According anti-feminist organization the Network for Enlightened Women (NeW), feminists are responsible for the commodification of virginity. In a post deriding a New Zealand college student who auctioned off her virginity for over $31k, blogger Ferrum lays the blame right at feminism’s feet:
Feminists must not be the ones to define virginity because they misapprehend womanhood entirely. The definition must be placed beyond their manipulation. Virginity is becoming a commodity because feminism has divorced women from their roles as wives and mothers.
No, my friend; virginity is not “becoming” a commodity. It has always been a commodity (here’s a little homework for NeW’s bloggers) – and still is, in no small part because of the same antiquated conservative beliefs NeW espouse. After all, it isn’t feminists who are selling “virginity voucher” credit cards, or who came up with these gems:
If anti-feminists want to take on the numerous ways virginity is commodified, they should start by debunking the myth that women’s value is tied to their sexuality.
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4 Comments
I am a university student writing a paper on this topic (the title is The Commodification of Virginity) so I was really interested to see things come up at feministing.
Here goes:
There is a historical context that virginity has always been viewed in. “Virginity” (whatever that is) belonged to a girls father, and her ‘purity’ was the bargaining chip the family used to gain socioeconomic resources. Ensuring bride was a virgin was seen as the only way to be sure a man’s children were really his.
“Romance” and “love” are only recent additions to the marriage + virginity equation.
To become a commodity, virginity has to be treated as a physical thing that can be bought or sold, which is exactly how the christian right frames it.
They push the importance of maintaining “virginity” until the wedding night. I would think that this helps push the ideal and all of those products like fake virginity kits and certain plastic surgeries.
There is also the book “Virgins: a cultural history” by Anke Bernau.
On another note, there’s a huge amount of ironic novelty gifts to get people (if I could bring myself to give them money that is)….
Particularly stickers saying “Pet Your Dog Not Your Date”. Trust abstinence nuts to compare women to pooches.
Although, come to think of it, nobody ever petted me like a dog on a date. Is this what the kids do these days? Oh. I feel so left out….
Ah yes because back in the good old days nobody gave virginity a secong thought and ..oh wait…. ! The thing that bothers me the most is that it is grossly offensive to the millions of women from pre-biblical times to today who have been beaten, burned, murdered because they lost their virginity at the wrong time, to the wrong person or because they did everything ‘right’ but their hymen didn’t rupture and cover the sheets in blood. Have these people even read the bible. A handbook on commodifying and fetishising women’s bodies and experiences.
And’ ‘women’s roles as wives and mothers”. Do some women have those roles? Yes. Do some men have the role of husbands and fathers? Yes. But is that all we define men as- no.
How enlightened to define womanhood in the same narrow stereotype as it was biblical times. How enlightened to affirm every cliche that has been churned out for 3,000 years.
I’m glad Jessica and those who’ve left comments so far have it together to make intelligent comment so quickly. Because, for me, the ‘feminists have commodified virginity’ line is one of those positions that is so stunningly off the wall that it takes me a while to get beyond WTF!