Tag Archive for "virginity"

Posts Tagged virginity

A Chinese Woman Thanks Fu Yuanhui: Let’s Talk Periods & Sexual Freedom

Editor’s note: Some of the external links in this piece are in Chinese. You will need to use your browser’s translation function to read them.

Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui (傅园慧) became a media darling when she mentioned her period after the women’s 4x100m medley relay in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Fu’s period comment should be a huge deal. She has provided her fellow Chinese women the rare opportunity to reevaluate and dismantle centuries-long sexist beliefs surrounding women’s sexuality — including a nationwide fetish with women’s virginity (also known as chunv qingjie, 处女情结), and the taboo topic of menstruation.

Editor’s note: Some of the external links in this piece are in Chinese. You will need to use your browser’s translation function to read them.

Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui (傅园慧) became a media darling when she mentioned ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Flyers at Wisconsin high school tell boys prom is “a night to protect her character”

These flyers, which were signed by the school principal and sponsored by a local crisis pregnancy center and a Catholic health care provider, were distributed at Lincoln High School, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin before the big night on Saturday.

By Chloe Angyal • 9 years ago

Feministing giveaway: tickets to How to Lose Your Virginity screening

Virginity. It’s complicated. So complicated that the great Hanne Blank wrote a whole book about it (haven’t read it? You really, really should).

By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

Film: How to Lose Your Virginity

I have a little sister and, like any good feminist, I spend a lot of time making sure that she knows that her worth extends beyond her beauty, her body, and her sexuality. As she is still a teenager, a big topic in her life and that of her peers lately has been virginity. Personally, I don’t think that my sexuality or “virginity” is an object to lose, or give away, and I don’t want her to think that either. That’s why I was so excited to watch How to Lose Your Virginity with her.

In this documentary, filmmaker Therese Shechter uses her own path out of virginity to explore why our sex-crazed society cherishes this so-called precious gift. Along the way, ...

I have a little sister and, like any good feminist, I spend a lot of time making sure that she knows that her worth extends beyond her beauty, her body, and her sexuality. As she is still a ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

Men don’t have to hate women to benefit from sexism.

Bustle founder Bryan Goldberg apologizes a little.

White is the new white.

Ladies, Cornell Fetch is just trying to help.

Negotiating multiple identities on Buffy.

Mikki Kendall and Flavia Dzodan talked with The Hairpin about #solidarityisforwhitewomen.

Sex, power, and tips.

An open letter to Kal Penn on Stop and Frisk.

The Colorlines community remembers learning about Harriet Tubman.

Cutting the Gordian Knot of sex work.

Twenties is apparently pretty great.

From 1908 to 2013: stories of unlikely desi activists in the U.S.

California now explicitly guarantees trans* students equal access to education (though Title IX already ...

Men don’t have to hate women to benefit from sexism.

Bustle founder Bryan Goldberg apologizes a little.

White is the new white.

Ladies, Cornell Fetch is just trying to help.

Negotiating ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Why is the Obama administration endorsing a virginity pledge-based abstinence-only program?

Recently, the Obama administration quietly updated its list of “evidence-based programs” that “met the effectiveness criteria” for preventing teenage pregnancy and are therefore endorsed by the Department of Health and Human Services. This list includes the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education program. Which is weird because, like basically all abstinence-only programs ever, it doesn’t work.

According to RH Reality Check, a 2007 study found that the program “had little or no impact on sexual abstinence or activity.” But that makes it sound like Heritage is just ineffective but harmless. In fact, while it “contains little or no information about puberty, anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, or sexual behavior,” it does teach kids some stuff. Here’s a sample:

“Males and females are aroused ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

Cherry Bomb: Exploding The Virgin Voyage

A guest post from Neelanjana Banerjee, Cherry Bomb Co-Editor and Laura Goode, Farah Goes Bang co-writer and producer, Cherry Bomb Co-Editor

Conservative obsession with female virginity, along with the persistence of abstinence-only sex education, has created a climate of inauthenticity around the experience of sexual initiation. We have so many euphemisms for the experience–popping the cherry, swiping the V-card, losing your religion, voting your hymen off the island–and very little actual candor about it. As a culture, we talk about a lot of issues that relate back to sex: pregnancy, abortion, birth control. Yet we rarely talk about the sex itself: how it’s done, how we figure out how it’s done, how it will make us feel during and after ...

A guest post from Neelanjana Banerjee, Cherry Bomb Co-Editor and Laura Goode, Farah Goes Bang co-writer and producer, Cherry Bomb Co-Editor

Conservative obsession with female virginity, along with the persistence of abstinence-only sex education, has created a ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

TLC’s Virgin Diaries comes to the US

TLC is debuting a new reality TV show that showcases the lives of 30-something virgins.

Alternative tagline: Adult virgins kiss on wedding day; looks like bird feeding.

Fetishization of the myth of virginity is an ongoing theme in conservative politics. (Check out Jessica Valenti’s book on the topic). It’s frustrating and harmful when reality TV continually echos some of the most disasterous cliches about women and sexuality.

But, reality TV now goes a step further from fabricating problematic story lines. Reality TV today showcases “freaks,” wherein characters are picked based on how outlandish their stories are and how much we will be shocked by their lives. So technically they want us to laugh at their stories, in all their ...

TLC is debuting a new reality TV show that showcases the lives of 30-something virgins.

Alternative tagline: Adult virgins kiss on wedding day; looks like bird feeding.

Fetishization of the myth of virginity is an ongoing ...