My lord, how deeply, deeply deranged. These father-daughter purity balls, where the fathers take their pre-teen daughters to a sort of prom and pledge to protect their hymens till they make a baton-like handoff to the kid's future husbands, are beyond creepy. Hell, they've left creepy sobbing quietly in a corner somewhere, moving on to harass "strange," "pseudo-incestuous," and "chilling."
At least debutante balls, with their innate patriarchy and glorification of everything superficial and useless (even beauty pageants have an interview portion!), don't explicitly hand over control of the child's virginity to the father. They're held to mark the community's judgment that the girl is ready to lose her virginity to a nice boy of corresponding class. Purity balls, in contrast, feature young girls, far too inexperienced (and prepubescent) to know what they're giving up, promising abstinence while their fathers pledge guardianship of that abstinence. The sexual contract, previously confined to the daughter, her partners, and God, is extended to the father, ensuring that any independent sexual decisions of the daughter will entail the overt rejection of a parent. What an excellent way to promote family values, open communication, and healthy self images.
