But just as we might be inclined to think practices related to proving sexual “purity” are a thing of the past, social media users have seen an increase in videos of “virginity testing” ceremonies garnering more than 10 views. meters on TikTok. Despite widespread condemnation of its various forms and perceptions, it is believed that more than 20 countries around the world continue to host the custom in some form. The Western world has made efforts to somewhat curb the prevalence of virginity testing – indeed, the UK government is in the process of making it illegal in England and Wales by way of condemnation of the World Health Organization (WHO) and its agencies UN, which considers the practice a violation of human rights. But with a sudden upsurge in footage of online cuts removed from their original community context, experts are stressing the importance of understanding what’s behind the rituals displayed to users. Virginity tests often involve visual or physical inspections of the hymen by a medical professional, although there is widespread agreement among medical professionals that there is no biological proof that this is a legitimate assessment. Videos widely shared online, however, show a different custom performed by members of the Roma community in western Europe, specifically France and Spain. This test focuses on the existence of the honra, described by social anthropologist Paloma Gay-y Blasco as “a tangible, physical feature said to be inside a woman’s vagina.” Explaining the ritual, the lecturer, from the University of St Andrews, says: “For a girl to be considered truly untouchable, she must have pink, firm external genitalia. However, it is believed to be virgin (virgin) until it is damaged or lost in value.’ He says that Roma communities in Spain believe that inside the body of a virgin woman there is an uva (grape) – “a white or greyish hard grain about the size of a small chickpea that contains her semen. The story continues “This is a yellow liquid that is spilled and therefore lost when a woman is penetrated by a man for the first time or when she is bled by a professional at a wedding ceremony.” Its retrieval – which is meant to showcase and celebrate the virginity of the bride – is the central point around which Roma weddings are structured. To obtain the honra, an ajuntoaora – a professional called to “check” whether a girl is a virgin – will tell the bride to lie on her back in a room and spread her legs while a pillow is placed beneath her. lower back. The woman will then open the bride’s outer lips with her fingers to examine the color and tightness of her inner elements. Affirming her virginity, the ajudoaora declares, “It is as when her mother brought her into the world,” before calling on other older or experienced women to verify her statement. He then “delights” the girl with a white handkerchief decorated with ribbons or lace which, after being wrapped around the professional’s index finger, is pushed into the bride’s vagina to “pop” the “grape”. This action is then repeated to obtain the yellow spots, referred to as “roses”. Journalist and author of Losing It: Sex Education for thr 21st Century, Sophia Smith Galer, explains that ajuntoaora, in fact, puts pressure on Bartholin’s glands – “a pair of pea-sized glands located just behind on either side of the labia near at the bay entrance,” he wrote in a Twitter thread. “They’re what help us lubricate and that’s why the handkerchief isn’t stained with blood, it’s stained with some whitish-yellowish material.” The existence of the honra, however, is widely rejected by doctors, and is therefore a “virginity test” for which, like others, there is no biological explanation. In a TikTok video debunking the practice, Smith Galer says the videos of Romani ceremonies flooding her ‘For You’ page have been circulating online for some time, with one – out of four – she had spotted overnight – to have the story June. @sophiasmithgaler Too much of this was featured on my For You page, so I hope this information sheds some light on it. It is believed that over 20 countries around the world continue to practice some form of #virginitytesting, and as the TikTok videos show, many women participate and continue practices like these in their communities. Their videos then go viral as they are removed from their original community context and people try to figure out what is going on – all in a world where there is a big #health #education gap. ♬ original sound – Sophia Smith Galer She is keen to claim that the so-called test has “absolutely nothing to do with anyone’s sexual history”. “No physical exam can determine anything,” he repeats. Gay-y Blasco says the emphasis on virginity tests in Romani ceremonies “revolves around a double moral standard: women must dominate their desires much more than men.” “While based on the perception of sexual intercourse as pleasurable and sexual desire as an integral part of what men and women are like, [Roma] Ethics puts a lot of pressure on control,” he writes. The Roma “always associate marriage with the loss of female virginity,” he says, so much so that the word for an unmarried woman (moza) is synonymous with virgen (virgin). The WHO called the virginity test “a violation of the victim’s human rights”, which it linked to “immediate and long-term consequences that are detrimental to their physical, psychological and social well-being”.
