Virgin: The Untouched History (36 page)

Anthropologists and historians have made only rare attempts to study virginity, and their attempts provide only spotty coverage: even a survey-style book like this one only skims the surface for a small portion of the world. There is a great deal of information that has yet to be gathered and many books that have yet to be written about virginity. It is my fond hope that they will fill in the many gaps I have left in these pages—as well as the vast territories of virginal history and culture I could not even begin to approach in this limited treatment—and that this subject will become better and better understood.

Historical hindsight is a convenience, and in some ways it is a fiction. Books of history often leave the reader with the sense that history happens according to some grandiose plan. The sheer vastness of the historical record, all the millions of bits of data that no given historian can ever include, however, proves that for better or worse this is not true. Events do not happen the way they do in order for certain well-known outcomes to come to pass. They simply happen. The events that make it into the history books do so due to a complicated mix of initiative, inertia, and plain dumb luck. While it seems evident that Western culture is right now in the throes of substantial shifts in its virginity culture specifically and its sex and gender culture at large, it is impossible to say where those shifts will take us.

Having led this tour throughout the ages of virginity, in the end I find that I can only return to what I stated in the opening chapter. Virginity is an abstract, but an abstract so meaningful to the way we have organized our Western cultures that we have arranged lives around it, built it into our religions, our laws, our definitions of marriage, and our ways of organizing families, and woven it into our very concepts of identity and self. If nothing else, I feel I can say with certainty that no matter where our changing culture takes us, and no matter how our notions of virginity change, as long as sex is important in the slightest, virginity and virgins will continue to matter profoundly to us all.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

i: Like a Virgin?

The language of ancient Greek virginity is one of the topics discussed in Giulia Sissa,
Greek
Virginity,
Arthur Goldhammer, trans. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990).

Medieval scholars' approaches to virginity and chastity are discussed in many sources; two of
the most approachable are Pierre Payer's
Sex and the Penitentials: The Development of a
Sexual Code, 550—115o
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984) and
The Bridling of
Desire: Views of Sex in the Later Middle Ages
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

The sexuality of children, rarely discussed in even the sexological literature, is more frequently taken up by anthropologists. The massive four-volume encylopedia of known research on children's sexuality globally, Diederik F. Janssen,
Corpus "Growing Up Sexually"
(Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, 2002-2005), is constantly updated at
http://www2.rz.huberlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GUS_MAIN_
INDEX.HTM.

On prenatal genital self-stimulation, Catherine Blackledge,
The Story of V: A Natural History
of Female Sexuality
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), provides a discussion.

On the Jungian concept of the presexual, see C. G. Jung, "The Transformation of Libido," in
Collected Works of C. G. Jung,
vol. 5, Read, Herbert, et al., eds. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1953).

Statistics in regard to age at marriage were derived from the following reports: U.S. Bureau of the Census, "U.S. Adults Postponing Marriage 2001," prepared by the United States Department of Commerce, Office of the Census and Office of National Statistics, United Kingdom's "Report 2001: Population Trends III : Marriages: Age at Marriage by Sex and Previous Marital Status." Subsequent reports from the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries in the developed West have indicated that later marriage as a trend is well established and continuing.

For detailed information on Roman Catholic consecrated virgins consult the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins. See the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins Web site,
http://www.consecratedvirgins.org
.

The effectiveness of virginity pledges is the subject of Peter Bearman and Hanna Bruckner, "Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges as They Affect Transition to First Intercourse,"
The American Journal of Sociology
106 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, January 2001).

A growing number of anecdotal and scientific studies examine the discrepancies between definitions of sexual abstinence, in regard to what counts as sexual activity, what kinds of sexual activities are definitive of the end of virginity, etc., including: Patricia Goodson, Sandy Suther, et al. "Defining Abstinence,"
Journal of School Health
73 no. 3 (March 2003); Kaiser Family Foundation and
Seventeen
magazine,
Sex Smarts: National Survey of Teens Virginity
and the First Time,
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, publication no. 3368 (October 2003); Stephanie A. Sanders and June Machover Reinisch, "Would You Say You 'Had Sex' If?,"
Journal of the American Medical Association
281 no. 3 (January 20, 1999): 275—277; M. A. Schuster, R. M. Bell, and D. E. Kanouse, "The Sexual Practices of Adolescent Virgins: Genital Sexual Activities of High School Students Who Have Never Had Vaginal Intercourse,"
American Journal of Public Health
86 no. 11 (1996): 1570-1576; and Israel M. Schwartz, "Sexual Activity Prior to Coital Initiation: A Comparison Between Males and Females,"
Archives of Sexual Behavior
28 no. 1 (1999): 63-69.

