Anke Bernau

This is a readable overview of the "history" of the place of virginity as a physical condition as a well as a moral and religious state of being from medieval times to the present.

It examines briefly how there can never be an agreement of what constitutes virginity in terms of sexual experience as it appears that there are as many opinions as there are options for virginal states.

Taken in a broader context in certain historical periods in the UK and Europe, it becomes an economic asset in the great succession and inheritance debate - yet it is a condition and a price that is only ever attached to women.

Anyone pursuing gender studies or women's studies would be well advised to add this text to their reading lists.… (mehr)