Dictating virginity | DW Documentary

In many parts of the world, questions surrounding virginity have seemed to be on the verge of disappearing. But despite the sexual revolution, the idea of preserving virginity has seen a resurgence of late. The film looks at growing movements promoting abstinence until marriage in the United States and Europe. As more and more women choose to join such movements, those in other places often have no choice. In Maghreb, for example, women must yield to tests to inspect their virginity. The pressure to be able to demonstrate virginity is so great that each year, a number of women resort to operations such as hymenoplasty, to reconstruct the hymen, which can be ruptured in any number of non-sexual ways. Despite all of this obsessive interest, the film shows that, physiologically, virginity does not exist. So what does it stand for, in our contemporary world? __