Society & Culture - Posted by Sarah Colwell-UC Davis on Friday, April 8, 2011 11:07 - 6 Comments 
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The case of the missing virginity
Modern examples of societies’ obsession with the body part whose original translation in ancient Greek means “thin membrane” include debates about the sexual experience of young female pop stars, the popularity of Madonna’s song “Like a Virgin,” and the prevalence of hymenoplasty, a surgery that creates a hymen-like membrane in women who lack one. (Credit: iStockphoto)
UC DAVIS (US) — For generations and across cultures, marriage for women has been a test of chastity, and the proof was in the hymen.
Share this article
Email
Republish this article
The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
Proving a hymen’s existence has had legal ramifications in relation to the institution of marriage and has been an object of scientific discourse. It also has been a point of ongoing contention between the sexes.
“The transition from virgin to wife has been a subject of intense social concern in many societies,” says Margaret Ferguson, professor of English at the University of California, Davis, who is writing a book about that mystery titled Missing the Maidenhead: Cultural Debates About the Hymen in the Early Modern Period.
“I’m focusing on debates about the meaning of female virginity during the Reformation era in England because those debates—inspired in part by the long reign of a queen who refused to marry at all, Elizabeth I—offer a particularly interesting lens through which to reassess modern debates about female virginity.”
Modern examples of societies’ obsession with the body part whose original translation in ancient Greek means “thin membrane” include debates about the sexual experience of young female pop stars, the popularity of Madonna’s song “Like a Virgin,” and the prevalence of hymenoplasty, a surgery that creates a hymen-like membrane in women who lack one, Ferguson says.
“Hymenoplasty is a surgery that has no rationale, except for the myths of virginity,” she says. “Through my book I want to question why having a hymen is such an important idea around the world, why there are punishments for women in many cultures throughout time for the loss of this alleged body part, and why it is important for some people to have certainty about its existence. If these questions can be posed then we can have a more productive debate about virginity and its role in society.
“The hymen is a magnet for the debate about the relationship between the visible and invisible state, and the material and immaterial,” Ferguson adds. “It pertains to a state of being that is not testable and also speaks to an area of mistrust between the sexes.”
Her work is supported by a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.
More news from UC Davis: http://news.ucdavis.edu/
Please wait
6 Comments
Infertility affects approximately 10-15% of couples. The causes of Infertility are wide ranging including ovulatory disorders, tubal disease, endometriosis, chromosomal abnormalities, Sperm factors and unexplained infertility. Other than these there are other potentially modifiable, non communicable lifestyle factors which can have an impact on your reproductive performance in general and infertile population. These include age, weight, smoking, diet, exercise, psychological stress, caffeine consumption, alcohol consumption and exposure to environmental pollutants.
Vaginoplasty
brby
Isn’t this a matter of establishing paternity?
Margaret Ferguson
In response to brby: You are right that that “establishing paternity” is one of the desires underlying many men’s quests for certainty about whether there is or isn’t a hymen in the case of a particular woman (especially a potential bride). The problem is that the presence or absence of that tiny piece of tissue has never served to “establish” paternity! As the medical adage puts it, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Today, however, there are DNA tests that provide an alternate route for those who desire to “establish” paternity as a biological fact (though I would argue that there are many fathers who are not the biological progenitors of the children they parent). My main argument is that the effort to establish paternity through testing for a hymen is doomed to failure; I further argue that women should not be undergoing (and paying for) expensive “revirgination” surgeries to help men feel secure about their paternity.
brby
To Margaret Ferguson,
Of course, I agree completely. I didn’t mean to imply that this is in any way useful or successful or reasonable or sane. I was just reacting to the previous comment(s), which seemed irrelevant.
Jill
Hold on…Early modern period is the 16th century right? At this time – there was no way to establish paternity -period. Only way a man could be even remotely sure of paternity was to marry a virgin and then guard her chastity… (oh-but who guards the guard).
Modern day … well there a lot of old fashioned people out there who may not believe in science – ie blood tests, DNA tests or who don’t trust the women they are planning to have children with (does this seem wrong to anyone?) Finally, it could just be a reinvention of a sexual experience – an indulgence for both the women and their partners. I guess it would depend on how many are being done from which motivations.
Infertility affects approximately 10-15% of couples. The causes of Infertility are wide ranging including ovulatory disorders, tubal disease, endometriosis, chromosomal abnormalities, Sperm factors and unexplained infertility. Other than these there are other potentially modifiable, non communicable lifestyle factors which can have an impact on your reproductive performance in general and infertile population. These include age, weight, smoking, diet, exercise, psychological stress, caffeine consumption, alcohol consumption and exposure to environmental pollutants.
Hymenoplasty