Annons
Virginity auctions are nothing new. Every few years or so a new one seems to pop up in the mainstream media but few, if any, ever come to fruition. The most recent high profile example is that of Elizabeth Raine, a medical student who announced in 2014 that she was selling her virginity online and was offered $801,000 but cancelled at the last moment.There was also a Peruvian woman who turned down $1.5 million for her virginity.More than a few questions spring to mind. Why would people pay so much to be someone's first? How did virginity become so fetishized that some people are willing to pay over a million dollars for it?According to sexologist Shan Boodram the main reason is control."Virginity auctions are outdated and antiquated," Boodram told VICE.She said that the reason men are attracted to virgins in a primal sense is that if a man sleeps with a virgin he knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a child he has with that woman is his."Virginity has such a high price on it because we still have that need to identify. It's outdated… the idea and obsession around virginity is just stupid and I wish people thought thoroughly on why people put such a high price on it, literally and figuratively."This element of controlling a woman's sexuality is why male virginity auctions are practically non-existent.Therese Shechter, the director of the documentary How to Lose Your Virginity, said that our culture defines virginity in a certain way which brings along built-in value judgements. Almost all of these judgements are based around the idea of women as property—property that loses its value when it is "used."
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