The Problem With Virginity Testing

This past month, a bill was introduced that, if passed, will ban virginity testing in the state of California. This bill was introduced after an interview with rapper T.I. revealed that he subjects his teenage daughter to annual virginity tests. These tests are not only invasive, but they’re also not based in fact. Virginity tests are done by a doctor examining the patient’s vagina to see if her hymen is still intact. This is because of the common misconception that if a woman has a torn hymen, it means she’s had sex. But so many women break their hymen from horseback riding, using a tampon, or masturbating, and it’s even possible that they were born without one. First of all, it is crazy that this sort of testing is practiced enough by licensed physicians that a bill had to be introduced to make it illegal. Second, the problem with this test (besides its unscientific basis and the fact that it’s a traumatic experience for the patient) is that it’s trying to measure a problematic social construct: virginity.

 

How is virginity a social construct? Well, if it can’t be tested for then it doesn’t exist. Let’s unpack that. Virginity is commonly defined as the state of never having had sex, but sex is such an ambiguous term. Many people believe that penetration equals sex, but that’s not how everyone has sex. For people who may not engage in penetrative sex like lesbians, sex can be defined as oral or manual stimulation. So by that logic, are all the people who engage in sex that is not penetrative still virgins? No. That would be an offensive and heteronormative view of sex and virginity, but there are a lot of people who identify as virgins who have had oral or manual sex. As you can see, everyone has a different definition of sex and, by default, has a different definition of what constitutes virginity. Since this is a socially constructed concept, it’s almost laughable (if it weren’t so invasive and traumatic) that some doctors think that they can conduct tests to see if a girl is still a virgin. 

 

This social construct is problematic for both men and women. For men, virginity is directly related to manhood. Losing their virginity is seen as a “rite of passage,” like having sex turns them into men. But this implies that if a guy hasn’t had sex, he’s not yet a man. This one aspect of his life, virginity, can become a point of shame in how he identifies himself. While virginity is a shameful concept for men, it’s a sign of purity for women. Girls are told to not to “give away” their virginity unless they’re married or in a loving relationship. This is problematic for so many reasons. First, this means that a woman’s inherent value is in her purity. By having sex, she is losing that purity which decreases her value as a woman. Second, by treating virginity as something that a woman gives to another person, it’s basically saying that when a woman has sex she loses a part of herself. Third, stressing to women that they can only lose their virginity in a loving relationship is just plain slut-shaming. Men are encouraged just to have sex; there doesn’t have to be deeper reasoning behind it. Meanwhile, women have to have sex for love. Any other motivation, such as just wanting to have sex, is branded as slutty. While the concept of virginity has different societal implications for men than it does for women, it is still used in some way to shame both genders.

This shame surrounding virginity is at the heart of the problem with these virginity tests. Parents are subjecting their daughters to invasive and inaccurate tests to ensure their “purity,” and even though doctors can’t tell if you’ve had sex, they can see if your hymen is intact. So what happens to the girl whose hymen tore while riding a bike? The doctor will tell her parents that she’s no longer a virgin, subjecting her to the shame and stigmatization that they clearly have about the concept of virginity. This shame is traumatic for a child to endure and can negatively affect her relationship with sex. Virginity is only the first time a person has sex and everyone defines sex differently, so why do we place so much value on a social construct that is as problematic as virginity?