Concepts of virginity can been seen in all aspects of life, from movies, to books, to even religion. This wide-reaching topic has created many controversies and opinions worldwide. So what exactly is virginity? A person, whether a male or female, is believed to be a virgin, when he or she has not engaged in coitus. However, the value of one’s virginity differs depending on location and a culture’s religion. The perception of virginity also differs depending on gender. In females, virginity has been associated with purity, honor, and worth, whereas virginity in males is often pictured as a “conquest”. Virginity is a subject filled with issues of morality, religion, culture, and gender stereotypes.
The importance of virginity varies from culture to culture. In Islamic cultures, a young woman is strictly forbidden from losing her virginity before marriage. A non-virgin is thought to bring shame onto herself, and her family. In fact, the family of a young female who engages in premarital sex can be severely punished or even killed. (Kalyani) In oriental societies, sex is barred before marriage; this asserts sexual control over the females. Not only is strongly encouraging women to abstain from sex before marriage used as a sexual control, virginity is also considered a business asset. Virgin brides are worth more in the marriage market (Schlegel), as apposed to someone with sexual practice; this leads to some families using their daughter’s virginity as a bargaining chip to climb the social ladder. By controlling a female’s virginity, the family controls the marriage choice. In present-day China, a woman’s virginity has a high significance in the society. The loss of a women’s virginity brings no spiritual guilt, but it does dish...
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...ing and see how others view the concept of virginity.
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Shmoop Editorial Team. "Brave New World Theme of Sex" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008.
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Gozalez-Lopez interviews people about their personal stories and how they dealth with situations similar to such. One of the people she interviews, Diego, talks about what he had to do to save his girlfriend from public shame because she had sex with him. “I married her because of honor. I had to come out and face the bull, to protect her image and her name” (Gonzalez-Lopez, 98). If a woman looses her virginity before marriage she can be seen as a whore, slut, or not properly raised. Many women are forced to marry men that they would never consider husband mate...
Irigaray, Luce. “That Sex Which is Not One.” The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. 1467-1471.
Measure for Measure also speaks to the commodification of sex by highlighting female virginity, those who are and those who aren't. In this play, female virginity functions as a...
Rubin, Gail. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." American Feminist Thought at Century's End : A Reader. Ed. Linda S. Kauffman Cambridge, Ma : Blackwell, 1993. 3-64.
...ons. After a girl is eight or nine years old she has learned not to approach a group of older boys. However, when it comes to younger boys, they are taught to antagonize them. The boys are considered “older” after they have been circumcised. When a girl is looking for her first lover, she looks to an older man, most often a widower or a divorcee. There are two types of sexual relations other than marriage that are recognized by Samoans. These include love affairs between unmarried young people, and also adultery. Although virginity is not expected in girls, Mead claims that it defiantly adds to their attractiveness. Essentially, having sex with a virgin is much more of a feat for a man than sex with a girl who is not. Marriage in Samoa is regarded as a social and economic
Johnson, C. (1991). When Sex is the issue. U.S. News & World Report, 111, 34-36.
Sexuality has become one of the key determining factors in one’s gender. While many want to initially say that gender is solely based on sexual orientation fail to take in to account many cultural practices, which not only influence gender, but create certain gender roles. The initial creation of Mexican gender roles, as Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez suggests, is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church “over the course of almost five hundred years,” created beliefs that virgins are desirable and that a non-virgin is of a lower moral class (38). From this Mexican women began maintaining their virginity, not because of the moral implications, but because of social mobility. Virginity has been created to be something beautif...
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McAvoy, Paula. “The Aims Of Sex Education: Demoting Autonomy And Promoting Mutuality.” Educational Theory. Academic Search Premier, 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Jun. 2014.