Chaste Out Of Court

Full marks to the High Court in London for throwing out 16-year-old Miss Lydia Playfoot’s suit against her school, Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex.   She, or rather her parents, wanted the court to overrule the school’s ban on her “chastity ring” which they maintained was a religious symbol.  At the risk of seeming less than an impartial observer…. bollocks!   These rings are a recent abomination, part of a trend that has drifted across the Atlantic from the USA. Teenagers are encouraged  by Christian fundamentalist parents to wear them to tell the world that they don’t intend to have sex until they are married.  If that’s what they want,  well ok, jolly good, and I hope the weather stays fine for them. 

However, wearing jewellery to show that you believe in chastity, or  that you have been told you have to believe in chastity, does not mean that you are wearing a Christian symbol.  No more than if a fundamentalist decided to wear a necklace to show announce his or her belief that all who work on the sabbath should be put to death or an earring to announce that he or she firmly believed that  women who do not scream loudly enough when they are raped should be executed, as set down in the Good Book.  Such a necklace or earring, like this girl’s ring, would simply be jewellery worn for a purpose, but they wouldn’t be Christian symbols.  The true Christian symbol is the cross, and as I understand it, the school had no problem with crosses – likewise Stars of David for Jewish pupils or headscarves for Moslems.  However, the school did have a strict rule: aside from religious symbols, no jewellery.  That is the rule that this girl and her silly ring contravened.

British law says that a person, on reaching 16 years of age, may bonk with others of 16 years or more who give their consent.  If people choose not to exercise this legal right, that’s up to them. However, to proclaim their abstinence publicly is holier-than-thou self indulgence, not to mention rather obnoxious; in exactly the same way that someone who took the opposite view might wear an I’m-gonna-fuck-anything-in-pants ring, supposing that such things existed, would simply be grandstanding, not evidencing a deeply held belief. Nowhere in the  bible does it tell true Christians to wear these rings.  They are a 21st century affectation.  And, surprise surprise,  Miss Playfoot’s dad is involved with the company that holds the UK franchise to distribute them.  Of course, I  would be the last person to suggest that this court action was brought about to get free publicity for their product. Actually, not free at all.  Their court costs after losing this stupid case were £13,000 (about $26,000 at today’s rates).  The court has decided that so-called chastity rings are not religious symbols, and are not exempt from the school’s no-jewellery rule.

Even so, the rings’ profile is higher than before.  No doubt interested parents will be making enquiries as to how they can get hold of them for their daughters, upon whom they have imprinted their own beliefs.  I hope we don’t see in Britain those rather creepy ceremonies that have taken place in North America where fathers get down on one knee and place chastity rings upon their daughters’ fingers. There’s something almost unbearably unclean about that – as though the fathers secretly desire their own daughters and resent the idea of any other men wanting them.

The world, meanwhile, will be divided into two halves. Those who embrace the joy of shagging before they get married, with all its pleasures and hazards (about which teenagers need to be thoroughly educated), and those who stay chaste till they get married, and stay with just one person till they get divorced (approximately 50%) or have affairs, or just stick at it.  As for those who never get married, I suppose the theory is that they never have sex  -- well, fuck that! An interesting fact is that these rings, in the long run, make little difference.  Ring wearers are just as likely to indulge in pre-marital pleasures of the flesh as their non-ringed contemporaries.  This chastity craze is a bandwagon many teens are being told to jump on,  but it’s a wagon many are glad to fall off.

Comments

[PJ]

I attended a Catholic girls' high school between 1991-6, and they had very strict rules about their uniform. We were not allowed to wear any jewellery apart from a pair of plain stud earrings and a "plain flat signet ring". One day I started wearing a signet ring which featured a tiny diamond, during lunch in the canteen the headmistress (who was a nun) noticed it and confiscated it. I had to pay 20p to get it back. If back then I had told her that my ring was a chastity symbol she still would have confiscated it as it broke the rules on attire. There are good reasons why schools have a uniform.

I think that it has become too easy for people to sue schools on issues like these. It's such a waste of taxpayer's money.

And this chastity zealotry is a worrying trend. Of course chastity itself is fine as a personal choice, but is it right to use it to feel superior to others who have not made the same choice? Is it necessary to advertise this personal choice at school?

If I were a 16 year old schoolboy, I'd probably target these girls for fun, betting with my mates that I'll shag Ms Chaste before half-term.

My message to Ms Playfoot: just close your legs, Love, that's all you need to do.

[Wylie Kinson]

OMG Nicholas - you had me laughing so hard that my three year old thought I was crying.
I would have totally worn the "I’m-gonna-fuck-anything-in-pants ring" just to be a rebel. BTW, you'd make a bloody fortune if you marketed that to boys hahahahaha

Do they really have ceremonies where Daddy-the-closet-perv puts the ring on his little gal? My God, just like the chastity belts of yore. Some parents are such freaking knobs!!

[rhian]

and just when you think the world can't get any stupider! This is just wrong on soooo many levels. And I'm with Wylie and i think we need to start a new fad called WWWF - yeah - you know it - "what would wylie fuck." i think i see the answer to world peace in that strategy.
ps - wylie sent me over so i can say that and not run like hell. heh.

[Wylie Kinson]

Rhian just made me fall off my chair laughing. Is there some kind of penalty for that??

Now, I'm off to call Hanes so they can get started on WWWF T-shirt production. ;D

[Sterculian Rhetoric]

Age of consent is 14 in Ontario, Canada.
STD statistics amongst the 'ringed' wonders from the Revolted Colonies have shown that bodily fluid swapping is still taking place.
Why?
One can still remain 'chaste' while engaging in anal intercourse and fellatio/cunnilingus. The mind cannot beat the hormone.

[DB]

HA HA HA HA. Oh, I laughed reading this. So much for Christianity of this sort - - more like a fierce guerilla marketing campaign and raging uber capitalist.