2: The Importance of Being Virgin

Information on the comparative sexual biology and sociology of a wide variety of animal species is presented in, among other sources: Blackledge,
The Story of V: Opening Pandora's
Box
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003); Sarah Blaffer Hrdy,
Mother Nature:
Natural Selection & the Female of the Species
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1999); William G. Eberhard,
Sexual Selection and Animal Genitalia
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985); and Bettyann Kevles,
Females of the Species: Sex and Survival in the Animal
Kingdom
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986).

An entry-level discussion of the property/patriarchy theory of the-origins of human awareness of virginity can be found in Timothy Taylor,
The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of
Human Sexual Culture
(New York: Bantam Books, 1996). Other discussions may be found in sources including: Shirley Ardener, "Defining Females: The Nature of Women in Society,"
Cross-cultural Perspectives on Women
4 (Providence, RI: Berg, 1993); Ottokar Nemecek,
Virginity: Pre-Nuptial Rites and Rituals
(New York: Philosophical Library, 1958); and Elisa Janine Sobo and Sandra Bell, eds.,
Celibacy, Culture, and Society: The Anthropology of
Sexual Abstinence
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001).

Aline Rousselle comments at length on exposure and infanticide in the ancient world, among other topics, in
Porneia: On Desire and the Body in Antiquity,
Felicia Pheasant, trans. (London: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988).

The translation of Deuteronomy 22:13—21 featured in this chapter is my own. Thanks are due to Danya Ruttenberg for her assistance.

3: Hymenology

In C. Jenny, M. L. Kuhns and F. Arakawa, "Hymens in Newborn Female Infants,"
Pediatrics
80 (1987), the estimated frequency of congenital (i.e., from birth) absence of the hymen is given at less than 0.03 percent.

Speculations on the evolutionary purpose of the hymen may be found in, among other sources, Blackledge,
The Story of V: Opening Pandoras Box
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), and Elaine Morgan,
The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
(New York: Stein and Day, 1982).

The variability of hymenal shape, size, and dimension is discussed in numerous reports, including: Abby Berenson, "A Longitudinal Study of Hymenal Morphology in the First 3 Years of Life,"
Pediatrics
95 no. 4 (April 1995): 490-6; Berenson, "Appearance of the Hymen at Birth and One Year of Age: A Longitudinal Study,"
Pediatrics
91 no. 4 (April 1993): 820-5; Berenson, and James J. Grady, "A Longitudinal Study of Hymenal Development from 3 to 9 Years of Age,"
The Journal of Pediatrics
140 no. 5 (May 2002): 600-607; Berenson, et al., "Appearance of the Hymen in Prepubertal Girls,"
Pediatrics
89 no. 3 (March 1992): 387-94; and Astrid H. Heger, et al., "Appearance of the Genitalia in Girls Selected for Nonabuse: Review of Hymenal Morphology and Nonspecific Findings,"
Journal of Pediatric
and Adolescent Gynecology
15 (2002): 27-35.

A relevant case study detailing the matrilineal genetic transmission of imperforate hymen is: J. R. Stelling, et al., "Dominant Transmission of Imperforate Hymen,"
Fertility and Sterility
74 no. 6 (2000): 1241-44.

Two articles discussing the possible sexual abuse etiology implicated in some cases of what may be diagnosed as imperforate hymen are C. D. Berkowitz, S. L. Elvik, and M. Logan, "A Simulated Acquired Imperforate Hymen Following the Genital Trauma of Sexual Abuse,"
Clinical Pediatrics
26 (1987): 307-9, and Anne S. Botash and Florence Jean-Louis, "Imperforate Hymen: Congenital or Acquired from Sexual Abuse?"
Pediatrics
108 no. 3 (September 2001): 53 ff.

The most useful comparative study of published hymenal research to date is Heger, et al., "Appearance of the Genitalia in Girls Selected for Nonabuse." The relative frequencies of different hymenal presentations discussed in this chapter are derived from the tables presented throughout this article.

The criteria used to determine the different configurations and presentations is taken from the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect: Guidelines for the Evaluation of Sexual Abuse of Children,"
Pediatrics
103 vol. 1 (1999): 186-191.

