In many Muslim nations it is required that females remain virgins until they are married. These women must prove their purity by bleeding on their wedding night. "If you're a man, on the other hand, all you have to do on your wedding night is ejaculate. Nobody expects you to bleed or produce any other proof of virginity"(Saletan, 2009). Many women have found a way around this. They go to their doctor to have a hymenoplasty, a reconstruction of the hymen so that it's in tact and able to produce blood when penetrated. This option, while widely used is expensive, difficult to access, and even dangerous as is any medical procedure. The new availability of a mail-order artificial hymen which is sold for about $30 and requires no medical assistance for use brings about a new freedom for many women.
The conservative Muslims in these nations are greatly concerned by this prospect and are even considering amending their laws to account for this new product. "Outraged Egyptian lawmakers are demanding a ban on the kit" (Saletan, 2009).
The idea that a piece of plastic is threatening the deep-seeded values of a country so greatly seems a bit absurd, but consider the implications. Women have a great amount of power biologically; we bring new life into the world. For some men this is a threatening prospect and so they feel the need to exercise control over it. In requiring that new brides bleed on their wedding night, these conservative Muslim nations ensure that any offspring conceived that night is connected to the husband, not some handsome young devil that got the better of the girl a few weeks before. This piece of plastic not only offers sexual freedom for women, it also threatens the legitimacy of the male based lineage system in these regions.
So there we have it. Social control, it's not just for murderers anymore, now it's here to protect us from the cheap, plastic, mail-order hymen.
Saletan, William. (2009). "The Beauty of
Artificial Virginity".
Human Nature. Tuesday, October 6, 2009.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/humannature/
Interesting. Two or three or four levels of control here. Importance of "artifact" to produce "truth" -- technology as liberating, technology as threat to "truth" -- good catch.
ReplyDelete