When Brelyn Freeman got married earlier this month she had a special gift for her dad: a certificate of purity.

Unaware of this little 'tradition'?

It's supposed to guarantee virginity by verifying that the bride's hymen is intact. The certificate was even signed by Freeman's doctor and everything!

According to a report on Slate, the Maryland bride was fulfilling her contractual obligations with her father, who's also a Baptist pastor.

At thirteen Freeman co-signed the following statement with her parents: "I, Brelyn Mya Freeman, commit to the following… abstain from fornication (rubbing and petting) but I will keep myself until I am united in marriage to the young man that God is preparing for me."

Leaving aside the creepiness of a father wishing to have detailed knowledge about the state of his grown daughter's vagina, what sort of doctor signs a purity certificate?

Presumably not a medical one.

Any doctor practicing medicine this century would know that the state of a woman's hymen is not an indication of her sexual history. The myth of 'popping the cherry' is as false as it is persistent.

While a purity certificate is an extreme case, the notion that a woman can be 'used up' by having any or too much sex exists well beyond the confines of American Baptist congregations.

You don't have to look very hard to find examples of men trying to police women's sexuality. Online question boards frequently carry questions from men such as 'Why are young girls these days so slutty and whorish? and laments that women are "ruined by 23 in most cases. Especially if they went to college."

Some even claim that sex outside of marriage will cause neurological impairment to women. "Eyes half open, blank look on their faces. They all have the stare by the time they're 16," says one commenter. "Ahh, yes, the Thousand-Cock Stare," confirms another.

Other men are concerned that the harm caused by women having 'too much' sex is permanent. "A woman can lose 20 pounds in three months but she can't unsuck 20 dicks, ever," notes yet another concerned citizen from Reddit.

One can only assume that all of these men are virgins, otherwise they would be complicit in irrevocably damaging a whole generation of women.

But even outside those parts of the internet where virgin male trolls reside, there's still a collective interest in women's sexual histories.

Why else does research consistently show that women feel the need to lie about their number of sexual partners? While men are known to exaggerate their number of partners, women tend to under-report their sexual experiences.

If a woman's number is not zero then it better be low — certainly lower than her partner's.

A more subtle, but just as telling, example of this attitude was when Bachelorette Sam Frost went to the trouble to assure Australia via numerous interviews that she wasn't a hussy, claiming that she only kissed three or four contestants on the show.

"I'm quite selective with my tongue lashings," Frost said on Nova radio. Phew! I'm glad we cleared that up.

'Purity certificates' may be extreme, but the concept isn't too far from mainstream society's obsession with women's sexual histories.

Photo: sexy wedding dress

We're all fine with Frost courting a house full of blokes at the same time, but a grown woman doing anything remotely sexual would be enough to dethrone her from the position of Australia's Sweetheart.

A Tongue Tally was not something the previous Bachelors felt the need to declare or justify to the Australian public. And there doesn't seem to be any male equivalent of a purity certificate. There was no mention of Brelyn Freeman's groom presenting his parents with a certificate if purity. On the contrary, men are celebrated for sowing their wild oats.

Our culture's continuing obsession with women's sexual histories is confirmation that women still do not have full ownership of their bodies.

Women still only have two paths to acceptability: they can have an unused (or barely used) vagina or they can grant exclusive access to a male owner. The idea that a woman might want to pursue her own pleasure for its own sake is still mired in Victorian era attitudes to sexual behaviour.

Our culture may not have purity certificates, but we still have a long way to go when a large part of our society still thinks women's bodies are like fair ground passes: you only get so many rides before they become worthless.

Source: www.sheindressau.com

PLEASE keep all discussions relevant to fashion, textiles, beauty products, or jewelry.

Follow the Fashion Industry Network Rules.

It is always a good time to review fabulous fashion.

 

Hot topics of possible interest:

  Thank you for using the Fashion Industry Network.  Have you helped another member today? Answer questions in the forum. It brings good luck.