Episode 253: Revisiting Purity Culture | A Conversation with C.A. Larson

At Last She Said It

Cynthia Winward

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Latter-day Saints hear the phrase "Purity Culture," they may associate it more with evangelical churches than with our own. LDS talks and lessons focus on words like virtue, modesty, morality, and chastity to describe our ideals. But regardless of the specific words used, the messages are the same. Therapist C.A. Larson points out, "Purity culture is a moral control system that ties worth to sexual behavior, especially for women. [...] Purity culture in the LDS Church is institutional, enforced through interviews, modesty rules, and silence around consent." In Episode 253, Cynthia and Susan welcome C.A. back to ALSSI for a discussion about Purity Culture: what it is, its psychological and emotional impacts, and its systemic connection to sexual abuse. It's a conversation that makes space for grief and anger, and identifies healing paths. C.A. explains, "Healing is not about becoming more sexual or less sexual. It is about embracing our agency...relearning consent, trusting bodily signals, separating worth from obedience, reclaiming choice, going slowly and allowing ambivalence. You don't owe your body to doctrine, and you don't owe your healing to anyone else's timeline."CW: sexual abuse

Transcript

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0:00.0	And healing is not about becoming more sexual or less sexual. It's about embracing our agency
0:08.8	that we should have had all along. It's about relearning consent, trusting bodily signals,
0:15.1	separating worth from obedience, reclaiming choice, going slowly and allowing ambivalence.
0:21.7	You don't owe your body to doctrine and you don't owe your healing to anyone else's timeline.
0:28.6	Hello, I'm Susan Hinkley.
0:31.1	And I am Cynthia Winward.
0:33.0	And this is at last she said it.
0:34.8	We are women of faith discussing complicated things.
0:37.2	And the title of today's episode is Revisiting Purity Culture. And this is at last she said it. We are women of faith discussing complicated things.
0:42.8	And the title of today's episode is Revisiting Purity Culture, a conversation with C.A. Larson.
0:44.8	Cynthia, C.A. is in the house today.
0:48.3	I'm so excited.
0:49.5	Our listeners are as excited as we are, I'm sure.
0:52.9	I think that you've been on the podcast every season, except last season, maybe CA, and
0:58.5	I'm not totally sure how that happened.
1:01.0	Oh, yeah, that might be true, but I'm always happy to be here.
1:04.2	Welcome, CA.
1:04.9	Well, we're thrilled to have you.
1:06.3	We are calling this episode revisiting purity culture because some of our listeners may remember that we
1:13.0	took on this topic previously in episode 112 with Colette Dalton. And so it's been a hundred and
1:21.0	50 episodes since we visited it. And I wish I could say that all of the problems had been resolved
1:26.9	and disappeared since
	...

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