Tom Piatak

May 02, 2009

I agree with Tim Worstall that Miley Cyrus shouldn’t make a sex tape.  But I don’t think that Mr. Worstall has thought about the social changes that have produced the demand that Miley Cyrus make a sex tape, because he goes on to say that even us reactionary types who disapprove of sex before marriage “would agree that you’re not fully adult until you have indulged in [sexual intercourse], marraige or not.  A virgin, of either sex, hasn’t fully understood the driving forces of life.”  Really?

Although we can never be too sure about such things, it is likely that it was a virgin who painted this.  And a virgin who wrote this.  And a virgin who composed this.  Needless to say, Christian belief is that Jesus Christ was a virgin, as was his mother.  And Catholic priests and religious have taken vows of chastity for centuries.  Thus, it again is likely—to take just three examples that are favorites of mine—that it was a virgin who willingly sacrificed  his life for a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz, who cared for the Hawaiian lepers on Molokai, and who won the Medal of Honor while tending to the wounded under enemy fire in Vietnam.  Of course, marriage is the bedrock of society, and sexual intercourse is necessary for the continuation of the species.  But respect for chastity—which includes respect for virginity outside of marriage—is a mark of a healthy society.

Our society, sadly, is far from healthy, as evidenced by the demand that Miley Cyrus make a sex tape.  Thankfully, we are not as far gone as Mr. Worstall’s native Britain, a coarse and vulgar land becoming ever more coarse and vulgar as time goes on.  But until we have recovered respect for chastity, demands that young female celebrities provide us with sex tapes will become more and more prevalent until we come to resemble that unhappy land of public drunkenness, soccer hooliganism, and proud 13 year old fathers across the Atlantic.