When purity culture becomes unintentional standup material
Welcome to the Abstinence Comedy Club, where the jokes write themselves and purity culture provides unlimited material for anyone who’s ever noticed the gap between what people say and what people do. No cover charge, but the cognitive dissonance costs extra.
The comedy in abstinence education lies not in the teaching itself but in the absolute confidence with which it’s delivered despite mountains of evidence showing it doesn’t work. It’s like a magic show where the magician insists they’ve made the rabbit disappear while everyone can clearly see it sitting on the table. The commitment to the bit is admirable, if misguided.
What makes abstinence-only approaches particularly ripe for comedy is the inevitable moment when advocates for purity culture get caught in compromising positions. It’s the schadenfreude special: the louder someone preaches abstinence, the higher the probability they’ll be involved in a scandal that makes everyone else say “well obviously.”
The Abstinence Comedy Club features greatest hits like “Just Say No” (didn’t work for drugs, won’t work for sex), “Purity Rings” (jewelry that magically prevents hormones from functioning), and “Virginity Pledges” (contracts nobody reads and fewer people honor). The punchlines deliver themselves with the reliability of data showing abstinence-only education leads to higher teen pregnancy rates.
The Isle of Man contingent has apparently developed their own local variation of abstinence comedy, featuring all the same jokes but with more references to manx cats and slightly different accents. Comedy is universal, even when it’s unintentional.
Perhaps the biggest laugh comes from religious institutions that continue funding abstinence education despite overwhelming evidence it doesn’t achieve its stated goals. At some point, continuing to invest in a failed approach stops being misguided and starts being performance art. They’re either committed to the comedy or completely unaware they’re the punchline.
SOURCE: https://pluscomedy.com/abstinence-comedy-club/
SOURCE: Bohiney Magazine (Abstinence Comedy Club)
Gina Mann