Female virginity. Just say “no.” Pledge abstinence. The moral creed, mostly imposed on women, of so many societies. Never works, as Sarah Palin discovered in her own family. Some cultures will even forgive (even require) a father or brother who deals harshly (read: kill) in the name of family honor. Taliban, running around with a surfeit of stones to hurl at adulterous lovers, have horrible plans even for the unmarried who indulge. Quick to judge, quick to punish, and slow to forgive... unless you are an adulterous Congressman or governor – mayors, of course – and even those presidents who do more than lust in their hearts. They’re just being boys! Or is that, “all men are dogs, except those who are pigs.”
I tripped across this article in the August 17th Washington Post: Knowing cultural view of virginity, Chinese women try surgical restoration. That’s a headline if I ever saw one. It seems, notes the post, that the venerable and vulnerable hymen can be lost through that initial sexual encounter or by “playing sports or doing other strenuous activities.” Like carrying heavy rocks for a Taliban stoning festival. Not from sitting on a dirty toilet seat? I have been misled! What millennium are we living in?!
For those who can afford the very best, there is the alternative – “Even as China has flung open its doors to the West and modernized, a deeply conservative and chauvinistic attitude persists. Many men, including white-collar professionals, say they want to marry a virgin. And increasingly liberated Chinese women have found a way to oblige them… ‘We can fix it so everything is perfect, so the men can believe they are marrying virgins,’ said Zhou Hong, a physician and director of gynecology at the Beijing Wuzhou Women's Hospital. ‘We don't advertise it; we don't publicize it.’” The Post. Yup, a good marriage is one that starts with surgically enhanced lying! My fave. Forget, “nice personality” or “brilliant and accomplished” or even the age-old “drop-dead gorgeous.” Perish the thought of all three… if she’s not a virgin!
Sorry Chinese dudes, but this little note from CBS (April 16, 2006) will put a crimp in that “it’s not really aftershave” suave technique for bride-finding: “With more than a billion people, China has too many men. According to the latest census, an average of 120 boys are born for every 100 girls, the greatest imbalance in the world.” Ouch, mister low-earning ugly guy! You go, girl-frien’! You poor ugly dudes are out, but for those with the cash to find a thoroughly modern girl restored to her less-than-glorious best, you win the woman with the great big medical restatement of history.
The procedure costs about $737 (Boeing Boeing!), takes less than half an hour and is performed with relative frequency in the “big cities.” “The surgery, known as hymenoplasty, has been around for years, although it is considered rare and is illegal in some countries. It is performed primarily in Muslim countries, where the traditionalists place a high value on a woman's virginity. It also has become common in France among French Muslims, usually for young women about to enter a traditional marriage. There are no statistics available in China on how often the surgery is performed. But sociologists and other experts, as well as anecdotal evidence, suggest it has gained in popularity.
“For women who do not want to have surgery, a cheaper, faster path to ‘revirgination’ is available in most sex novelty shops: a Chinese-made artificial hymen that purports to create a physical sensation for the man and emit fake blood when ruptured.” The Post. Wow, that would be a really cool addition to a swag-bag given away at a posh Hollywood soiree!
The only justice for the mistreated females who buy into this chauvinistic crap has to be the end, the glorious end, for Muslims martyred in the service of God: seventy-two sexually inexperienced women with one inexperienced and profoundly sexually inept man. So what happens when Mr. Inept deflowers number seventy-two; is a replacement flown in? Where are they supposed to they find these virgins, anyway? And if there are no replacements, if they remain the seventy-two virgins, who really gets the last laugh? Or is it just more perpetual pain for women at the callous hands of callous men?
I’m Peter Dekom, and exactly why is equality so completely threatening to so many?
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