IS VIRGINITY REAL??
BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM
IS VIRGINITY REAL?? By Madeline Perez
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irginity. Chances are you’ve been haunted by this concept in some way or another. Maybe you’ve been taunted by the metaphorical or not-so-metaphorical children of the playground, circling you like some foul ethereal vulture, tormenting you with cries of “Virgin! Virgin! You’ve never had sex, loser!” Or maybe you’re still disturbed by images of the goblin-esque creep, asking you your purity status while seething behind a wall of Discord DM’s. Maybe you wanted your first time to be magical, and in the fantasy, forgot to consider the limitations of reality and your own psyche. When the time came, the performance pressure got to you and you snapped, triggering low self-esteem, regret, and nothing less than a string of child murders; killer still at large.
“Doesn’t the concept of virginity just exist in our minds, kind of like how my relationship with Jessica Rabbit only exists in my mind?” Whatever the case may be, when I look around, I see people hurt by this concept. And whom does it help? Maybe the insecure girls who want to feel like they still have something special to give away. The anxious teen boy who, in a way, wants to feel a bit superior to his inexperienced friends. Maybe the low-confidence men or women who want to target people with no experience, since they would have nothing in which to compare, and it feels weirdly special to them to be with someone who has never been with others. While this may seem like an unfair generalization, I will be making the argument
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BINGHAMTON REVIEW
that our current social take on purity is harmful to everyone - not just women - and that by redefining our view of sex we can mitigate this harm. Hopefully while keeping the positive aspects of “virginity” as we know it. The titular query of this article poses the very important question: Is virginity real? In simple terms, yes. Welp, that was easy. Article over. You all can go home now, and yes, I can validate your parking. But wait. Sure, the concept is real, but how “real” is that? Doesn’t the concept of virginity just exist in our minds, kind of like how my relationship with Jessica Rabbit only exists in my mind? If we all collectively thought differently about this concept, then its social utility would change. Couldn’t it become something else entirely? Or is there some sort of concrete example of “virginity” that exists on its own?– aside from Bing Review members, that is.
“Trees exist.” Trees exist. You can perceive a tree and even when you’re not perceiving it, it doesn’t give a shit. It’s a tree. Now, our perception of trees is metaphysical. What is and what isn’t called a “tree” is a matter of the linguistic and scientifically categorical definitions that help us (society) think about things in scopes larger than their bare existence. In turn, your idea of what is and isn’t called a “tree” is a social construct, However, just because something is a social construct doesn’t mean it’s not real—it just means it doesn’t fully exist on its own apart from our societal perception and prescriptions thrust upon it. When people say things like “gender” or “money” are social constructs, this is what they mean. Sure, the money itself exists and you can touch it or lick it or shove it into the crevice of some stripper, but our perception of its value and use is a construct that can change or cease to exist if and when the zombie apocalypse comes.
Virginity is a construct that exists in the great collective consciousness(as opposed to Carl Jung’s collective unconscious. Sounds like a sleepover, huh). If it were erased, our definition of “virgin” (in this case, people who haven’t yet had straight penetrative sex) will still exist, but drawing attention to their belonging in some sort of group would be as arbitrary as any other trait. “Group A are those who have owned an air fryer, and group B will be people who have clearly, never owned an air fryer.” We don’t have arbitrary grouping and words centered around other sexual or romantic activities, so why is “peepee go in hole” so important to us?
“A new insult for inexperienced men who, for their own reasons, haven’t dipped their disco stick into the alluring honey pot of some willing female.” You’re smart. You probably know where I’m going with this. To make a long story short, the concept of virginity has historically been used as a stand-in for a woman’s morality. Virgin = good, non-virgin = evil wench. Back in the day, to be sure a child was his, men would take up virgin brides, no doubt also allured by the fact these women were untouched in a culture where chastity was such a virtue. This still remains, in part, today, but the
Vol. XXXIV, Issue VIII
