Virgin by Hanne Blank (2007, Hardcover)

This book delved into the historical implications of virginity and continued to discuss the modern values placed on it. It covered the signs of virginity - like being able to remove a label from a bottle without tearing it - for my gang it was removing the white paper from the silver gum wrapper - get it off intact and you're a virgin, don't and you know what THAT means. This book explored the emphasis different cultures and different time periods placed on virginity. Oddly enough this book placed most emphasis on girls - the author stated it was because losing your virginity in a male was something to be rewarded for - it makes you into a man. While a girl losing her virginity under the wrong circumstances; i.e; out of the marriage bed made her a fallen woman. The author shared a great deal of information on the hymen - it's supposed location, how it got it's name, and what it is. Did you know that guinea pigs and bush babies regrow their hymen between times of fertility - their "cherries pop" when they go into heat. Among the other fascinating facts about the hymen is that in a study many doctors simply could not tell when the hymen had been broken and when it was intact! And that also (as many women know) the hymen being a fragile piece of tissue at the entrance into the vagina (not like popular romance novels where his throbbing member enters her until he meets a blockage) that there is often no pain or bleeding the "first time". Woe to the women in some cultures who could not produce bloody sheets - in some cultures they were stoned to death, others taken back to their father's house where they lived the rest of their life in disgrace - that is if they didnt get ejected from the home to eek out a living, usually as a prostitute. Of course the book detailed many pamphlets covering ways of insuring bloody sheets - but other pamphlets also directed the doctor on means to foil the "trickery". Many interesting facts about the hymen were discussed - such as the misguided notion that venereal disease could be cured by deflowering a virgin and certain maladies such as greensickness could only be cured by being married off as soon as possible and lose one's virginity. This is a fascinating book and I'd highly recommend it to every woman AND man. The book was well written and the research impeccable. You will certainly enjoy this book on virginity through the ages.