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virginity testing

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soylentgreen

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In a recent interview on the podcast Ladies Like Us, rapper T.I. was asked if he has broached the topic of sex with his two daughters. In response, he declared that he had not only had “the conversation” with his 18-year-old daughter, Deyjah, but that they “have yearly trips to the gynecologist to check her hymen.”

What T.I. is referring to is known as a “virginity test” — a gynecological procedure intended to determine whether a woman has had vaginal intercourse — and it’s not as uncommon as you might think. The procedure involves a medical professional inserting their fingers or a speculum into a woman’s vagina to inspect her hymen, a thin piece of tissue at the opening. The assumption is that if the hymen is intact, the woman is still a virgin; if it’s torn, she’s not.

And yet, the tests still aren’t obsolete — even in the United States. For an investigation into virginity testing, Marie Claire and the Fuller Project interviewed dozens of women and medical professionals, and discovered that the procedure is still being carried out across the country, often in religious communities where parents ask doctors to perform the procedure to determine whether or not a woman is eligible for marriage. Furthermore, the investigation found that the U.S. has no laws banning the procedure, nor guidelines from major medical associations “to help physicians and nurses navigate the ethical and legal minefield that is virginity testing.”

When doctors legitimize virginity by conducting fake tests for it, they arguably uphold one of the oldest lies used to control women: that whether or not a woman has had sexual intercourse determines worth.”
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Christianity is a bizzare religion with many weird ideas. Some are harmless and of no concern. But others like this one are harmful, treating woman as objects valued for their virginity. Can any christian here defend this shameful practice of no worth that has only the purpose of continuing the superstitious belief of christian men's superiority and ownership of women?
 
I don't think there is a gynecologist in America who'd tell a dad his daughter had lost her hymen.
 
swing_voter said:
I don't think there is a gynecologist in America who'd tell a dad his daughter had lost her hymen.
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Is there actually a Dad that wants to know? :2sick1:
 
soylentgreen said:
Can any christian here defend this shameful practice of no worth that has only the purpose of continuing the superstitious belief of christian men's superiority and ownership of women?
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You realize that men are also commanded (and expected) to be virgins prior to marriage? There's just no test for it.

As for why virginity is important: knock yourself out. :coffeepap
 
Why Do American Doctors Perform Virginity Tests?

"“So-called virginity testing is nothing more than an assault on young women with no scientific or medical basis,” says Jonah Bruno, director of communications at the New York State Department of Health. And yet, girls and women are suffering from the fears and consequences of “failing” a virginity test and grappling with the aftermath of being forced to undergo such an invasive exam"

Women are suffering for no reason. No medical procedure exists that can accurately determine if a woman—or a man, for that matter—is a virgin. The hymen often tears or wears away as women age and during everyday activities like running, just as it can stretch during sex.

Hymens, like many body parts, vary widely in shape and size. Most can be found near the entrance of the vagina, forming a crescent or doughnut shape around the opening. Some women have a septate hymen, in which there’s an extra bit of membrane that creates two openings; a microperforate hymen, a membrane that nearly covers the entrance to the vagina entirely; or a cribriform hymen, one with many little holes. Very rarely, a woman may have a hymen that completely covers the entrance of the vagina, called an imperforate hymen. These types of hymens can make it difficult to menstruate or have sex and might require minor surgery. At times, girls are born without a hymen; others are born with hymens so thick, they remain intact even after having sex.

"Virginity testing is “incompatible with professional obstetric and gynecological ethics,” wrote Laurence B. McCullough, Ph.D., adjunct professor of ethics in obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, in a 2015 article he coauthored in The Lancet. Medical professionals have the “responsibility to lead efforts to enact legislation that prohibits virginity testing,” it read.
 
COTO said:
Textbook perfect solution fallacy.
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Its worse than useless if in fact you can have false results either way. There is no way to preclude a jog in the park a year ago from damaging a hymen. There is no way to ensure a sex act leads to a rupture. Assuming it is accurate and often the test results themselves are used in ways that lead to abuse ( so much so that clinicians admit in surveys to lying to parents to protect girls from abuse, shame etc), and the test itself is abusive in its invasive nature It should be banned from the practice of medicine.
 
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COTO said:
You realize that men are also commanded (and expected) to be virgins prior to marriage? There's just no test for it.

