Virgin: The Untouched History (40 page)

The ongoing controversies over abstinence education and related legislation in the United States continue to generate literature, of which this is a highly limited sample: Bearman and Bruckner, "After the Promise: The STD Consequences of Adolescent Virginity Pledges,"
Journal of Adolescent Health
36/4 (April 2005): 271-78; Bearman and Bruckner, "Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges and First Intercourse,"
The American Journal of Sociology
106/4 (January 2001): 859—912; Ted Carter,
Evaluation Report for the Kansas Abstinence
Education Program
(Topeka: Kansas Department of Health and Environment, November 2004); Centers for Disease Control,
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey
(2001); Lisa J. Crockett, C. Raymond Bingham, et al., "Timing of First Sexual Intercourse: The Role of Social Control, Social Learning, and Problem Behavior,"
Journal of Youth and Adolescence
25/1 (1996): 89—in; J.F. deGaston, L. Jensen, and S. Weed, "A Closer Look at Adolescent Sexual Activity,"
Journal of Youth and Adolescence
24/6 (1995): 465—79; Patricia Goodson,
et al.,
Abstinence Education Evaluation Phase 5: Technical Report
(College Station: Texas
A&M University, Department of Health & Kinesiology, 2004); Marjorie Heins, "Sex, Lies, and Politics: Congress Is Poised to Reauthorize Fearmongering 'Abstinence-Only' Sex Ed,"
The Nation
272/18 (May 7, 2001); Kaiser Family Foundation,
Issue Update: Sex Education
in the U.S.: Policy and Politics
(March 2002); Kaiser Family Foundation and
Seventeen
magazine,
Sex Smarts: National Survey of Teens: Virginity and the First Time,
2003;
Kaiser Family Foundation and KM magazine,
The Kaiser Family Foundation and YM Magaiine
1998 National Survey of Teens
(1998); Douglas Kirby, "Do Abstinence-Only Programs Delay the Initiation of Sex Among Young People and Reduce Teen Pregnancy?" (Washington, D.C.: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, October 2002); Kirby, "Emerging Answers" (Washington, D.C.: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2001); Jonathan D. Klein and the Committee on Adolescence, American Academy of Pediatrics, "Adolescent Pregnancy: Current Trends and Issues,"
Pediatrics
116 no. 1 (July 1, 2005): 281-86; R. Mayer and L. Kantor, "1995-1996 Trends in Opposition to Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Public Schools in the United States,"
SIECUS Report
24/1 (1996); Josh McDowell,
Why True Love Waits: The Definitive Book on How to Help
Your Kids Resist Sexual Pressure
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2002); Karen Kay Perrin and Sharon Bernecki Dejoy, "Abstinence-Only Education: How We Got Here and Where We're Going,"
Journal of Public Health Policy
24/3—4 (2004): 445—59; Robert E. Rector, "The Effectiveness of Abstinence Education Programs in Reducing Sexual Activity Among Youth," Backgrounder no. 1533 (Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, April 2002); Lisa Remez, "Oral Sex Among Adolescents: Is it Sex or Is It Abstinence,"
Family Planning Perspectives
32/6 (November/December 2000); Edward Smith, Jacinda
Dariotis, and Susan Potter,
Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Abstinence Education and Related
Services Initiative: 1998-2002
(Philadelphia: Maternal and Child Health Bureau of Family Health, Pennsylvania Department of Health, January 2003); Adam Sonfield and Rachel Benson Gold, "States' Implementation of the Section 510 Abstinence Education Program, FY 1999,"
Family Planning Perspectives
33 (2001): 166—71; and Jackie West, "(Not) Talking About Sex: Youth, Identity, and Sexuality,"
The Sociological Review
(1999): 525-47.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Iowe a huge debt of gratitude to the friends and colleagues who read and critiqued chapter drafts, passed on bits of virgin lore, pointed me to sources, advised me in their academic specialties, helped me with translations, hung out with me while I watched several seasons of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
and generally helped me stay sane throughout this long and frequently maddening project. Thanks are due to many, but in particular I wish to acknowledge the contributions of Rahne Alexander, S. Bear Bergman, Heather Corinna, Dr. Leigh Ann Craig, Melissa Fox, Roxane Gay, Dr. Lesley A. Hall, Laura Waters Jackson, Dr. Helen King, Dr. Kathleen Kennedy, Keridwen Luis, Dr. Sarah Monette, Moira Russell, Danya Ruttenberg, and Elizabeth Merrill Tamny. I must also thank the interns who assisted me at various points during this project, Kristen Simpson, Judy Berman, Kate McGill, and the incomparable Beverly Rivero. Additionally, I am grateful to Philip Cronenwett of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dibner Library, Harry Finley of the Museum of Menstruation, Erin Clements Rushing of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and Bettina Smith of the Folger Shakespeare Library for their expert referrals and aid. My deep appreciation also goes to those by whose efforts my work became the book you hold in your hands: Colin Dickerman, Lindsay Sagnette, and Greg Villepique of Bloomsbury USA, and especially Christopher Schelling. Any errors or inaccuracies that remain in this book are mine alone.

My deep thanks also go to a handful of fellow virginologists, on whose exemplary historical, archival, and medical work I have drawn heavily throughout these pages and without which I would have been unable to write this book. They include Abby Berenson, Peter Brown, John Bugge, Laura Carpenter, Theodora Jankowski, Kathleen Coyne Kelly, Helen King, Helen Rodnite Lemay, Marie Loughlin, JoAnn McNamara, Aline Rousselle, and Giulia Sissa.

The Institute for Teaching and Research on Women at Towson University, Towson, Maryland, and its director, Dr. Karen Dugger, welcomed me as Scholar of the Institute during 2004—2005. This book owes a great deal to ITROW's kind patronage of this independent scholar, and for providing that "room of one's own" for a critical period of time.

Also to be thanked are Johns Hopkins University's Program for the Study of Women and Gender, the Johns Hopkins Department of Philosophy, the Department of History at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Delaware, and West Virginia University, all of which at various times in my research and writing process provided me with welcome opportunities to get out of my solitary office and present some of this material to living, breathing, interactive audiences.

The various libraries of the Johns Hopkins University and the Library of Congress, the places where I did the bulk of the research for this book, were perhaps my most important institutional benefactors of all. The existence of grand libraries like these is a credit to our species.

Lastly, I must publicly thank Malcolm Gin for his impeccable tolerance of my long hours and ever-expanding collection of research materials, for distracting me as needed with
Star Trek, The Thin Man
movies, and Katamari Damacy, and, last but very much not least, for a decade (and counting!) of loving partnership.