Scrolling through social media can be extremely intimidating, especially now that there’s a regrowth of puritanism.
In the 1990s, purity culture quickly spread through the nation with the idea that sexual behavior and sexuality were sins. Those who follow the pure lifestyle believe that virginity should be praised and that sex should stay out of the media. It mainly follows women and how they talk, dress, and present themselves, bubbling guilt in women’s stomachs for anything remotely sexual.
Sexual education has even been impacted by purity culture. Adults who follow purity beliefs claim that children must be “protected” from such shameful and dangerous imagery. In states like Florida and Louisiana, sex education is taught, but through puritanical beliefs, such as giving information on abstinence, but nothing on contraception. Illinois has mandatory abstinence learning units, Tennessee’s sexual education depends on the teen pregnancy rate, and Mississippi lacks proper education on STIs and contraception. Even though Oregon has mandatory sex and HIV education, some schools still stress the importance of abstinence.
Due to the rebirth of purity culture, many, if not all, views have been influential towards younger generations, specifically Gen Z. TikTok trends such as the rice purity test in early 2025 pushed puritanism further with its negative beliefs on normal human behavior. The test created an environment for individuals to feel guilty for their actions and for not living a “pure” lifestyle. Along with the rice purity test was the push of women promoting an outdated lifestyle from the 1950s. Tradwife videos on TikTok and Instagram have been romanticized by purist influencers who wish more women held that ideology. While there is nothing wrong with people actually wanting that life, the way the content is shoved across social media comes off as anti-feminist, especially with the attempts to normalize gender conformity, when in the 1950s, women fought to have a better, more equal life.
While social media is being censored by purity culture, movies, television shows, and even the music industry are doing the complete opposite, which is causing a lot of backlash. In the past five years, directors have included many scenes that may pertain to sex or sexuality in their films. However, people aren’t upset at that, or at least not entirely; they’re upset at the fact it’s “unconventional,” holding the belief that they’ve never heard about it, so it must be unnatural. No, this is not the only reason why people are becoming uninterested in scenes like those, but it does seem that with every new film release, people are finding ways to bash on how fictional characters written by someone else need to live a “normal life.”
In the music industry, artists are creating covers that represent them and their music, but when someone else disagrees with the design, the fight for expression lasts forever. John Lennon and Yoko Ono released Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins in 1968. When the public saw the album cover of the couple standing naked together, the singers were met with disdain. Even though nudity has become more prominent and relatively normalized in media, the album is still sold in brown paper bags with only a circle cut to show Lennon’s and Ono’s faces. In August of 2024, Sabrina Carpenter released her Short n’ Sweet album and began the tour the following month, causing her legion of fans to be ecstatic. That quickly changed when Carpenter performed a dance to her song ‘Juno.’ Many became outraged by Carpenter, including sexual positions in the song’s dance, even though the entire song in itself is a sexual innuendo, and a not-so-secret one at that. Carpenter’s branding has always evoked mildly provocative imagery in her songs. She expresses herself in a way that many at first glance see as innocent, praising her writing and vocals, yet those same people turn on her once they actually listen to the lyrics and who she is as a person.
