Abstinence Cinema Virginity and the Rhetoric of Sexual Purity in Contemporary Film

"[Abstinence Cinema] educates audiences, particularly younger readers, parents, and scholars, on the ideological turn of rewriting purity narratives into popular culture through contemporary film."- Southern Communication Journal
"Smart textual analysis and informed feminist critique make Abstinence Cinema a welcome addition to scholarship that takes popular culture seriously for its participation in the struggles of contemporary public life."- Bonnie J. Dow, author of Watching Women's Liberation, 1970: Feminism's Pivotal Year on the Network News
"Abstinence Cinema is an exceptional book and should find wide readership throughout communication and rhetorical studies as well as related fields like film studies, gender, studies, and popular culture ... Kelly wisely chooses to stay attuned to the early twenty-first century and the particular issues of abstinence but in so doing provides insight into a wide range of contemporary cultural issues ranging from femininity to neoliberalism. The end result of this engaging analysis is a powerful intervention into American cinema."- Quarterly Journal of Speech
"This is a groundbreaking, fearless book, one that takes on a hitherto relatively unexplored question of Hollywood cinema and makes one think anew about the social, political, and sexual politics of contemporary mainstream movies ... Highly recommended."- Choice
"A fascinating exposé ... Students and scholars of film, gender, sexuality, and cultural studies will learn much from Kelly's well-argued text."- H-SAWH
"Popular entertainment is an unexplored front in the ongoing culture wars over sexuality. Casey Ryan Kelly's sophisticated and lively analysis of abstinence cinema is a timely reminder of the high stakes in these debates."- Janice M. Irvine, University of Massachusetts
"This book may well enlighten [readers] in terms of what price one have to pay in order to conform to a so-called 'liberated' postmodern society, revealing itself a truly relevant indicator of Hollywood's deeply rooted yet far from obsolete evangelical moral and political values. That's already quite an achievement."- InMedia