New circulating Australia today is about comments made by Opposition Leader Tony Abbot to Australian Women’s Weekly, in which he advises women to “stick to the rules” when considering sex before marriage, and to consider their virginity “a gift.” According to Abbot, contraceptives have actually burdened women as men have become more sexually liberated as a result and are taking advantage of unmarried women.

When his comments leaked, they understandably caused a ripple through Australian media. In a subsequent interview with 3AW in Melbourne, Mr Abbott said he was “subjected to a one-hour grilling” by the magazine in which he did his best to give honest answers.

“I think all of us should act in ways that value ourselves, and I’m trying not to be prescriptive here, I’m trying not to be a preacher and all of that,” he said.

“Because in the end these are all very personal things. But if someone asked my advice, I would say, don’t do anything that you will live to regret if you can possibly help it, and try to act in ways in which a self-respecting person would act.”

Deputy PM Julia Gillard has responded, saying Abbott’s comments were likely to confirm women’s “worst fears” about Mr. Abbott. She also said that “Australian women want to make their own choices and they don’t want to be lectured to by Mr Abbott.”

While some conservative idiot at the Australian has defended Abbott’s comments as applying “equally to men as well as women,” and coming from a “compassionate, fatherly concern for his three daughters,” but this is clearly not the case.

What is the case? Conservative valuing of women in terms of their sexual purity. His comments resonate with pre-liberation opinions of women, who would be shamed for having a human sexual appetite and engaging in human sexual behaviour. These regressive political views are a targeted backlash against women’s liberation, with a political agenda aimed at rolling back women’s rights. Abbott’s goals here are mired in old-school gender roles, and its primary tool is young women’s sexuality. His obsession with women’s sexuality stems from the same sexist mentality as the “Girls Gone Wild” enterprise, as both sides of this continuum value women solely in terms of their sexuality. It’s a fetish, this obsession with virginity.

As Jessica Valenti so articulately claims in her book The Purity Myth:

There is a moral panic in America over young women’s sexuality — and it’s entirely misplaced. Girls “going wild” aren’t damaging a generation of women, the myth of sexual purity is. The lie of virginity — the idea that such a thing even exists — is ensuring that young women’s perception of themselves is inextricable from their bodies, and that their ability to be moral actors is absolutely dependent on their sexuality. It’s time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people depends on their being good people, not on whether or not they’re sexually active.

A combination of forces — our media- and society-driven virginity fetish, an increase in abstinence-only education, and the strategic political rollback of women’s rights among the primary culprits — has created a juggernaut of unrealistic sexual expectations for young women. Unable to live up to the ideal of purity that’s forced upon them in one aspect of their lives, many young women are choosing the hypersexualized alternative that’s offered to them everywhere else as the easier — and more attractive — option.

More than 1,400 purity balls, where young girls pledge their virginity to their fathers at a promlike event, were held in 2006 (the balls are federally funded). Facebook is peppered with purity groups that exist to support girls trying to “save it.” Schools hold abstinence rallies and assemblies featuring hip-hop dancers and comedians alongside religious leaders. Virginity and chastity are reemerging as a trend in pop culture, in our schools, in the media, and even in legislation. So while young women are subject to overt sexual messages every day, they’re simultaneously being taught — by the people who are supposed to care for their personal and moral development, no less — that their only real worth is their virginity and ability to remain “pure.”

So what are young women left with? Abstinence-only education during the day and Girls Gone Wild commercials at night! Whether it’s delivered through a virginity pledge or by a barely dressed tween pop singer writhing across the television screen, the message is the same: A woman’s worth lies in her ability — or her refusal — to be sexual. And we’re teaching American girls that, one way or another, their bodies and their sexuality are what make them valuable. The sexual double standard is alive and well, and it’s irrevocably damaging young women.

Clearly, I couldn’t have said it better myself. You’re better off buying the book if you want a concise and articulate argument against Abbott’s ridiculous fetishizing of his daughters’ and all Australians’ virginity.