Related Research Articles
John Stephen Piper is an American theologian and pastor in the Reformed Baptist tradition. He is also chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper taught biblical studies at Bethel University for six years (1974–1980), before serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church (Converge) in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980–2013).
An Internet meme, or meme, is a cultural item that spreads across the Internet, primarily through social media platforms. Internet memes manifest in a variety of formats, including images, videos, GIFs, and other viral content. Key characteristics of memes include their tendency to be parodied, their use of intertextuality, their viral dissemination, and their continual evolution. The term "meme" was originally introduced by Richard Dawkins in 1972 to describe the concept of cultural transmission.
Purity rings are rings worn as a sign of chastity. Since the 1990s, Christian organizations in the United States used the purity ring as a symbol of commitment. In particular, Catholic and evangelical Christian groups which promoted virginity pledges and virginity before marriage, such as True Love Waits and Silver Ring Thing. Wearing a purity ring is typically accompanied by a religious vow to practice abstinence until marriage. Chastity rings are part of the abstinence-only sex education movement and are intended to act as a physical reminder of the wearer's chastity vow.
A purity ball is a formal dance event typically practiced by some conservative Christian groups in the United States. The events are attended by fathers and their teenage daughters in order to promote virginity until marriage. Typically, daughters who attend a purity ball make a virginity pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. Fathers who attend a purity ball make a promise to protect their young daughters' "purity of mind, body, and soul." The balls are considered a part of purity culture.
A non-player character (NPC), also called a non-playable character, is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster or referee rather than by another player. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay, but will not necessarily be the product of true artificial intelligence.
TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin, is a short-form video-hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed through a mobile app or through its website.
Charli Grace D'Amelio is an American social media personality and dancer. She was a competitive dancer for over a decade before starting her social media career in 2019, when she began posting dance videos on the video-sharing platform TikTok. She quickly amassed a large following and subsequently became the most-followed creator on the platform in March 2020 until she was surpassed by Khaby Lame in June 2022. With over 155 million followers, she is the second most-followed person on TikTok, as of 2025.
E-kids, split by binary gender as e-girls and e-boys, are a youth subculture of Gen Z that emerged in the late 2010s, notably popularized by the video-sharing application TikTok. It is an evolution of emo, scene and mall goth fashion combined with Japanese and Korean street fashion.
Nicole Sanchez, better known as Neekolul, is an American online streamer, YouTuber and internet personality. In March 2020, her popularity online rose when she uploaded a TikTok featuring her lip syncing to the song "Oki Doki Boomer" while wearing a Bernie 2020 crop top; this TikTok was a direct reference to the "OK boomer" Internet meme that was popularized in late 2019. In July 2020, she was signed as a content creator for the gaming organization 100 Thieves. In 2023, she left 100 Thieves.
Cole Chase Hudson, known professionally as Huddy, is an American singer, actor, and social media personality, known for co-founding the TikTok collective the Hype House, and popularizing the e-boy fashion style and subculture. A 2020 article in Billboard Magazine rated him as one of the top 10 music influencers on TikTok that year, with over 30 million followers, and one of the most influential people on the platform.
Avani Kiana Gregg is an American social media personality who first developed a following on TikTok. She plays Gemma in the web series Chicken Girls. She received the Shorty Award for TikToker of the Year in 2019, and was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020 in the social media category.
Brittany Alexis Tomlinson, known professionally as Brittany Broski, is an American social media personality, YouTuber, and comedian. She initially gained fame after a video of her tasting kombucha for the first time went viral on TikTok in 2019. She signed to United Talent Agency later that year and has since hosted the TikTok-produced podcast For You (2021), the pop culture-focused podcasts Violating Community Guidelines (2022–2023) with Sarah Schauer and The Broski Report (2023–present), and the YouTube talk show Royal Court (2023–present). She has frequently been referred to as one of TikTok's biggest stars and noted for her meme-focused humor.
Purity culture was a movement in the 1990s within Christianity which emphasized sexual abstinence.
Exvangelical is a term to describe people who have left evangelicalism, especially white evangelical churches in the United States, for atheism, agnosticism, progressive Christianity, or any other religious belief, or lack thereof.
Soaking is a sexual practice of inserting the penis into the vagina but not subsequently thrusting or ejaculating, reportedly used by some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. News sources do not report it being a common practice, and some Latter-day Saints have said that soaking is an urban legend and not an actual practice. Others report knowing church members who had soaked, or gave a firsthand account of trying the practice with a partner before marriage while a member of the LDS Church.
Faith deconstruction, also known as deconstructing faith, religious deconstruction, or simply deconstruction, is a process during which religious believers reexamine and question their beliefs. It originated in American evangelicalism, where it may be called evangelical deconstruction. The term rose in popularity in connection with the exvangelical movement, which began in 2016. It is sometimes called the deconstruction movement. Subsequently, the term religious deconstruction has been applied to other religions as well.
Gyatt is a term from African-American Vernacular English originally used in exclamation, such as "gyatt damn". In the 2020s, the word experienced a semantic shift and gained the additional meaning of "a person, usually a woman, with large and attractive buttocks and sometimes an hourglass figure".
The phrase "girl math" is an internet meme, used to describe rationalizations by young women to justify indulgent and potentially irresponsible spending habits. It originated from the social media platform TikTok, later transferring over to Instagram and X.
Chastity clubs in the United States emerged in the 1990s for adolescents in elementary through high school. The rise of these clubs occurred alongside the rise of "purity culture" in the U.S. that promoted sexual chastity before marriage, including purity balls, sexual purity organizations, and government-funded abstinence-only sex education. Chastity clubs for adolescents came out of evangelical backlash to what they perceived as a new hyper-sexualized culture and a rise in sexual impurity. Soon, students at universities in the South began to form their own chastity clubs.
References
- 1 2 Brobst, Scout (October 19, 2020). "How Young Evangelical Women Are Navigating a Sex-Positive Internet". Vice . Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ↑ McNeal, Stephanie (November 5, 2019). "How These Small-Time Christian Influencers Became A Viral TikTok Meme About Purity Culture". BuzzFeed News . Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ↑ Vilanova, Constance (January 20, 2023). "Aux États-Unis, le culte de la virginité s'installe sur TikTok". Télérama (in French). Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ↑ Weekman, Kelsey (July 6, 2022). "What Happens To Christian Influencers When They Get Married?". BuzzFeed News . Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- 1 2 3 Thwaites, Elle (June 28, 2022). "The impact of Christian purity culture is still being felt – including in Britain". theconversation.com. The Conversation. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
- ↑ Mikkelsen, Sage; Kornfield, Sarah (2021). "Girls Gone Fundamentalist: Feminist Appeals of White Christian Nationalism". Women's Studies in Communication . 44 (4): 563-585. doi:10.1080/07491409.2021.1911895. S2CID 242451674 . Retrieved July 27, 2023.
- ↑ Hugh, Jess (October 5, 2022). "'You can't cancel me': embattled TikTok star reinvents herself as a warrior for Jesus". The Guardian . Retrieved February 9, 2023.
- ↑ Phillips, Jessica (January 20, 2021). "YouTube's Fundamentalist Influencers Are Preaching Abstinence and Anti-Abortion". Vice . Retrieved February 9, 2023.