The Obscure History of the ‘the Disease of Virgins’ that Could be Cured with Sex
I first saw this tweeted by left wing site Raw Story. The story discusses how people in the 16th or 17th century believed that virginity was a disease, or that it could lead to certain types of diseases, and the only cure was for the virgin to have sexual intercourse.
A lot of left wingers (but some right wingers) also today, in 2016, regard adult virginity (or maybe even teen age virginity) as being a form of psychological repression, or an oddity, or some kind of disease. So I don’t really think we’ve come too far in that regard.
I do think virginity and celibacy have been respected by some people at some times in some cultures, but I definitely see people today, in 2016, show disrespect towards virginity.
Being a virgin is stigmatized in American culture (and in others), yet we’re all supposed to support or respect all other sexual choices or sexual behavior under the sun-
Everyone from homosexuals to fornicating heterosexuals, to young women who (Link): have sex with their biological fathers, and men who want to have sex with horses (yes, there is (Link): unfortunately such a thing) ask us to respect their sexuality, sexual choices, or sexual actions.
I do find it insulting that most of today’s society will respect any and all forms of sexual behavior except for an adult’s choice to stay a virgin or to be celibate.
It’s insulting that adult virginity or celibacy are regarded as physical and/or psychological sicknesses, as though having sex is the norm, or should be for everyone.
(Link): The obscure history of the ‘the disease of virgins’ that could be cured with sex
Excerpts:
- Female virginity, we’re increasingly told, is a (Link): psychological rather than a physical condition. It’s not something that can be “lost” or “taken”.
- Yet while not every woman has a hymen, and it’s rarely some tough barrier, the concept of technical virginity still focuses on whether there has been vaginal penetration by a penis. And (Link): surgical reconstructions are still performed, for example in Iran, to create a “membrane” that can tear or even produce some red dye.
- Looking back through European history, was the hymen always the definitive mark of virginity? A 14th-century writer, commenting on a book called On the Secrets of Women, named the hymen (Link): “the guardian of virginity”. This picked up an early Christian idea that virginity was spiritual as well as physical. Virginity was something more than a hymen – and it was possible to be a virgin in the soul even if not in the body.
You can read the rest of that page (Link): here
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Related Posts:
(Link): The Contemporary Church Undervalues Celibacy / Virginity
(Link): Living Myths About Virginity – article from The Atlantic
(Link): The Christian and Non Christian Phenomenon of Virgin Shaming and Celibate Shaming
(Link): When Adult Virginity and Adult Celibacy Are Viewed As Inconvenient or As Impediments
(Link): Are You Ashamed of Biblical [Sexual] Purity? by J. Slattery