Why the fuss about virginity? What is it really worth? What prompts anyone to care?

Question

Virginity has this huge aura in human culture. WTF?

Answer 1

I think of it as a primer for the rest of married life. Since the both of you are awkward and inexperienced, the first sex, no matter what virgins say, sucks. It's a tangible way to keep people's hopes realistic about the rest of their lives as a married couple.

Answer 2

Because it has a seriously physical and psycological impact, especially on a young girl. That first encounter can shape the way you think and feel about sex for the rest of your life. I hold sexuality to be a sacred ritual, as most Pagans do.
However what you are most likely referring to, since you are in the R&S category is the "waiting until marraige to lose your virginity" clause, which is a question most likely rooted in times when marraiges were arranged as buisness deals between parents. The hopeful product would be children of a pure genetic line and so there was a massive psycological war against women who dared to give away virginity before marraige, so that the "product" could be ensured of a pure quality if you get my meaning- though men doing the same was purposefully ignored as "releasing angst". Even as much as sixty years ago, if you were female and gave away virginity before marraige you could be faced with persecution and social exhile.
Today I assume that the emphasis from parents is more of a pure intent- lets get them through college earning a decent living before we have babies everywhere, and we always inheret the concerns of our parents- but I personally have noticed it is still aimed primarily at females, even in our society of childsupport where men are supposedly equal in the responsibility. And the fact is, the drive to have sex even at what we now consider a young age was purposefully bred into us over the many times that whole populations of humanity were in jeopardy.
So basically, your question is a lot bigger than you think and I can only give a few rambling ideas of why. We have grown from victorian social structures to a modern world of technology and birth control in only a hundred years- the fastest social evolution yet- there are just going to be some cultures and ideals that won't catch up to the times as fast as others.

Answer 3

Concern with virginity in women arose in support of patrilineage. In a matrilineal society such as the Na of China, there is no such concern because there is never a question as to who the mother of a child is. However, for a father to insure that he raises his own biological children, he must have exclusive sexual access to at least one woman. This is also why traditional laws against adultery (such as in the Old Testament) only applied to women. Whether or not a man had sex outside the marriage was of no concern.
Today, with effective contraception, disease control, and genetic testing, the obsession with virginity is obselete, but lingers through cultural inertia and religious dogma.

Answer 4

because it is the only way male chauvinist pigs can "control" naive women. If it really had anything to do with "holiness", why the f* doesn't anyone care about men's virginity?

And why would a supposedly non-human god pay so much attention to sex with virgins and men getting their clothes stained with their "seed"??

In any case, if virginity was that important then....i'm fried. LOL

Answer 5

It's like this. When everyone gets polluted, then the pure thing looks bad. It's like eating processed food. In no time any real good stuff right from the earth looks bad. It's like drinking Coke your whole life. Real water turns you off. So people today are so impure that they have a hangup with virginity, partly because it reminds them of what they've lost, and what could have been.

Answer 6

In some cultures/religions, then and now, the absence of it (whether consensual or forced) is a death sentence to the female.

With houses of royalty around the world, then and now, it is imperative that the bride of King or Prince Regent must be
examined by doctors in the presense of royalty and family & prove to be a virgin prior to her wedding day, and also proved by blood loss during consummation, to assure their throne is passed to the King's true bloodline heir.

At one time, it was the practice of the nobility, that the marriage consummation be witnessed by the wedding party and that the bloodied sheets from the consummation were stripped from the bed & hung from the window/parapet so that the nobility's servants and people under his protection could see it & be assured that their lord's wife was pure. Added to this, the bride was kept pretty much cloistered until she became pregnant, the people and their lord knew that his firstborn was in fact his blood.

In some Eastern, Afrikaan, & Middle East cultures then & now, have their young female children's vaginal entrance to the womb sewn shut. It is to prove to possible future grooms that their bride is/will be pure, and it is the husband's duty to tear through the sewn closed vaginal entrance and then the hymen during consummation as further testament to her purity of body.

For most, virginity is a sign of physical & medical purity. It is also a sign of personal strength, honor, and integrity. A virgin bride who makes a sacred vow to her husband & before God
comes to her marriage bed without "ghosts and/or memories" of past love affairs or carnal knowledge of anyone. That in itself, is a blessing for both the bride and the groom. Insuring that no carnal memories and/or ghosts of the past come between a husband and wife during their life together. And a virgin bride, who believes in and makes a vow of "one heart, one mind, one body" to and with her husband and before God Almighty will insure that any children they have together will be from only their sexual
congress.

I mean, today, DNA testing can insure your parents are your parents, but before such technology, it was a comfort, a security, and a pride for children and their families to know that your parents were faithful to their promises & each other and that you were in fact a child of that union and love.

So yes it is important and everyone should care, and will one day, regardless their present, single-life, free to do as they will mind set...one day, when you are expecting your first child, their true parentage will matter a great deal.

Answer 7

Originally it was so that a man could be sure the baby was his. And that she wasn't pregnant at the time they wed. There was a lot at stake. Money, land, etc.
It evolved into a religious value that still stands today. I DO think we have gotten to casual about sex. But not I see no reason to wait until you get married. As long as your willing to pay the prices.

Answer 8

I just want to know who the virginity police is? I mean who is going around and checking to see if these women are virgins? AND who cares?!

Answer 9

I don't really catch the whole sex before marriage thing, but realistically, the first time with someone you really care about is usually the best.

Virginity is like one coin you get for the rest of your life. You don't know what it's worth, you don't know when to lose it, and you don't know what you'll get. But when you lose it, it's gone.

Answer 10

I care and I think it is very important as it shows control and the want and need to bring that to only the right man and only for realLove,,Other wise we are animals.