This motto was passed along to me by my mother.  I'm sure she was well meaning.   It’s a motto a lot of mothers of her generation passed along to their daughters. 

Here’s what the motto communicates:

“If you give sex away before marriage, no one will want to marry you."

Or in other words:

"The only thing that makes you worth having is what's between your legs." 

This motto is about two things; being a sex object and using sex as a means of power and control.  

In my upbringing, religion often echoed this motto.  Religion tells girls that if you are not a virgin on your wedding night, you are damaged goods (a damaged object), soiled ( a soiled object), less than perfect (objects can and must be perfect), less desirable (than the perfect, unsoiled object),

less than.

Not only does this motto teach a girl that she is only desirable because of sex and is not much more than a  sex object, but sex  in this cow scenario is not about love and intimacy but about control.  This motto says that I can (and should) control a man through the withholding of sex. 

Holy cow.

(To comment click at the top on the title of this post - "Mottos - Part 2 "The Cow")