This late ancient Christian treatise, preserved in Syriac and falsely attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria (d. 373), exhorts female virgins to be "holy in body and spirit" (1 Cor. 7:34) and to abstain from "all that is in the world - the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches" (1 John 1:16). Drawing on themes developed in the de virginitate literature of the fourth and fifth centuries, the author instructs virgins on their proper physical deportment and use of the five senses, but he incorporates into his work exhortations to purity and repentance originally addressed to a wider audience of male and female ascetics and perhaps even laity. Most likely a translation of a Greek original composed between the fifth and ninth centuries, the treatise is of interest also for its frequent and inventive use of the Bible in support of the ascetic ideal.

The object of this treatise is to create in its readers a passion for the life according to excellence. There are many distractions , to use the word of the Divine Apostle, incident to the secular life; and so this treatise would suggest, as a necessary door of entrance to the holier life, the calling of Virginity; seeing that, while it is not easy in the entanglements of this secular life to find quiet for that of Divine contemplation, those on the other hand who have bid farewell to its troubles can with promptitude, and without distraction, pursue assiduously their higher studies.

Signs of Virginity examines virginity testing in Judaism and early Christianity, and the relationship of these tests to male sexual violence. Rosenberg points to two authors--Augustine of Hippo and the rabbinic collective that produced the Babylonian Talmud--who construct alternative models that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity, encouraging men to be gentle, rather than brutal, in their sexual behavior.

Medieval virginity theory explored through study of martyrs, nuns and Margery Kempe. This study looks at the question of what it meant to be a virgin in the Middle Ages, and the forms which female virginity took. It begins with the assumptions that there is more to virginity than sexual inexperience, and that virginity may be considered as a gendered identity, a role which is performed rather than biologically determined. The author explores versions of virginity as they appear in medieval saints' lives, in the institutional chastity of nuns, and as shown in the book of Margery Kempe, showing how it can be active, contested, vulnerable but also recoverable. SARAH SALIH teaches in the Department of English at King's College London.

Virginity--a major adolescent rite of passage--has been explored in the coming-of-age film genre for many decades. This book examines the evolution of teen movies over the past 40 years, posing crucial questions about how film shapes our cultural understanding of virginity. By surveying more than 30 mainstream and independent coming-of-age films from the 1980s to the present, it considers what types of first-time sexual experiences are represented on screen, how they are different for men and women, and whether they are subverting or reinforcing gender stereotypes. Drawing from notable teen movies such as Dirty Dancing (1987), American Pie (1999), Real Women Have Curves (2002), Lady Bird (2017), and Plan B (2021), the book identifies a progressive shift toward more sex-positive and feminist representations of first-time sexual experiences on screen. Each chapter studies how the political climate, sex education policies, and cultural norms specific to each era impact the film's release and its teenage audience.

Enlightened Virginity in Eighteenth-Century Literature analyzes the history of the English virgin at the height of her celebrity. In so doing, it presents new arguments about the early English novel and its relationship to science, religion, and feminist theory.

Includes information on abstinence, abstinence focused sex education, African Americans, Asian Americans, birth control, born again virginity, chastity, coming out, conservative Christians, definitions of virginity loss, double standard, Latinos, Latinas, oral sex, race, ethnicity, rape, religion, secondary virginity, stigma, technical virginity, etc.

This study presents a compelling and provocative study of virginity, which challenges the belief that female virginity can be reliably and unambiguously defined, tested and verified.

Around 2005 something surprising happened in young adult literature: YA books became obsessed with presenting characters who wanted to have sex but couldn’t—at least not without losing something vital to their identity. Since the publication of Twilight, the YA market has been flooded with books that feature naive virgins finding true love. While some YA novels do present nuanced depictions of sex and of healthy sexual relationships, the fiction most popular with young adult readers presents adolescent girls as virginal sex objects waiting to be fulfilled by their love interests. In Virginity in Young Adult Literature after Twilight, Christine Seifert looks at an alarming trend in YA novels. Labeling this phenomenon “abstinence porn,” Seifert argues that these novels that fetishize virginity are harmful to readers. Like pornography, such works reduce female characters to objects whose sexual acts are the sole expression of their identities. Chapters in this book examine paranormal, dystopian, and contemporary romance, paying particular attention to recurring virginity themes or tropes. The book also provides an antidote by showing how some sex-positive teen novels provide more empowering messages to readers. Organized by genre, the books were selected for this study based on their popularity with teens. Exploring how messages about virginity are sustained and repeated from text to text, this book also calls out key reader reactions to demonstrate how they are responding to these messages. Featuring a list of discussion questions, Virginity in Young Adult Literature after Twilight will be a valuable resource for teachers, librarians, parents, and mature young adult readers.