quotations about virginity
Virginity is a paradoxical condition, both perfect and monstrous, defined by both absence and presence. It is often visible only insofar as it is under threat.
SARAH SALIH, ANKE BERNAU & RUTH EVANS
Medieval Virginities
If virginity is so inherently significant to humans, then why are men and women's virginities given differential values?
ALLISON DANISH
"Virginity is a social construct", The Rocky Mountain Collegian, March 8, 2017
Christ Himself is the glory of virginity, who was not only begotten of the Father without beginning or emission or connection, but also became man in our image, being made flesh for our sakes of the Virgin without connection, and manifesting in himself the true and perfect virginity.
PETE SOCKS
"Virginity is to marriage as angel is to human", Patheos, April 23, 2017
I actually, until recently, thought I lost my virginity when I was twelve. In an unfortunate, tragic, and deeply Tegan-esque incident involving a hockey stick and two days in hospital, I was left with what many would call a "popped cherry". I do believe it was an event that helped define who I am because of the sheer ridiculousness of it all, but it certainly wasn't me losing my virginity.
TEGAN MARLOW
"OK, let's just accept that virginity is a myth", The Tab, January 12, 2017
Virginity is basically derived from a word that means what is fresh, unseared, untouched by harming influence. The essential thing in virginity is not a condition of the body, but the perpetual refraining from the use or pleasures of sex.
PAUL J. GLENN
A Tour of the Summa
Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
All's Well That Ends Well
If you want to have sex and you're in a legal, consenting situation, have sex. If that's your prerogative, so be it. Be safe, be legal, and it shouldn't be anyone else's business. If you don't want to have sex, don't have sex. Whether or not you do so does not determine your worth as a person. Sorry to burst your bubble, but virginity is not something to lose, because it's not real.
OLIVIA RIZZARDI
"What Are You Worth? Examining the Social Construct of Virginity", Arkansas State University Herald, April 24, 2017
Life, in time, takes every maidenhead, even if it has to dry it up; it does not matter how the owner wants to keep it.
JAMES JONES
From Here to Eternity
Virginity is the ideal of those who want to deflower.
KARL KRAUS
Beim Wort Genommen
Virginity is typically seen as a finite resource that each person is born with and can only spend on one person. It's like if each newborn baby is given a lucky dollar with the words "My Virginity" written on it in permanent marker. That lucky dollar can only be given to one other person, and then it's taken out of circulation and incinerated. No refunds, no returns, no take-backsies. And this lucky dollar seems to be more important for baby girls to hold onto than baby boys. For some reason, her dollar is worth more.
ALLISON DANISH
"Virginity is a social construct", The Rocky Mountain Collegian, March 8, 2017
To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
All's Well That Ends Well
Virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the canon.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
All's Well That Ends Well
Then when her lovely limbs,
Oft lovely deem'd, far lovelier now beheld,
Thro' all your trembling joints increase the flame,
Forthwith discover to her dazzled sight
The stately novelty, and to her hand
Usher the new acquaintance. She, perhaps
Averse, will coldly chide, and half afraid,
Blushing, half pleas'd, the tumid wonder view
With neck retorted, and oblique regard;
Nor quite her curious eye indulging, nor
Refraining quite. Perhaps when you attempt
The sweet admission, toyful she resists
With shy reluctance; nathless you pursue
The soft attack, and push the gentle war
Fervent, till quite o'erpower'd the melting maid
Faintly opposes. On the brink at last
Arriv'd of giddy rapture, plunge not in
Precipitant, but spare a virgin's pain;
Oh, spare a gentle virgin! spare yourself!
Lest sanguine war Love's tender rites profane
With fierce dilaceration, and dire pangs
Reciprocal. Nor droop because the door
Of bliss seems shut and barricaded strong;
But triumph rather in this faithful pledge
Of innocence, and fair virginity.
JOHN ARMSTRONG
"The Oeconomy Of Love"
Virginity is radical and beautiful for the same reason that God is radical and beautiful. Though the world at large does not suspect it, gospel virginity is a love affair of the most enthralling type. It is a focusing on God that fulfills as nothing else fulfills.
THOMAS DUBAY
And You Are Christ's: The Charism of Virginity and the Celibate Life
Marry a virgin, that thou mayest teach her discreet manners.
HESIOD
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is the virgins, the daughters of our country, the rose buds, the birds of song, who make our homes so beautiful.
MRS. SIGOURNEY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Virginity is the clean fountain which yields clean water pure and life refreshing.
SAMUEL DANAUTA
How to Train Virgins and Why
Virginity is trenched in the heterosexist, patriarchal European practice of lineage. Because, as mothers, women have "ownership" of children, men needed to secure children as men's property. So, women were mandated to take the man's name and, second, were submitted to virginity tests to ensure that any and all offspring were of the husband's. In this way virginity was less about maintaining purity because purity is "good," but was about placing women and their offspring under the control of men. This still remains today in more covert and socially acceptable ways. Rather than requiring unethical (and often unreliable) virginity testing, virginity is enforced through shaming women for having sex and coercing them to wait until marriage. It is from there still common practice to take the man's name upon marriage, ensuring all offspring are literally labeled as the man's.
ALLISON DANISH
"Virginity is a social construct", The Rocky Mountain Collegian, March 8, 2017
For in pure maidens, knowing not the marriage-bed, the glance of the eyes sinks from shame.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Toxotides
So that virginity is gold, chastity silver, conjugality bronze; that virginity is riches, chastity an average income, conjugality poverty; that virginity is freedom, chastity ransom, conjugality captive; that virginity is the sun, chastity a lamp, conjugality darkness; that virginity is day, chastity the dawn, conjugality night; that virginity is a queen, chastity a lady, conjugality a servant; that virginity is the homeland, chastity the harbour, conjugality the sea; that virginity is the living man, chastity a man half-alive, conjugality the lifeless body.
S. ALDHELM
attributed, Widows in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Britain