87 Seconds's video: The Hymen Myth

The virginity test is practiced in many countries as a way to see if a woman is virgin. It’s echos incel and neckbeard ideologiesof the belief that a woman is only worth anything if she’s a virgin. Once she’s been so-called “deflowered”, her value rapidly plummets. The more people she has sexual relations with, the belief is, the less human she becomes. Because of this, some families are incentivized to keep their daughter a virgin as long as possible. I’m not going to go into the tactics people will do since it’s a bit irrelevant to the main topic at hand, but shaming, blackmail, and beatings aren’t too uncommon. If a culture is going to value female virginity, then they’re going to find ways the measure virginity. Or to put it in another way, people (often men) will devise a way to see if someone’s a virgin. This is the virginity test. The Hymen is a thin piece of tissue that will either surround or partially cover the vaginal opening. It’s got very few nerve endings and blood vessels. Because of this, it’s extremely hard for anybody’s hymen to bleed. So is the Hymen Check an accurate method to test for virginity? No. The Hymen Check doesn’t mean jacksh!t. And unfortunately for woman all over the world- many of whom are children, the misconception has done a whole lot of harm. Here is the next part of the video: False positives, false negatives, and how the virginity test harms women everywhere. 52% of woman who have had previous sexual intercourse still have completely intact hymens. The problem is systemic. The Egyptian government performed virginity tests on detained women following the 2011 national revolution. Indonesia’s military requires their recruits to go through a virginity test. There’s even an Indonesian high school that requires all female teens to undergo a virginity test before they’re allowed to attend. The U.K. used virginity tests to determine which women would be allowed to immigrate into the country- though that policy has been removed. The United Nations and World Health Organization said in 2018 that virginity testing is painful, traumatic, and constitutes as violence against women. It’s been described as being similar to torture yet despite this, virginity testing is still a widespread problem in both developing and developed countries. It doesn’t just happen in the Middle East, it happens in the United States too. In a 2016 survey on OBGYNs, 10% of them had been asked to preform a virginity test and of those surveyed, 3.5% of them had done it. It’s a widespread problem that’s impacting everyone. - If you're reading this, congrats. You made it down to the bottom. There are some important pieces of information I didn't type into the description box though, so I suggest you watch the whole thing now :D There are also some key points in the visual text that I didn't say out loud. So you should really be watching the screen instead of reading this. - CLARIFICATION: I described bleeding as coming from sexual violence. Several people have pointed out that it was a very poor choice of words, and I apologize. I phrase it poorly. "Sexual violence" in this case doesn't necessarily mean sexually assault. Non-obstertric vaginal lacerations often happening sexual assault, yes. But it can also happen when both parties were consenting but just.... over-eager. Foreplay is vital. What is the hymen's location? function of the hymen? distance of hymen from opening? hymen myths? hymen break reasons does it hurt when your hyment beraks? how do you know if your hymen is still there my hymen never broke