The “Celebration Edition” of Dannah Gresh’s flagship book includes testimonials to the book itself, interviews with other big names in the abstinence industry, and open letters from women considering sexual purity from different circumstances. The advice given, stories told, and journal exercises assigned are generally solid and constructive in reestablishing purity as a desirable process and attainable value.
Unfortunately, there’s a subtext to the book that undermines much of what it accomplishes. It makes very useful distinctions between innocence and purity and then uses the terms interchangeably elsewhere. While advocating dressing and speaking to avoid unnecessarily arousing your date, it implies he’ll want you more if you’re not easy. “Visualizing the future” consists of describing your dream husband, down to hobbies and looks, replacing one form of sexual fantasy with another.
