“You go home and tell that to my dad!” Conflicting Claims and Understandings on Hymen and Virginity

Cinthio, Hanna

doi:10.1007/s12119-014-9253-2

Cited by 32 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Historically, the distinction between virginity and virginity loss has been the first penile-vaginal intercourse (Humphreys 2012) and presence of a hymen (Amy 2008; Cinthio 2015; Cook and Dickens 2009; Eşizoğlu et al 2011); this notion was also conveyed by the ten participants. However, meanings of virginity have been also reported to be more abstract and related to the sexual experience (Carpenter 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Abu-Odeh (2011) considered that from a sociophysiological perspective, the hymen guarantees virginity, which labels the woman as virtuous and assures her respect and honor. El Saadawi (2007), discussing sexual inequalities based on the hymen, refered to it as “the very fine membrane called honor (p. 47).” The absence of hymen before marriage may lead to stigma and discrimination, rejection from family and community, and virginity restoration (Cinthio 2015; Ilkkaracan 2008; Shakir 1997). Participants in the study added other ramifications such as living in fear, having to lie to parents and partners, and feelings of shame and guilt.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“We are Arabs:” The Embodiment of Virginity Through Arab and Arab American Women’s Lived Experiences

Abboud

Jemmott

Sommers

2015

Sexuality & Culture

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Virginity is part of our existence in the world as embodied sexual subjects. While many meanings are associated with virginity, in most of the Arab world virginity relates to the presence of a hymen and extends to encompass the honor of the Arab community, and virginity loss commonly relate to first vaginal intercourse. This study explored the meanings of virginity from the perspectives of Arab and Arab American women. A qualitative phenomenological approach, informed by the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, was used to conduct in-depth interviews with ten women. We identified one over-arching theme Virginity as Identity, and two major themes Embodiment of Virginity and “We are Arabs.” To reach an embodied virginity, participants went through a disembodied virginity process, reflecting society’s perceptions and values of virginity related to anatomical presence of a hymen and society’s honor. “We are Arabs” describes the ways women identified with the Arab ethnic identity as a shared overall identification, but differed from one lived experience to another, and influenced how participants embodied virginity. Our participants provided a better understanding of the diverse meanings of virginity that move beyond the binary of virginity and virginity loss, and into a spectrum of embodied meanings. Findings suggest the need for future research around sexuality in Arab Americans with attention to socio-political contexts in order to understand the nature and context of sexual initiation and its impact on sexual behaviors and well-being.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We are Arabs:” The Embodiment of Virginity Through Arab and Arab American Women’s Lived Experiences

Abboud

Jemmott

Sommers

2015

Sexuality & Culture

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“…This situation makes ethnographic access to observe exchanges between Page 9 of 30 doctors and patients difficult. Studies on hymenoplasty have been hitherto largely done by medical professionals involved in the provision of the service or by soliciting views from outside of the consultation rooms (Ahmadi 2014, Cinthio 2015, Essen et. al.…”

Section: Methodology and The Context Of The Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…al. 2010, Cinthio 2015, Ghanim 2015. Women who are considering hymenoplasty often ultimately desire to bleed in order to successfully "perform" virginity during her wedding night (Ayuandini 2016).…”

Section: Netherlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finger Pricks and Blood Vials: How doctors medicalize ‘cultural’ solutions to demedicalize the ‘broken’ hymen in the Netherlands

Ayuandini

2017

Social Science & Medicine

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This paper provides new perspectives on the scholarship on medicalization and demedicalization, building on an ethnography of hymenoplasty consultations in the Netherlands. By examining how doctors can play an active role in demedicalization, this paper presents novel insights into Dutch physicians' attempt to demedicalize the "broken" hymen. In their consultations, Dutch doctors persuade hymenoplasty patients to abandon the assumed medical definition of the "broken" hymen and offer nonmedical solutions to patients' problems. Drawing from unique ethnographical access from 2012 to 2015 to 70 hymenoplasty consultations in the Netherlands, this paper's original contribution comes from closely examining how demedicalization can be achieved through the process of medicalization. It investigates how Dutch physicians go even further in their efforts to demedicalize by medicalizing "cultural" solutions as an alternative course of action to surgery.

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“…Because the connection between the patient and her cultural heritage is naturalised by the doctors, some Dutch physicians at times express amusement that the patients they are consulting have never heard of alternatives to producing blood during the wedding night, advice which they expect to be shared by women of their ancestry. Blood after the first penetration is still widely believed to be the definitive mark of a virgin, as coitus is understood to ‘break’ the hymen of a chaste woman (Logmans et al ; Buskens ; Skandrani et al ; Cinthio ; Ghanim ). Dutch doctors label these alternatives to produce blood as ‘tricks’.…”

Section: Always Connected To ‘Foreign’ Rootsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming (more) Dutch as medical recommendations: how understandings of national identity enter the medical practice of hymenoplasty consultations

Ayuandini

Duyvendak

2017

Nations and Nationalism

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This article looks at how Dutch national identity enters the practical setting of a medical consultation. Extending the growing scholarships of everyday nationalism and engaging with the notion of multivocalism, this article shows how Dutchness is understood in the form of desirable personal characteristics. These characteristics are promoted by physicians to patients of migrant ancestry looking for a surgery called hymenoplasty. This article presents unique scholarly observations of a case where a particular understanding of national identity is recommended as part of medical advice. Furthermore, by closely examining exchanges between doctors and patients, this article argues that Dutchness is in a state of flux where a person of migrant ancestry can simultaneously be seen by others as Dutch and non‐Dutch.

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“You go home and tell that to my dad!” Conflicting Claims and Understandings on Hymen and Virginity

Cited by 32 publications

References 21 publications

“We are Arabs:” The Embodiment of Virginity Through Arab and Arab American Women’s Lived Experiences

“We are Arabs:” The Embodiment of Virginity Through Arab and Arab American Women’s Lived Experiences

Finger Pricks and Blood Vials: How doctors medicalize ‘cultural’ solutions to demedicalize the ‘broken’ hymen in the Netherlands

Becoming (more) Dutch as medical recommendations: how understandings of national identity enter the medical practice of hymenoplasty consultations

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