As for why virginity is important: knock yourself out. :coffeepap
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OF course, a broken hymen doesn't mean that some is not a virgin. Riding a bicycle can break a hymen. And, I also personally don't give care about the restrictions on premarital sex is. I don't think it's important anymore. It used to be to the ancient Jews, because of the whole 'bloodline' obsession.
 
soylentgreen said:
Christianity is a bizzare religion with many weird ideas. Some are harmless and of no concern. But others like this one are harmful, treating woman as objects valued for their virginity. Can any christian here defend this shameful practice of no worth that has only the purpose of continuing the superstitious belief of christian men's superiority and ownership of women?
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A rap music artist concerned about their daughter's virginity.
Okay then...:lamo
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
A rap music artist concerned about their daughter's virginity.
Okay then...:lamo
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Not just a rapper, as the quote said.

the procedure is still being carried out across the country, often in religious communities where parents ask doctors to perform the procedure to determine whether or not a woman is eligible for marriage.
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COTO said:
You realize that men are also commanded (and expected) to be virgins prior to marriage? There's just no test for it.

As for why virginity is important: knock yourself out. :coffeepap
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Rather you knocked yourself out and actually gave an answer as to why virginity is important
 
It's a mad world.
 
soylentgreen said:
Christianity is a bizzare religion with many weird ideas. Some are harmless and of no concern. But others like this one are harmful, treating woman as objects valued for their virginity. Can any christian here defend this shameful practice of no worth that has only the purpose of continuing the superstitious belief of christian men's superiority and ownership of women?
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Why is it that the worth of women hinges on our ****ability, but that doesn't apply to the men who are judging us?
 
btthegreat said:
Its worse than useless if in fact you can have false results either way. There is no way to preclude a jog in the park a year ago from damaging a hymen. There is no way to ensure a sex act leads to a rupture.
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You might as well argue that since tests for cancer, AIDS, and STDs admit a known percentage of false negatives and false positives, sometimes with grave consequences, we ought to avoid testing for cancer, AIDS, and STDs.

For the argument to have merit, you have to quantify how often false positives and false negatives occur, and whether they can be detected in other ways.

Now... I'm not necessarily arguing in favour of virginity testing in an era where premarital sex isn't prohibited by law. It strikes me as a breach of privacy and trust. But if you're going to argue against it, you're going to have to rely on something other than "It returns false positives and false negatives in some indeterminate percentage of cases."--which is true of literally every medical diagnostic known to man.
 
COTO said:
You might as well argue that since tests for cancer, AIDS, and STDs admit a known percentage of false negatives and false positives, sometimes with grave consequences, we ought to avoid testing for cancer, AIDS, and STDs.

For the argument to have merit, you have to quantify how often false positives and false negatives occur, and whether they can be detected in other ways.

Now... I'm not necessarily arguing in favour of virginity testing in an era where premarital sex isn't prohibited by law. It strikes me as a breach of privacy and trust. But if you're going to argue against it, you're going to have to rely on something other than "It returns false positives and false negatives in some indeterminate percentage of cases."--which is true of literally every medical diagnostic known to man.
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You ripped a line out of my post to pick it apart.

" Its worse than useless if in fact you can have false results either way. There is no way to preclude a jog in the park a year ago from damaging a hymen. There is no way to ensure a sex act leads to a rupture. Assuming it is accurate and often the test results themselves are used in ways that lead to abuse ( so much so that clinicians admit in surveys to lying to parents to protect girls from abuse, shame etc), and the test itself is abusive in its invasive nature It should be banned from the practice of medicine.

My argument was not sitting in a vacumn whereby I denounce the accuracy and the consequences of inaccuracy and you damn well know it. As I framed it, it sits within a larger question. its a balance between the consequences of those false results and the potential benefit of the right results. My post does not discuss the potential lifesaving benefits of 'early detection' like cancer, or AIDS because there is no lifesaving benefit to a virginity test. there is no medical benefit at all. What you get is nothing but a flawed cultural validation of the privacy breach, and the potential for abuse, humiliation, , shame, shunning, depravation, and if you end up with a guy on the other side of this 'deflowering' being named, he's having his own set of problems derivative from either an that 'accurate' result or one that lies. Even the health care professional is impacted by the request and the ethical ramifications of this decision involving a minor made by parents, or a possible controlling misogynistic fiancé looking for freshness in his peach, for nothing much better than an possible inaccurate often misunderstood result on both ends.

Its not me that lacks a larger context, its someone who tries compare the accurate result of this to an AIDS or cancer test.
 
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Lisa said:
Why is it that the worth of women hinges on our ****ability, but that doesn't apply to the men who are judging us?
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Because christianity is basically a mysoginistic belief system where women are considered no better than property.
 
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