Jessica Valenti Braves “The Today Show”
Posted by: Amelia McDonell-Parry
Filed in:
news, video
8:45AM, Thursday April 23rd 2009
Jessica Valenti was on “The Today Show” this morning to promote her new book The Purity Myth. Instead of discussing her book in depth, the producers pitted her against abstinence education champion Lakita Garth in a debate moderated by Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, who always looks slightly perplexed. The result was that Garth got way more speaking time, although Valenti held her own as best she could, and Kathie Lee positioned herself on the issue of virginity loud and clear. “It’s much easier to give it away than keep it, right?!”
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cattgirl813
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 09:03 am: [report]
“It’s much easier to give it away than keep it, right?!” It would’ve been totally wrong for someone to say to Kathy, “That’s what Frank says.” Totally funny, but totally wrong.
mdtobe
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 09:16 am: [report]
Wow…Kathy is kind of a B****
omgemilyissohot
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 10:10 am: [report]
I love that they just ignored every point she made and went back to the other woman. 5% abstinence education seems like plenty to me, that actually gives them time to teach other, more important things. If parents want to emphasis abstinence that’s their prerogative. Parents say they want their children to learn about contraceptives but don’t seem to want to have the conversation with them. So if not in school, where are they going to learn it?
mdtobe
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 10:16 am: [report]
@omgemilyissohot: agreed. It doesn’t take very long say “don’t have sex until your married”. At that rate 5% seems like a lot to me. People who are going to wait until they are married to have sex are going to wait until they are married to have sex with or without abstinence education. They are learning that at home. We need comprehensive sex education because we have to teach those who don’t share the same beliefs how to keep themselves safe from STDs and unwanted pregnancies. We have to protect them, not judge them.
mdtobe
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 10:19 am: [report]
One more thing, I find it extremely rude to invite an author onto a show to promote her book only to ignore her extremely intelligent and on-point remarks to promote a different agenda. She was extremely composed under the pressure and I give her a lot of credit for not only standing up for herself, but doing it with poise and confidence. Not once did she stumble. Props to you Ms. Valenti for representing intelligent women so well!
tabby
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 11:16 am: [report]
I really wish Jessica Valenti would have been given more of a chance to speak. She sounded so much more intelligent than any of those other women. And just for that I am buying her book.
Anniekins
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 02:23 pm: [report]
I find it odd that the hosts were talking about how girls who slept around in high school had “not great lives”.
They act as though the sex itself condemned these girls to a sub-par existence.
It’s been my experience that most girls that are very promiscuous at a young age have some sort of issue that caused them to sleep around (lack of guidance/low self esteem/poorly educated about sex). Call me crazy, but it’s possible that THOSE issues, and not the sex itself that caused a “not great life”. A hymen is not a good luck charm.
wawmama
wrote on April 23 2009 @ 05:27 pm: [report]
Wow!!! They were so beyond rude to her!! And she had some really good things to say. I think it’s sad that they showed more of her book online than she was allowed to say on the whole segment. I think she is absolutely right. Why are more people concerned with what a girl’s doing with her body, than teaching her self esteem in the first place. From what I read, she wasn’t avocating “sluthood”, but taking care of the whole indivisual.
stephoney22
wrote on April 27 2009 @ 12:00 pm: [report]
Wow, that was kind of annoying. I second props to Jessica for keeping it professional while the other guest was laughing out loud at her. Very disrespectful and unprofessional.
I did a True Love Waits program at my church when I was around 16 yrs old. I ended up popping the cherry when I was 21. I don’t regret it because that wouldn’t do any good. I have always been safe about sex and can count my partners on one hand. Now I’ve found the love of my life and things are working out fine.
5% Abstinence ed may not seem like much but I agree it’s enough for public schools. If abstinence is sincerely taught at home or in religious environments, the child should feel the conviction while learning the facts at school.
Waiting until I was a little bit older and using condoms and eventually getting on the pill kept me from having a baby before I was 23 (my current age), unlike two of my cousins. I’m not 100% protected since I’m still having sex but at least I know I’m with the man I wanna have kids with one day anyways.