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WASHINGTON, D.C., September 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – She’s intelligent. She’s articulate. She’s self-actualizing, excelling in her chosen field. And she says she owes it all (or at least a lot of it) to the fact that she’s a virgin committed to sexual purity.
Kate Bryan – a senior account executive at CRC Public Relations, as well as an author and communications specialist – managed to extoll the virtues of keeping your virtue today in The Washington Post, of all places.
Her story ran under the title, “I’m a 32-year-old virgin, and I’m living the feminist dream.”
Bryan writes that, far from being an oppressed:
I’m living a fuller, better life because of my commitment to sexual integrity. I spend all day, every day doing the things that I want to do, because I’m not wasting my time worrying about waking up next to a stranger, contracting a sexually transmitted infection or missing a period.
The truth is, I am able to live the feminist dream because I’m not stressing over the things that sex outside of marriage often brings.
She adds that she isn’t alone. A new study published last month in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found a skyrocketing abstinence rate among her fellow Millennials. But perhaps unlike others in her generation, she has wrestled deeply with what true chastity means. Bryan wrote her thesis on the book Love and Responsibility by one Karol Wojtyla, later known as Pope John Paul II.
“Chastity isn’t simply the restraining of one’s desires, nor is it something you just practice before marriage and then disregard after the wedding,” she writes. “Chastity is a lifestyle, centered on freedom and love, that challenges all people to love themselves and to love others in the most perfect way possible.”
But all that cogitation does not make the physical struggle any less real. Bryan, an accomplished PR professional, says there are days she can hardly persuade herself to continue. That’s when she seeks strength beyond that available to any one person:
As a Christian, I believe that all things are possible with God, and that has been the bedrock of my journey with chastity. I’ve also surrounded myself with good friends who support me and my beliefs, which has made my journey easier.
While I didn’t get my early marriage or my 12 kids or my big house with a white picket fence, my commitment to sexual integrity has allowed me the freedom to live the life that I want. I am living the life that feminists throughout history fought for.
Through the virtue of chastity — true freedom and the perfection of love — I am living the feminist dream.
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Perhaps by happenstance, perhaps by Providence, her essay appears on September 8, the traditional date of the feast of the Birth of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, a much different idea of femininity than one offered by Gloria Steinem, et. al. Christians of all stripes see in her words at the Annunciation — “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to thy word” — the perfect expression of self-giving and abandonment to God’s will.
Admitting to being a virgin at age 32 is no small act of courage in our present culture, where virginity is seen as a lack of “emotional maturity.” A recent study — admittedly, from the Kinsey Institute — found that most people would rather not marry a virgin. Already, Bryan’s words have inspired others in the same situation: chaste and unashamed. One of them wrote Twitter:
@katembryan Thanks for writing – I'm also a virgin, in my 40s. Good to see others upholding chastity AND feminism!
— Jamie Hope (@jmhope71) September 8, 2016
You can read Bryan's whole article here and follow Kate Bryan on Twitter at @katembryan.
