Ravena Hanniely is a social media influencer and Playboy model in Brazil who wants to undergo a hymenoplasty, a medically unnecessary procedure that will seal up her hymen to effectively make her a virgin again.
The 23-year-old thinks the procedure will act as a clean start that will improve her self-esteem and reflect a new chapter in her personal and professional life and well-being. The problem with all that is it is purely a symbolic gesture. She can’t take back any sex she’s had.
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Hymenoplasty is just another cosmetic surgery, one that comes with a ton of risks like infection and scarring.
The procedure itself can be done in an outpatient setting and takes less than half an hour. Some researchers who followed 82 women who had hymen reconstruction surgery in Amsterdam found that more than half of the women had little understanding of how their own reproductive systems actually worked and were getting the procedure based on false information.
Despite all that, Hanniely said on social media, “It’s about how a woman feels and what she wants for herself.”
She’s gotten her share of naysayers since announcing her decision to re-virginize herself to her 266,000 Instagram followers. Many pointed out the simple facts like I did above, that the procedure is a little risky for a symbolic gesture that can’t change the past. It also speaks volumes on our collective societal concept of virginity and its odd, often toxic association with the concept of purity.
But Hanniely remained stalwart in her decision to go through with the procedure, saying that “unfortunately, not everyone can understand or support such intimate choices” and “we need to stop judging and start respecting these decisions.”
