by Dr Margaret Aranda
The
traditional definition of a virgin is a girl or woman who has not had sexual
intercourse. Many times, the hymen is
still intact. The hymen is a band of membranous
tissue inside the vulvar entrance to the vagina. It has to be ‘broken’ for example, during the
first session of intercourse, and this can be painful. On her wedding night, display of the white bed
sheets’ stained with nuptial blood has been used as ‘proof’ of both virginity
and the consummation of marriage, as the hymen was broken (Kelly 2000). Virginity is associated with the color white
as a symbol of innocence and purity.
The
term ‘virgin’ has been applied to nonsexual concepts as in the ‘virgin’
Margarita, as well as ethical and modern concepts. Some include the definition of virginity to
not just mean heterosexual intercourse with penile-vagina penetration, but also to include rape, mutual masturbation, anal sex, and oral sex (Carpenter
2001). In Carpenter’s work, the concept
of virginity requires consensual sex, therefore does not ‘count’ rape as a loss
of virginity.
In
many cultures, loss of virginity before marriage has been viewed as a terrible
thing. So much so that in one 2012 interview
of a Persian woman I met, she related how her big sister would look “between my
legs every time I fell” as a child playing outside. She remembers wondering why the worry about
her private parts if she fell down while playing outside. She would fall down and then her sister would
check between the legs. “Open your
legs!” In the course of time, she would
fall again, and her sister would check between her legs again, “Open your
legs!” This happened over and over again
during her childhood. Only much later,
as a young adult, did she realize that the older sister was checking the fallen
girl to ensure that she did not lose her virginity.
The
concept of virginity bestows social status, judgment, and consequences for
interpersonal relationships. It involves
moral, cultural, and religious attitudes as well as community acceptance versus
rejection and isolation. In extreme
cases, family shame vs family honor revolve around sham societies that place a
family in a hierarchy of social worth, and ostracism for unacceptable loss of
virginity can even result in an honor killing.
Virginity can affect whether or not a woman can get married, as in many
cultures and tribes, the woman must be a virgin. If the woman lost her hymen due to tampon use
or other cause, a surgical repair by hymenoplasty or hymenorrhaphy replaces the
hymen with the intent that upon intercourse, the woman will bleed. In this way, she can prove her virginity.
Social
norms of expectations lead to legal implications of the age of consent, and at
the end of the 18th Century, age of consent laws were beginning to
be enacted. Child prostitution had made headlines and sensation, earmarking
this as a cause of the times (Stead 1885).
In 1885, The
Pall Mall Gazette published The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon I, II, III,
and IV. In this expose, W.T.
Stead and Antony E. Simpson, Editor, described in lurid detail a shocking
depiction of a criminal underground child sex trade that thrived in
London.
William Thomas Stead; 1849 - 1912.
The
Maiden Tribute began with scheming abductresses and greedy flesh merchants who
cajoled unwary young girls to age 13 into prostitution by manipulation and
coercion. After entrapping them, they
were abducted and “sold” to stinking brothels in London. In at least one case, they purchased them
from their mothers for a mere and meager £5. Stead described rooms in London that were
designed to withhold the child’s screams from the outer rooms, as they had
special padding on the walls. Drugs, sex,
and money were traded and used. Reprints
were published in London’s Gazette,
which underwent torrids of reproductions of these Tributes as they hit
international sensation.
Moral
panic hit when Stead entitled his works with such gripping titles as “The
Violation of Virgins”, “Strapping Girls Down”, and “The Maiden Tribute”. William T. Stead took journalism to an
extreme and perhaps hapless level when he took, a reformed prostitute, and
simulated what happened with children bought for prostitution.
Government
by Journalism was birthed again by Stead, as moral outcry turned to legislative
reform.
The controversy of
The Maiden Tribute, this milestone in modern journalism, caused public
outcry. The Maiden was a victim. Literally within a month, The Maiden Tribute
led to reformation in the age of consent for girls, pushing it from the age of
13 to 16 years in the United Kingdom.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act was implemented. In America, the Women’s Christian Temperance
Union then instigated reform, pushing for similar legislation such that by
1920, American lawmakers increased the age of consent to 16 years. In some states, it increased to as high as 18
years of age.
Stead
had an agent, Rebecca Jarrett, who was a reformed prostitute. She went into the poor town of Marylebone in
order to purchase a child. The goal was
to prove the ease with which this could be performed. It was Eliza Armstrong, at 13 years old, who
was procured for L5. Subsequently, Eliza
passed through the different ‘Stages’ that a child prostitute would have had to
go through: “certification” of being a virgin, visitation of a brothel, and
drugging by chloroform. After that,
Eliza was taken by the Salvation Army to France and Stead used her true story
at the end of The Maiden Tribute, as the character of Lily.
Eliza’s
mother recognized her daughter’s character in the Gazette, and then claimed that there were false pretenses that Stead
used to get her daughter away from her.
She also filed charges of indecent assault and child abduction against
the accomplices and Stead. On August 21, 1885, Stead gave a speech on the
“Maiden Tribute”. In it, he states, “…I
am solely responsible for taking Lizzie Armstrong away from her mother’s
house.”
Two
trials later, Stead was convicted and incarcerated for three months. He had already served time during the
judgment, so that he spent two months and a week in prison. He writes of his judgment, and referred to
imprisonment as “…it is a feel of stone and iron, hard and cold…” (Stead 1886). At the time of imprisonment, Stead was a
father to a five year old girl.
References:
Carpenter,
LM. The Ambiguity of Having Sex: The Subjective Experience of Virginity Loss
in the United States – Statistical Data Included. United States: The Journal of Sex
Research. United States: The Journal of Sex Research. 2001. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
Kelly,
Kathleen Coyne. Performing virginity and
testing chastity in the Middle Ages.
Volume 2 of Routledge research in medieval studies. Psychology Press. P197. 2000.
Stead
WT and Simpson AE. The Maiden Tribute
of Modern Babylon: The Report of the Secret Commission. Pall MallGazette, July 1885. http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/pmg/tribute/
Stead
WT. Speech. Extracted from the Eliza Armstrong Case:
Being a Verbatim Report of the Proceedings at Bow Street. Pall Mall Gazette Supplement, October 3,
1885. http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/pmg/tribute/speech.php
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Dr. Margaret Aranda's Books:
Face Book Page: No More Tears: A Physician Turned Patient Inspires Recovery
No More Tears en Espanol
Face Book Page: Stepping from the Edge
Little Missy Two-Shoes Likes to go to School
Face Book Page: Little Missy Two-Shoes Likes a Ladybug
From Menarche to Menopause: A Journey through Time
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Additional Free Articles by Dr. Margaret Aranda
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