A book review by Yujean Park at Feminist Review, of Virgin: The Untouched History :
The very first sentence of this book is, “By any material reckoning, virginity does not exist.” So then, why have cultures and societies maintained such an investment in virginity, even today? This introduction opens the floodgates to a challenge that author Hanne Blanke tackles in researching and analyzing the history of virginity (and its loss) as a social construct with deep cross-cultural relevance.
Virgin: The Untouched History introduces multiple definitions of virginity, careful not to legitimize one over the other or specify a singular, universally applicable version. She studies virginity from a variety of angles, approaching it from anatomy, species, cultural representations, and more.
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As Blanke is a historian and approaches her subject matter from a historical perspective, she shows a critique of the virginal construct in that it is almost exclusively heteronormative; the claims and values surrounding it target an assumedly universally heterosexual audience. The fundamental message of her book, which is to challenge the notion of virginity as a static, universal, and monolithic idea, is successfully and succinctly achieved in her work. Virgin: The Untouched History is a valuable work that will increase understandings of female sexuality, bodies, and cultural production.
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