A male presenter came up and started talking about how virginity was a beautiful gift and should be treasured. He showed a rose to the class and asked who wanted the flower. Everyone raised their hands. He plucked a petal off and asked how many people would still want the flower. Most people raised their hands. He asked someone to pull a petal off and repeated the question. This continued until the flower was bare. He said “Don’t you see that the flower isn’t as valuable because it’s been touched by so many people? How many of you would still want the flower?”
One guy raised his hand up and shouted out:
“I would. It doesn’t matter who touched the flower before I did. If you think that, you are a moron. And your metaphor is sexist.”
To this day, I don’t know who that guy was, but he’s still my hero.
I like this story. I like it a lot.
And remember: you are a human being, not a flower or a piece of tape or any of the bullshit they use for these demonstrations. Being touched by other people doesn’t make you worthless. Having sex doesn’t make you unworthy of love. Being a virgin is not your lone function in this world. There is nothing, NOTHING wrong with abstinence or celibacy, but you shouldn’t be shamed into doing it.
SO much joy.
There was a similar assembly at my high school, except it was circles on a white board with lots of circles attached to it or something…anyway, the presenter had us raise our hands if we’d prefer the circle with or without lots of circles. One stoner kid was the only one who raised his hand for the non-virgin circle, but he stood his ground, albeit less eloquently than this guy. I look back on that occasion and wish I had been that kid.
these discussions were so harmful in my church. they had “Purity Month,” which was September, and they would bring in a speaker each weekend to discuss a topic of abstinence before marriage. the worst one that year (the only year I attended) was a guy who pulled out these god-awful charts and tried to tell us that sexual intimacy was INVERSELY related to emotional intimacy. like basically if you start having sex, you stop talking. it was such bullshit. at the time, I was not sexually active, and it made a bit of sense – I knew what it was like to get obsessed with an activity (I’d seen my bro play video games, haha). but now that I’ve incorporated sex into my life, it’s amazing how much more it makes me want to talk to someone, if I’m actually connected to them. and if not, then it’s like talking with a random person on the bus – just with a piece of rubber. it’s a passing, fleeting experience that may or may not be fantastic, and either way it’s not something to be ashamed of.
this story is fantastic, though. it’s too bad the Eastside Foursquare kids were too brainwashed to stand up like he did.