The case report on the remarkable imperforate-hymen trifecta described in this chapter is from the medical literature Chao-Hsi Lee and Ching-Chung Liang, "Hymen Re-Formation after
Hymenotomy Associated with Pregnancy,"
Australia and New Zealand Journal of Gynecology
42 no. 5 (November 2002): 559-560.

4: A Desperate and Conflicted Search

Among the recent sources that deal in detail with the history of virginity in the ancient and medieval
medical literature are: Joan Cadden,
The Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle
Ages
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); Monica Green, "Obstetrical and Gynecological Texts in Middle English,"
Studies in the Age of Chaucer
14 (1992): 53—88, and her book
The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women s Medicine
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2061); Ann E. Hanson, "The Medical Writers' Woman," in
Before Sexuality,
David Halperin, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990); Helen King, "Bound to Bleed: Artemis and Greek Women," in
Images of Women in Antiquity,
Averil Cameron and Amelie Kuhrt, eds. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1983): 109—27, and her "Producing Woman: Hippocratic Gynecology," in
Women in Ancient Societies:
An Illusion of the Night,
L. J. Archer, et al., eds. (London: Macmillan, 1994): 102-14; Esther Lastique and Helen Lemay, "A Medieval Physician's Guide to Virginity," in
Sex in
the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays,
Joyce E. Salisbury, ed. (New York: Garland Publishing, 1991); Marie H. Loughlin,
Hymeneutics: Interpreting Virginity on the Early Modern Stage
(Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1997); Rousselle,
Porneia: On Desire and the
Body in Antiquity,
Felicia Pheasant, trans. (London: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988); and Sissa,
Greek Virginity,
Arthur Goldhammer, trans. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990). Last but by far not least, the spectacular overview given in Kathleen Coyne Kelly's
Performing Virginity and Testing Chastity in the Middle Ages,
Routledge Research in Medieval Studies Series (New York: Routledge, 2000), should be singled out for applause.

Discussions of the value of various hymenal attributes can be found in several sources, including: Berenson, et al., "A Case-Control Study of Anatomic Changes Resulting from Sexual Abuse,"
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
182 (2000): 1043—45; Berenson, et al., "Use of Hymenal Measurements in the Diagnosis of Previous Penetration,"
Pediatrics
109 no. 2 (February 2002): 228—35; K. Edgardh and K. Ormstad, "The Adolescent Hymen,"
Journal of Reproductive Medicine
47 no. 9 (September 2002): 710—14; and D. M. Ingram, et al., "The Relationship between the Transverse Hymenal Orifice Diameter by the Separation Technique and Other Possible Markers of Sexual Abuse,"
Child Abuse & Neglect
25 (2001): 1090—120.

5: The Virgin and the Doctor

Sources that speak to the issue of speculum examination in historical context include: Susan Edwards,
Female Sexuality and the Law: A Study of Constructs of Female Sexuality as They
Inform Statute and Legal Procedure
(Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1981); Toby Gelfand,
Pro-fessionaliiing
Modern Medicine: Paris Surgeons and Medical Science and Institutions
(West-port, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980); Ornella Moscucci,
The Science of Woman: Gynaecology
and Gender in England, 1800—1929,
Series: Cambridge History of Medicine, Charles Webster and Charles Rosenberg, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); James V. Ricci,
The Geneaology of Gynaecology
(Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1943); and Peter Skegg,
Law, Ethics, and Medicine: Studies in Medical Law
(Oxford: Oxford University Press 1984).

A particularly thoughtful and instructive analysis of the virgin-cure myth in an industrialized, Western twentieth-century context is Roger Davidson, " 'This Pernicious Delusion': Law, Medicine, and Child Sexual Abuse in Early Twentieth-Century Scotland,"
Journal of the
History of Sexuality
10/1 (January 2001): 62-77.

On the problems of venereal disease generally and venereal disease in children specifically, see
Wayland Debs Hand,
Magical Medicine: The Folkloric Component of Medicine in Folk Belief,
Custom, and Ritual of the Peoples of Europe and America
(Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1980), and Timothy Taylor, "Venereal Disease in Nineteenth-Century Children,"
Journal of Psychohistory
12/4 (Spring 1985): 431-63.

Among the many valuable sources on the current problems in regard to the virgin-cure myth in South Africa is Eileen Meier, "Child Rape in South Africa,"
Pediatric Nursing
28/5 (2002): 532-35. News coverage on the issue can also be illuminating, although it does not offer clinical perspective.