The Virgin Daughters Thursday 25 September
9:00pm - 10:00pm
Channel 4
Film-maker Jane Treays has cornered the market in documentaries about the marginalised and about controversial behaviour within families. While this one, focusing on the purity movement in America, is not quite as creepy as her film Painted Babies, there are some sequences that may make you feel slightly uncomfortable. Treays is following the preparations for the Father Daughter Purity Ball in Colorado Springs, an annual, almost religious, celebration where fathers pledge to value and protect their daughters, while the daughters vow not to have any physical relationship with a boy (and that means not even kissing) until their wedding day. Most of the girls interviewed are adamant that they're staying pure because it's what they want and not just because of patriarchal pressure. But a few have fallen off this wagon in a big way. It's important for girls to have a good relationship with their father, explains one man, because it mirrors how our heavenly Father cares about us and because if they don't, they turn to other males and that will often end in heartbreak and anguish. It's about respect - the standard of treatment women should expect to receive, says another. Fair enough. Nonetheless, the sight of some of the fathers hovering over their young daughters as they spouted ideas about dating I'm sure weren't their own made my skin crawl.
RT reviewer - Jane Rackham
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Subtitled