It’s a simple question on paper. What is virginity? In order to fully comprehend the meaning behind the term virginity, we’re gonna have to look a little bit closer than what society tells us.
In its Latin root form “virgo”, the term literally meant a sexually inexperienced woman. Meaning that this term was not originally intended to be applied to males, just females. Which makes sense considering the unfair pressure during this time period on women to stay pure for their husband. However, the term we use today, “virgin,” can define a more widespread group of people, from any age, group, or gender. As a result, though, this complicates its connotation greatly.
With the times changing the meaning of the word virgin has been changed as well. Today with virginity being defined as “the state of never having had sexual intercourse,” the question arrises: how do we define sexual intercourse? During the time period that this word was created, being homosexual was in no way socially acceptable or publicly talked about if you thought you were. Today being homosexual has become a more normal thing, however. Sexual interactions, other than vaginal sex, have also become more talked about and accepted in our society. This leads us to the question, if you have never had vaginal sex, are you automatically a virgin? Or is there another act you could partake in that could take your virginity? A blow job falls under the category of oral sex. Still considered a form of sex, so can this be considered losing your virginity?
Throwing in religious influences, the term changes meaning even more. In a religious aspect being a virgin is about staying pure, for the one mate that God has planned for you to be with. In theory, this is a beautiful way to look at virginity. It’s romantic, and it’s sweet. However today, the majority of society does not view sex as an act to be saved simply for marriage.
I could go one for hours bringing up different topics that could complicate your view on what virginity is and how you lose it and when you should lose it but I think I have gotten my point across. Every person you meet has opinions on thousands of different day to day topics we discuss or argue about. Virginity is simply another one of those topics. Now maybe at its time of origin there was a more set and accepted definition for this term, but with the changes of the time period we live in today, this term becomes far too abstract to set one designated sentence to define it.
Amidst all the questions and different opinions, there is one thing that we seem to forget, virginity is a human construct. Virginity isn't a tangible thing, we cannot see it, or touch it. Virginity is simply an idea, created by humans in order to give us yet another way to label those around us, and criticize them when they don’t live up to some imaginary set of standards. The term virginity is held with such high importance whether it’s wanting to be a virgin, or wanting not to be. I have seen fifteen-year-old boys teased for being virgins, and I have seen girls shamed for not staying virgins.
In the end, my main purpose of this article is to open your eyes a little bit to the complexity of this subject that we use in such simple statements. When you use the term virgin to categorize someone you are simply making yourself look ignorant. Virginity can not be defined so easily because virginity is a made up term. With this knowledge is it really fair to judge others based off of their decision to keep or not keep their virginity?
