Oh, my god.
First of all, I initially read that as Indiana rather than Indonesia and almost fell out of my chair. It's still ridiculous, but you know.
Second, HOW do you test for virginity? Hymens break for a plethora of reasons, not just 'cause a girl's had sex.
Third, since there's no way to test boys for virginity (not that the girl way is accurate), they should test NOBODY.
Fourth, what do they think this would accomplish? OK, you've just tested all the girls for virginity. Now what? For fuck's sake!

Ha, Sarah, I read that as Indiana at first too. The sentence "a district has decided not to force female high school students to take virginity tests" should never, ever have to be written again...

That's just a horrible idea.

I don't understand it either. The test of virgitiy is checking the hymen - which as SarahMC pointed out above, isn't particularly accurate - so to prove your innocence you have to expose yourself to someone? Eugh.

That's horrifying. What were they planning to do with the "results?" B/c, as Sarah pointed out, you can't test a woman for virginity. There's no way to tell. And can you imagine how violating that would feel? Ugh.

Maybe you have sex with the girl, and if she seems to know what she's doing, then she wasn't a virgin?

There have been ways to "test" for virginity in all kinds of cultures, it's just what they choose to believe and you really can't tell them otherwise. What pisses me off is once again the onus is on women because of the erronous belief that having a penis in there makes the vagina magically different, when nothing ever happens to the penis. How the fuck would they test boys? (they wouldn't, I know I answered my own question) and if they are finding out girls are having sex then would they make them tell them who their partners were? Or would the girls be punished alone?

It's just so fucking unfair and stupid.

SarahMC, you bring up the excellent point that the hymen can be broken in a number of ways. I have a sinking feeling, however, that the "doctor" performing this test would just assume that it was broken by sexual contact, and you'd have quite a few actual virgins accused of and punished for being otherwise.

This gives a whole new meaning to the concept of an "entrance exam".

Anyways... Chalk one up to the power of the people.

Maybe they should just ban cell phones - out of sight, out of mind.

So testing girls for virginity is obviously a horrible idea just on principle, but I am really frightened to hear that some people (people who are in charge of education would even think it possible (as you've all pointed out that it's not). I thought that was common knowledge by now. Haven't enough women in history been punished for being born without a hymen or having a stretchy hymen or breaking their hymen in some nonsexual activity?

You know that's in the bible, too? There's a law that if a husband suspects his wife wasn't a virgin and her family can't produce the bloody cloth from their wedding night she gets stoned. Guess God didn't know much about hymens, and believed in being guilty until proven innocent. (And of course, there's no such law for men, who were allowed to sleep with multiple women.)

Who wants to marry a virgin anyways. Isn't a wedding stressful enough without adding that to the picture.

I don't think the level of sexual experience each person has is all that important to a relationship, but still.

You know that's in the bible, too? There's a law that if a husband suspects his wife wasn't a virgin and her family can't produce the bloody cloth from their wedding night she gets stoned.

What always confused me the most about that passage is that her family has to produce the sheet, like where did they get it? Did brides' families typically watch them get it on so they could grab the sheet afterwards?

There was one culture I read about where the mother (or mother in law) would be in the room with her daughter (in law) and after the deed was done they'd hang the sheet out the window for all to see as "proof". Some women would get around this by hiding a sharp object and then when the time was right cutting near their genitals to produce the blood necessary to prove their virginity (and in some cases save their lives).

There was also a culture discussed in the book Virgin: An Untouched History (which is awesome btw) by Hanne Blank where the female elders would take a bride before her wedding and the oldest woman would wrap the cloth around her finger and push it into the girls vagina, searching for a "bud" of some kind that the old woman could press that would produce a milky white liquid which thus proved the bride in question had not been soiled.

Sometimes you want to laugh at the ignorance of people but you can't. Like I said, every culture has a "means" of testing for female virginity because the vagina is internal and there must be something magical in there before it's touched by a penis, whereas the penis hangs out for all to see.

Guess God didn't know much about hymens, and believed in being guilty until proven innocent. (And of course, there's no such law for men, who were allowed to sleep with multiple women.)

Guess God liked the hymen so much he gave it to a slew of other animals, including cats, dogs, horses, seals and even the mighty lemur.

Marle--
In ancient times in the Near East (where much of the Bible takes place), it was often typical for 'weddings' to last an entire week. Following the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom would go off into a secluded tent, consummate the marriage, and then they WOULD produce a sheet to the wedding guests to show consummation of the marriage. I can't remember who KEPT the sheet though. It was possibly the bride's parents. Then feasting (and more sex) would follow for the next six days. Though honestly, to get back to your point, you'd think the husband would remember whether there was blood on the sheet or not, right? After all, he was there in the tent.

Not too long ago, I was sent to Indonesia with the American military. I met with people from the Indonesian military. One officer that I spoke to said that before he could mary his girlfrined, his commander had to test her to see if she was a virgin. The reason for the test, "to make sure that the officer was going to mary a 'worthy' woman." It's not just the schools, it's the culture. And that is no excuse.

Not too long ago, I was sent to Indonesia with the American military. I met with people from the Indonesian military. One officer that I spoke to said that before he could mary his girlfrined, his commander had to test her to see if she was a virgin. The reason for the test, "to make sure that the officer was going to mary a 'worthy' woman." It's not just the schools, it's the culture. And that is no excuse.

Wow, I can really see how forcing young WOMEN to undergo virginity tests will deter the young MEN from having sex...

Omg, UltraMagnus, that is HILARIOUS. The thing about searching for the bud that produces a milky white liquid...sounds to me like quite a few girls had their G-spots stimulated to the point of lubrication before their wedding nights! ;)

"Second, HOW do you test for virginity? Hymens break for a plethora of reasons, not just 'cause a girl's had sex."

Step 1: Dismiss all the other reasons hymens break as "old wives' tales"

Step 2: If you hate some girl then break her hymen during the test, start a rumor about it, and then wait for her family to kill her...

Meanwhile, I heard that the "hymen = virginity" attitude even increased rates of STD infection in some areas of Latin America several years ago. It went like this: some teen girls and young women were pressured to *both* marry macho men after dating instead of family matchmaking *and* save their hymens for marriage, so they had unprotected anal sex (thinking "I'm still a virgin so I'm safe") with their promiscuous boyfriends. Did this actually happen or not?

I am... almost lost for words. Almost.

That is the most...

No, wait, I am lost for words.

WHAT?!
For fucks sake, they were testing for virginity? WHY?! That's just horrible beyond words...

Well, goddamn! I just came to the realization that sex education in America needs to be more comprehensive.

I grew up in CA with real sex ed, and the Unitarian Church in which I grew up (and am still a part of) taught comprehensive sex ed, but I was given such misinformation about the hymen. Never having had sex with a "virgin," I've always thought the hymen was all lodged up INSIDE the woman. Boy, was I shocked last night when I googled "hymen" at an attempt to learn more about this "test."

I think I am pretty well-versed in sex, but goddamn, what kind of world do we live in if the majority of the population still believes the myth of the hymen? I STILL BELIEVED IN THAT SHIT UP UNTIL LAST NIGHT!

I remember asking how women are able to have menstrual cycles with a hymen and was just told in health class in high school, "Well, it's just a thin layer of membrane, so the menstrual fluids can seep through it." AND I BELIEVED THAT!

I felt really stupid last night for realizing where, what, when and how a hymen worked.

haha, I have one and I didn't even know what it was for a long time. It's not that notable, I don't know why people have made and continue to make such a ridiculously big deal about it. I mean, I kind of do know, but they shouldn't.