"This book has a message that extends well beyond abstinence education: Public policy is sometimes less about achieving particular goals and more about enforcing particular value systems. Recommended reading for anyone interested in the policy implications of morality politics." -- Kevin Smith, Professor, Dept. of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln "The Politics of Virginity is an important contribution to our understanding of why abstinence-only education has gained ascendancy in our public schools, what this means specifically in terms of curricula, and how the lessons of these curricula endanger teen girls. Doan and William's extensive interviews compellingly show how abstinence-only curricula cause young women to internalize messages that make forethought and self-protection less likely before they engage in sexual activity. They also show that sexual violence remains a primary influence in the construction of sexual selves for many young women and that the neglect of this fact in abstinence-only education has a destructive impact on their lives." -- Valerie D. Lehr, Professor of Government/Gender Studies, St. Lawrence University "The Politics of Virginity is a thorough, well-researched, and politically astute analysis of more than two decades of disastrous sex education in America. Interviews with students provide the element that is most needed to reform policy: the voices of the victims of abstinence-only education. These students tell us what real life is like. Their experiences cry out for the solid, unbiased information that can help young people deal with the complexities of sexuality and realize the promises therein of deepening relationships, self-knowledge, and pleasure." -- Judith Levine, Author, Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex

Abstinence is currently taught as the only form of sex education in a third of public schools. Although most Americans oppose federal funding for abstinence-only education, the federal government has spent more than $1 billion on Title V and community-group programs that promote abstinence before marriage as the sole healthy and moral choice. Studies show that students in abstinence-only programs are no more likely to abstain from sex than their peers who are in comprehensive sex education programs. Moreover, argue Doan and Williams, abstinence-only programs perpetuate gender stereotypes that disproportionately constrain women, retail medical disinformation, and violate the separation of church and state.

Doan and Williams detail what abstinence programs teach students, expose the political and religious agendas behind them, and analyze the damaging effects to women of the resurrection of the chastity belt: including sexual disempowerment, distorted power dynamics in relationships, increased vulnerability to sexual assault, increased emotional vulnerability, increased risk of unintended pregnancy, and STD/HIV infection. By focusing on the marriage of morality politics with gender politics and of ignorance with chastity that underlies abstinence-only education, the authors fill a major gap in the literature of reproductive politics and policy.