way of telling the true fairness of someone using power over someone is to ask would it be right to turn it around ?

The school wants to force this girl to stop wearing a ring.
What is a school forced the girls in it's power to make girls wear virginity rings as aprt of it's uniform ?

Would that be different ?
Why ?

[DominiConnor]

Saisymoo has a good point, indeed the Catholic mother of 10, actually has got some law named after her.
Christians Frustrated by the Courts

[expatinscotland]

Remember that thread some time back on here about the freaky 'Chastity Ball'?

Man, that was creepy!

[OrmIrian]

Apologies. I misunderstood completely.

[madamez]

OrmIrian - that's the point of the statement, which sums up the mindset of the abstinence-education types ie they are morons with no understanding of human sexuality whatsoever and heads full of superstitious bullshit and misogyny.

[OrmIrian]

My granny signed the pledge as a child - I mean at age 7 or so - and I never saw he touch anything more powerful than a small glass of Stones Ginger wine at christmas.

Sorry - apropos of nothing much....

"is something dirty and disgusting that you only do with the person you love' What a strange conflation of ideas madamez. If it's so disgusting and dirty why would you want to do it with someone you love? Sexual exclusivity isn't really all that strange.

[paulaplumpbottom]

You find most of these people will go on to have longer lasting marriages than most

[SueBaroo]

Yeah, that's right, that's exactly what I believe.

Or I could believe that sex is something really special and powerful and I want to save it for one special person.

You do like your straw men, madamez.

[madamez]

Another thing that this ghastly chastiy mindset can lead to is disastrous early marriages - when teenagers think that because htye are despeartely horny for someone this perosn must be The One - rush into marriage and find that one the horniness wears off they have nothing in common and don't much like one another either. And because it's ok to shag when you're married, they often have parenthood to deal with as well...

I think it was Suzie Hayman (sex and relationship expert) who summed up this way of thinking as 'sex is something dirty and disgusting that you only do with the person you love'. ANd getting rid of that attitude was one of the driving forces behind the feminism of the 60s and 70s...

[DaisyMOO]

Did someone mention Victoria Gillick? A friend of mine was at school with one of her daughters and apparently they were at it like rabbits

[SueBaroo]

I'm not sure about AA coming directly out of it (aren't they related to the '12 steps' thing) - but yes, the temperance movement involved signing a pledge card. And plenty of folk signed it, fell off the wagon and signed it again when they got back on again. Born again tee-totallers?

[ViciousSquirrelSpotter]

This sort of pledge thing reminds me of the temperance society. Signing the pledge was promising not to drink alcohol, wasn't it? Didn't Alcoholics Anonymous come out of one such movement?

[SueBaroo]

yip, most Christian 'bookstores' now are half book, half 'funky' tat.

[bobsmum]

File all this merchandising under "Jesus Junk" like stickers/bookmarks/bible covers/wristbands/t shirts.

Unfortunately as any leader at a Christian camp knows, it's this sort of crap that brings a bookstall out of the red.

[SueBaroo]

That's the fella. Same idea, with pledges and rings and t-shirts and all that malarkey. It's a bit more directed specifically at Christians, if I remember right, with appropriate bible verses and so on.

[bobsmum]

My friend designed the credit card style pledge card thingy

[NKF]

I remember the True Love Waits movement? Or campaign? Whatever it is.

[SueBaroo]

I seem to recall some stats that said it possibly postponed the first sexual encounter by a year or so, but I am currently linkless to back that up.
Our old church thought that was very exciting. There was a book called 'True Love Waits' which I think might be the same sort of thing.

[NKF]

Is there any real evidence surrouding the efficacy of the silver ring in preventing, well, anything?

I'm not sure what I think of in regards to the case. It's not really a religious symbol so I can see the school banning it as jewellery. Yet it's a small ring and I wonder if the ban was just playing into the hands of fundamentalists by insisting. I can't help feeling they'd have got bored of the lack of attention after a while. And now she's a Christian virgin, martyr to the faith and so on. Backed, as I understand it, by her father.

[Aloha]

I also think the concept of the point of no return is one of the reasons why silver ring enthusiasts get more stds and unwanted pregnancies than others. They don't plan to have sex because that would be bad, but they do 'get to the point of no return' that they've been told they cannot resist - so it's not really their fault and not so bad.

[SueBaroo]

Well, VSS, I don't like the phrase anyway. I think it's more responsible by far to suggest not starting the engine if you don't mean to drive the car.
While I think Aloha is being slightly alarmist, I agree with the point about a 'point of no return' being a somewhat dangerous concept.

[meandmyflyingmachine]

I used to share a house with a born again christian who wouldn't dance closer than 1m to a woman, for fear of inflaming his passion beyond control

[ViciousSquirrelSpotter]

I still don't really understand what this "point of no return" actually is.

Are people saying it's different for each person and it's what they will feel unhappy with themselves for crossing their own mental line?

Because normally, it is taken to mean a man penetrating a woman and I do think most young people would see it in those terms.

(Sorry to keep harping on about penetration in the middle of the afternoon.)

[Aloha]

I think telling boys that there is 'a point of no return' is actually deeply irresponsible. There is ALWAYS a point of return. Anything else is rape.

[paulaplumpbottom]

Can't remember the last time I had sore lips