Ah, yes. The hymen. That tiny little membrane that supposedly covers our lady parts. Let's clear a few things up, shall we? You might have grown up believing that whole urban legend about the hymen "ripping" or "breaking" during first intercourse, and as a result, there was going to be some major pain involved. Turns out that just isn't the case, folks.
OB/GYN Lissa Rankin shows women around their own anatomy as a way of educating and empowering us about our bodies
As a young girl—ovaries yet to ripen and hymen still in intact—reading Judy Blume books were like porn for me … educational porn. These were the pre-internet days, before I could Google "funny feeling down there" or "penis, hard-on." All I had was my imagination and my canon of Judy Blume books to aid my highly curious pre-teen mind. They were a permanent Sharpie mark on my burgeoning deviant mind.
According to the New York Daily News, a Chinese company, Gigimo, has been selling a kit to fake one's virginity (retails for about $30 and could be called "priceless" in a Mastercard ad). Some conservatives in Egypt do not care for this kind of virginity chicanery, however.
For whatever reason (maybe the abstinence-only sex ed debate), virginity is everywhere. Some of our most popular movies are about young men out to lose their v-cards. And the news is filled with stories of older virgins when it's not mentioning deflowering for sale. What gives? And why for several thousand years have we been obsessed with virgin women?
Tales of a 36-Year-Old Virgin is a series of incredibly moving posts on BlogHer by a woman calling herself Always Beginning the World. ABW describes how, during her first OBGYN exam, the doctor told her that her vagina was too small to have sex, use tampons or even receive a pap smear. Twenty years later she learned the doctor was wrong.
When a promise ring is not enough, abstinence-promoting underwear might do the trick. Printed with slogans such as "True Love Will Wait" and "Earn your right to wear white: Abstain.", it's hard to tell if these $11 white cotton thongs are marketed facetiously or seriously as a last-ditch effort to preserve one's virginity. I can't imagine parents of abstinence-abiding teens would be excited to buy an undergarment that only exists thanks to form-fitting clothing, let alone one meant to be read by a second party. Regardless, we'll call the undies both inspiring and clever. My favorite pair? An image of cherries above the words "Iron Hymen." That oft-forgotten membrane sure is getting its share of the limelight this year.
Women who receive new hymens via surgery are able to marry without fear of violence or humiliation. But is that a good thing?
