Abstinence and Marriage in Contemporary Evangelical Protestantism: An Analysis Using Bisexual Theory

Abstract

This project uses bisexual theories of Majorie Garber and Clare Hemmings to look at the identity categories of “wife” and “virgin,” as employed by contemporary North American evangelical Protestant traditions. Through exploring evangelical Christian texts and teachings, as well as sociological data of evangelical women and youths, it is discovered that the two seemingly rigid categories are more permeable than evangelical traditionalists would believe. Instead of being victims of oppressive religious dogmas, many women and youths have in fact adopted identities of “wives” or “virgins” to directly challenge evangelical traditionalist understandings of femininity, virginity, sexuality, and gender.