Most troubling was the fact that as I grew older I had the distinct sense of remaining a child in a woman’s body; virginity brought with it arrested development on the level of a handicapping condition, like the Russian orphans I’d read about whose lack of physical contact altered their neurobiology and prevented them from forming emotional bonds. Similarly, it felt as if celibacy was stunting my growth; it wasn’t just sex I lacked but relationships with men entirely. Too independent for Mormon men, and too much a virgin for the other set, I felt trapped in adolescence.
A Mormon Woman’s Choices – Modern Love – NYTimes.com (free registration might be required, as is the case with the New York Times).
The piece, which chronicles the sexual awakening of a 35 year old virgin, Mormon woman is poignant and touching in many ways. I would strongly recommend reading, as I felt unable to pick one single quote (one of those cases when I really want to copy/paste the entire thing). She details her personal road from single life to spinster status in her community, to the decisions that led her to break her religious taboos and decide to live a single life as a sexually active poet and how she finds redemption at, of all places, a Planned Parenthood practice.
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