Checking the bedsheet for after the first wedding night of a newly-wed couple for blood stains is a disturbing yet common tradition across many cultures; you know what’s equally common yet scientific? That even if it’s the first time a woman had sex with someone, she will not bleed, and nor would there be any visible sign of penetration in many cases.
A clinical study consisting of thirty-six pregnant teens revealed that only two of them had visible signs of vaginal penetration, and the rest of them had an undamaged hymen. Does that mean they are virgins?
If you still affirm this notion, then after enlisting their names in the Bible, you should probably go get a CT scan of your brain.
The ridiculous belief that hymens prove to be a litmus paper test for virginity is beyond my comprehension and let me explain to you why-Contradictory to the popular belief that hymens are fragile seals covering the vaginal opening like a bubble wrap or a plastic sheet, hymens are actually extremely tensile in nature, they usually do not tear that easily and may or may not bleed even after tearing.
A sex worker can have an intact hymen, with no penetrative damage and a virgin can have a stretched out hymen just for the sheer reality that swimming, horse riding, and other physical activities can make it change form.
Another misconception is that all hymens have the same form; they certainly do not. Hymens vary across different women with different bodies, with almost every hymen being inimitable.
Young girls are barred from engaging in rigorous physical activities and sports under the apprehension that they might ‘break’ their hymen, many unmarried women who tore their hymens throughout their lives due to whatever reason oftentimes get them sewn back together before marriage which makes them vulnerable to many infections and diseases apart from being excruciatingly painful, married women who did not bleed on the night of their weddings are often scrutinized, judged and neglected by their in-laws and husbands; in some cases, they might even be subjected to domestic violence and indifferent treatment throughout the rest of their married lives- all these carnages and for what?
A socially made-up construct to determine the “sanctity” of a woman? Or, for religion, culture, and men to enslave a woman’s body and plunder all her rights over it? The reduction of a woman’s worth to her genitals in the name of purity has long been part of many cultures in one way or another.
Why is it that no one bats an eye when a man openly rapes a woman and everyone loses their sanity if a woman has consensual sexual relations before marriage? Why is it that a man is never asked to testify for his sexual “purity” and a woman could lose her life over it?
This is gender discrimination in one of its ugliest forms and this heathen practice of scrutinizing a woman’s body has to go once and forever.
What an adult woman decides to do with her body is solely her decision despite the universal invasion of her private space. It is not her duty to abide by this construct under pressure until and unless she independently wants to and nobody has a right to interfere or guilt her into accepting centuries worth of falsehood.
Also Read: Pseudo Shayari and the era of Influencers
