3. Oh... Wait for it... God: Rebecca St. James's "Wait for Me"

Rebecca. St. James released her sixth album "Transform" in 2001. The album was a huge success, largely because of the unique track "Wait For Me," which became an  anthem for Christian women who aspired to "save" sex for their future husbands. "Wait For Me" was one of the first highly popularized songs to engage the topic of sexual purity and it was unique in that it pushed the artist's own proclaimed virginity into the spotlight. The song--which soon sparked a corresponding music video, book, and devotional--provided women with the hope of a Christian fairy-tale-- one that, contrary to the sexual world's love stories, was defined by sexual abstinence and traditional gender roles. In this episode, we frame the highly successful song as both a product of and catalyst for the "purity culture" that dominated American Christianity in the early 2000s.