I am a virgin, always have been, and will hopefully (cross my fingers and pray fervently!) not always remain so. When I was growing up, the sole purpose of my virginity was my religion – good Christian girls don’t have sex if they aren’t married was drummed into my head in church, school and home. Abstinence was the be all, end all of Christianity, and the very mark of a good girl. And being a good girl, and wanting Jesus to be proud of me (I have always been somewhat of a pleaser, you see) I have remained completely abstinent. In addition to all that, I could also self-righteously look down my nose at others …

The recent conversations on visits to the Ob/Gyn have somehow led to the subject of virginity and associated issues such as, who is a virgin? Someone who has never had sex? Someone whose hymen is intact (that somehow implies the “someone” is female)? In this day and age we also have “born again virgins”.
Somehow when I think of virginity I think of women. The impression I got growing up was that you needed to stay a virgin for as long as possible, preferably until you got married. For a woman to be a virgin was/is a good thing but for guys it’s a very bad thing. I don’t know any woman who will want to …