A Christian woman named April Ajoy has recently been doing what she calls "detoxing American Christianity."
She does this by humorously recognizing things that are ingrained in her mind as an ex-evangelist, like feeling guilty for masturbating. However, April caught the attention of nearly a million people after she found a Twitter thread stating that all women should not ride horses, bikes, or motorcycles because it sexually arouses them:
In her TikTok, she explains, "The thread starts off with some basic purity culture, but then at the bottom here it says, 'Sexual arousal and stimulation not for or from her husband makes a woman filthy.'"
"'Women should not ride horses, bicycles, or motorbikes. It is weird and disgusting because women are sexually aroused and stimulated by these activities.'"
"'Most of them have multiple 'o's in these sessions... The horse is also very large, strong, muscled, powerful, and yes — packing. It acts as a sort of masculine figure women fall in love with and are attracted to.'"
"'A man who allows his wife to ride a horse is a man who shares his wife with an animal.'"
"But it's OK for women to ride horses sitting in front of their husband with their legs together. How can I even do satire when tweets like this are real?"
BuzzFeed spoke to April, who initially thought the thread was a joke. “I already use my platform to humorously call out misogyny in evangelicalism and knew I had to expose such a wrong and dumb take. I had a really good laugh at it and thought others would as well,” she said.
April said men have no right to speak on women’s bodies, but it’s very common in evangelism. “When men speak about women’s bodies, it’s all about control so men can stay in power. As someone who was raised in the church and purity culture, I was taught from a young age that girls' bodies were a constant temptation for boys. Women were ‘stumbling blocks’ for ‘men of God.’”
"I remember being told in youth group that a girl is like ‘a chewed-up piece of gum’ if she has sex before marriage, yet there was more than sufficient grace for boys due to their ‘uncontrollable urges.’ A girl had to save herself for her husband and, once married, she had to please him whenever he wanted as the submissive helpmate," she added.
"These harmful beliefs teach boys to objectify women and girls to feel shame just for existing," said April, adding, "I've had to go through therapy and years of self-discovery to finally get my marriage and sex life to a healthy place thanks to the damage caused by purity culture."
April said it's also worth noting that Jesus never told women to "cover up" to keep men from lusting. "In Matthew 5:29, Jesus literally says, 'If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away.' This is a verse the modest police conveniently ignore."
