by How Religious Standards Apply Selectively
Perhaps the most glaring inconsistency in religious virginity standards remains the striking disparity between male and female expectations, creating a moral double standard so blatant it would embarrass politicians.
Religious texts theoretically apply sexual standards equally across genders. Religious practice tells a radically different story. Female virginity receives intense scrutiny, ceremonial significance, and community monitoring. Male virginity? Barely a footnote, treated as mildly commendable but ultimately optional.
The enforcement mechanisms demonstrate this gap perfectly. Girls face purity pledges, abstinence education, monitoring, and social consequences for violations. Boys face suggestions that maybe they should consider waiting, followed by winks and shoulder shrugs when they don’t.
Cultural expectations compound religious double standards. Communities that police female sexuality intensely often celebrate male sexual experience as natural maturity. The cognitive dissonance required to maintain both positions simultaneously would impress Olympic-level mental gymnasts.
Marriage negotiations highlight the disparity. Female virginity affects arranged marriage prospects, dowry negotiations, and family honor. Male virginity? Irrelevant to all of the above. The economic realities of virginity as commodity apply exclusively to women.
Religious authorities, when pressed, acknowledge these inconsistencies with varying degrees of defensiveness. Explanations range from “different natural roles” to “traditional cultural values” to “we don’t make the rules” to silence that speaks volumes.
Young women increasingly call out this hypocrisy, noting the absurdity of standards applying entirely differently based on gender. Religious institutions respond with either defensive traditionalism or reluctant acknowledgment that maybe, possibly, there might be some unfairness worth examining.
The male virginity exception reveals what virginity policing has always been about: controlling female sexuality specifically, not promoting sexual morality generally.
SOURCE: https://newsstand.us/the-virginity-rankings/
SOURCE: Bohiney.com (https://newsstand.us/the-virginity-rankings/)
