H

ow would you like a highly paid '€œjob'€, where lack of experience is the absolute requirement? The job is yours, if you'€™re a virgin.

In October last year, Catarina Migliorini, a 20-year-old Brazilian woman, auctioned off her virginity to the highest bidder for a sum of US$780,000. Wow, that'€™s a lot of bucks!

Unsurprisingly Catarina is not the only one to commercialize '€œcherry popping'€. You only need to google the Internet for '€œvirginity for sale'€, and you'€™ll find it is a worldwide phenomenon. Pssst! In Indonesia there'€™s even a Facebook page called '€œJual-beli perawan'€ (Buying and selling virgins), ranging from Rp 7 million ($626.23) for a one-off encounter, to Rp 50 million for four months. I guess it'€™s understood that the said '€œvirgin'€ would not remain so for the entire period.

It'€™s all rather bizarre really, the deeply entrenched universal obsession with (female) virginity, the '€œloss'€ of which can bring shame, disgrace, humiliation, leading to extreme acts like torture, honor killings and even suicide. According to Hanne Blank, an American activist and author who writes about sexual history, '€œvirginity reflects no known biological imperative and grants no demonstrable evolutionary advantage'€. This assumes, of course, the usual definition of '€œvirginity'€ as the state prior to the rupture of the hymen usually associated with penetrative penis-to-vagina sexual intercourse.

But how does a mere membrane '€” the physiological purpose of which remains a mystery '€” take on such an overinflated '€œmoral'€ significance? After all, the hymen can be lacerated by disease, injury, medical examination, masturbation or physical exercise, so it'€™s a myth that it'€™s proof of '€œvirginity'€.

At the end of August this year, the media reported that the idea of virginity tests for high school girls was brought up yet again, this time by the Education Agency chief of Prabumulih, a town in South Sumatra province. He later denied he made the statement, saying the press had misquoted him. Nevertheless, the issue of virginity won'€™t go away as politicians constantly extol its virtues, to push their political and patriarchal agendas.

Basically, virginity is a big nothing, but unfortunately culture and religion give it an overriding meaning that can determine social status and destroy lives. And what about other sexual activities short of vaginal intercourse such as petting, mutual masturbation, oral and anal sex? A lot of teenagers and all sexually active members of the LGBT community would technically remain '€œvirgins'€ even if they engaged in marathon sex of the non-penis-vaginal-penetrative kind.

Virginity is a ridiculous, degrading and destructive moral construct, useful only to insecure patriarchal men with humungously, fragile egos, in their quest to oppress, control and exploit girls and women. Sadly, as Jessica Valenti, founder of feminist blog Feministing says, women are still led to believe that their moral compass is between their legs '€” literally. That whatever happens in a woman'€™s '€œBermuda Triangle'€ defines her. So, you can be mean, manipulative and malicious but as long as you'€™re a virgin, you'€™re a pure and virtuous person? Hello?

In 2009, Valenti wrote a book The Purity Myth: How America'€™s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. In 2011, it was made into a film that clearly shows how conservatives in America are breathing new life into an old idea. '€œEach year, thousands of purity balls, where young girls pledge their virginity to their fathers, are held across
almost every state in the country'€, recounts Valenti (youtube.com). She says this perpetuates '€œa '€˜purity myth'€™ that not only has a devastating impact on girls'€™ lives, but is part of the larger agenda to roll back women'€™s rights'€. Sounds like Indonesia!

Muslim conservatives in Indonesia reject sex education in schools, because they say it'€™s vulgar, immoral and encourages free sex. But guess what? Their Christian counterparts in the US also believe that comprehensive sex education encourages premarital sexual activity among teenagers.

Hence the creation in 1996 of a controversial abstinence-only '€œeducation'€ initiative known as Title V (for virgin?), by the US Congress. Funding was provided for narrowly tailored programs to teach students exclusively about avoiding sex until marriage, without discussing safer sex methods like condoms. That'€™s a joke right? It'€™s merely religious instruction funded by the state under the guise of '€œsex education'€!

After a decade and $500,000 in (extravagant) funding, the evidence showed that simply telling young people to be virgins is ineffective in decreasing the risk of HIV or teen pregnancy. Duh! Funding was suspended. But guess what? In 2010, Title V was revived along with an outlay of $250,000 over five years. What the'€¦? I just hope our conservative Muslim politicians don'€™t get inspired to create an Indonesian Title V!

According to a disturbing new report published in The Lancet Global Health Journal (thelancet.com) one out of four men in Asia say they have raped a women. Given this fact, the cult of virginity '€” created by men '€” is a monstrous, sick joke. The figures are equally high elsewhere, with Europe and the Americas consistently topping the charts of reported rape cases.

In reality, they might be the same as in Egypt (which is low on the list of UN reported rapes), but reliable stats are hard to come by there. Would it be fair to say that the bigger the virginity cult, the greater the incidence of violence against women?

The hypocrisy is astounding, but entirely consistent with the double standards of patriarchy. So, it'€™s high time now that we take the societal moral compass out from between women'€™s legs, and place it firmly in our hearts, minds '€¦ and in our education systems.

The writer is the author of Julia'€™s Jihad.