A few days before the Olympic Games closing ceremony, a private party for many of the Olympic winners was held. After weeks of media reports on how sportswomen were given more respect in these games, reflected in particular during the opening ceremony, I was shocked to read about what happened at that private party.
The October 1 Sun Herald reported that some of our golden (and silver and bronze) greats were treated to a "most indulgent and ambitiously staged" private party at the Australian Museum on September 28, with a Greco-Roman gladiator theme.
Forty women were hired to attend as "vestal virgins" dressed in skimpy toga outfits. Their participation made the scene "more believable", according to one of the hosts. Some of these women are pictured in the Sun Herald fawning over Ian Thorpe and Michael Klim.
A "virgin sacrifice" was one of the highlights of the night. One of the "virgins", a young, no doubt beautiful woman, was stripped naked before being "sacrificed" to the Greek god of death. Following fake sword slashings she fell to the ground "dead" and was carried off on the shoulders of a Greek deity.
It made me wonder: what is it about a "virgin sacrifice" that could possibly make it the focal point of an evening of entertainment? Is it the stabbing violence? Or is it the imagined visual contrast between her fresh red blood and the pure white cloth? Or is it the knowledge that the gods will be truly satisfied by the purity of the gift to them? Yes, that's it: the beautiful young virgin is the ultimate prize for any male being because she is his and his alone.
While real virgin sacrifices to the gods are rarer these days, there is no shortage of demand for virgins as the highest prize in the global sex trade. This means that, around the world, younger and younger girls are being sold into prostitution.
Men from First World countries tour the poor countries, especially in Asia, on a quest for "untouched" women. The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy's 1995 publication "Violations of Women's Reproductive Rights" quotes a woman from Bangladesh explaining how, when she was sold into prostitution, she fetched the high price of US$2000 "because I was a virgin".
An image that will always stay with me is a photo of a brothel in the Philippines, near the former US military base at Subic Bay. The name of the brothel was "Buster Hymen" and the images that conjured up — of thousands of young women and girls being violated then thrown on the scrap heap — made my blood run cold.
There is nothing inherently more satisfying about sex with a virgin: inexperience does not generally make for more pleasurable sex, unless control and power is the main turn on. The appeal of "deflowering" another is psychological, a triumph of power over innocence. The man who buys sex with a virgin is purchasing merely the knowledge that he and he alone has been her first.
There is no equivalent premium placed on virginity for boys or men. On the contrary, men are encouraged to gain sexual experience, to "sow their wild oats". Even for men in the sex trade, the issue of virginity is largely irrelevant.
The social/sexual value placed on virginity is purely an expression of men's power over women. A result is that far too many young women's first sexual experience is the result of physical or emotional coercion.
When women are treated as sexual equals, and when sex is experienced by all women as a wonderful part of life to be explored at their own pace and in contexts of their own choosing, there will be no place for the idea of the virgin prize other than in an archival file titled "The sexual dark ages".
BY MARGARET ALLUM