Is Purity Unrealistic?

Each time I go to the gym I plug myself into a show on one of the TV's.  We don't do the cable thing or even have the rabbit ears on top to tune into anything.  It's better that way for us (we're TV addicts, and we know it).  So plugging myself into the novelty of the TV when I run is a good way to get my mind off my labored breathing and my aching muscles.  Usually, the time that I'm there is during the Today show, or the Kelly show. 
But one particular morning I arrived later and was stuck either watching the latest on the GOP fight/race, or watching ANDERSON (cooper's) talk show.  It was on the Purity Ball this particular day.  I thought, "Oh, good!  It's going to be an uplifting show!" and I wasn't in a political mood, so I went with the talk show. 
It began with a family with two teenage girls who had recently been to their own purity ball.  It was a special experience for them.  They loved reading their covenant to their father vowing to save themselves for their future husbands and trusting their father to be a good example - to live a life of integrity and moral uprightness.  In turn, he made a covenant with each of them to live that life, be a good example, and treat them with the respect and love that a woman should be treated with. 
Then Anderson brought  the author of the book "The Purity Myth" on stage and asked her opinion of all of this.  She tore into them with her negativity.  To be pure until you are married is great as an ideal, but it's totally unrealistic and the parents were setting their girls up for failure.  Besides, if saving yourself for your spouse is "remaining pure", what are those of us who choose not to do that?  Are we dirty?  AND THE AUDIENCE APPLAUDED!!!
Anderson then asked if purity balls were being held with sons and their mothers.  Are they having to pledge this kind of life to their mothers and future wives?  Why not?  Is there a double standard there?  Are we sending the wrong message to our daughters that they are somehow responsible for the morality of our country?  And the audience applauded again. 
Some woman even had the audacity to stand and say, "I just have an issue with the whole family being run by a patriarch.  That's just sexist and wrong."  And there was applause again. 
I kept changing the channel because my blood was starting to boil.  I was mad that these people were being ripped apart for trying to live a chaste, good life.  They wanted something better.  And they were being ridiculed for doing so.  But I found that I kept going back to it because I wanted to somehow convey through the TV that I was in support and that this was good and right.
Another woman stood to say (paraphrased), "What about all the women whose marriages fail?  Are we just used at that point and good for nothing?  Are we failures?"  Here I was very proud of the mother.  She stood up for herself.  She said that she had been through a divorce.  She had made poor and wrong choices as a teenager and young adult.  But she resolved to change.  She DID find her prince charming.  They are out there!  And she wanted something better for her girls.  She wanted them to know that they didn't have to go through that pain and shame in order to find a happy, good life.  That is why they decided to do the purity ball.  I was also proud of the girls.  They continually said that this made them happy and that it felt right. 
This whole exchange bothered me all day because I felt it personally.  These principles and values are what we try to teach our children, boys and girls, each day.  I felt society was attacking my value system and beliefs.  So in short, here is my response to the whole affair:
Every time a new years starts many TV shows have an expert on goal setting come to share thoughts about how to be successful in reaching goals.  They always tell you to set your goal realistically high so it can stretch you and make you reach.  Goals can be physical, mental, emotional, professional, and spiritual.  But can they not be moral too?  Why should we berate those who wish to live a more moral life than ourselves?  Are we jealous and therefore want to tear them down to our own level?  Because honestly, if the definition of purity is:

1. Freedom from adulteration or contamination.
2. Freedom from immorality, esp. of a sexual nature

then yes, you are dirty - but only if you choose to look at it in such a negative light.  If you don't like being dirty, contaminated, or considered immoral, then you need to think through your decisions before you make them!  If you also want to be considered "pure" or a "virgin" then you need to familiarize yourself with the definitions of those words and then choose to live in such a way that befits those words.   If you want and choose to live a virtuous, chaste, and pure life in order to save yourself for your future spouse, who are we to say that you can't?  It seemed that the audience was saying, "You can choose all the goodness you want in your life as long as it doesn't make me look like a schmuck or a looser - as long as I'm not then considered "dirty"".
It made me grateful for the values that I have.  It made me realize how different the world really is from the standards that we have.  It made me realize that we really are a unique and special people.  It made me grateful for my testimony.  Purity is worth it.  It is not unrealistic.  If you want to attain it and fall short, you are only a failure if you then stop trying to reach for something better.  You are only a failure if you tell yourself that you are.  Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and continue moving forward with scrapes, bruises, and wounds in tow.  For there with always be someone there at the finish line to rejoice with you in your success and your perseverance.