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Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.

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LadySoprano is a Fat-Fighting Superwoman
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
I have one question: is $5 enough of a donation? I'm so broke right now, but I want to help.
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JerseyGrrrl
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
We've had commenters on here from countries in which this myth exists, and they've said that few people really believe it. I wish I could remember their usernames, but they weren't regulars around here... I sometimes wonder if this myth provides an excuse for rape among those who don't actually believe it, in which case no amount of education to counter the myth itself will stop this if everyone already knows it to be untrue. Or maybe nobody admits to believing it, but secretly hope it might work?

I'm so glad to see a woman speaking out and I admire her bravery. Hopefully she will inspire others who have lived through what she did to do the same.

What I can't imagine is the double violation of not only being sexually assaulted but also likely being infected with a disease as a result. It's hard to imagine how women can recover from this.
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la.donna.pietra
06/08/09

@JerseyGrrrl: I would hazard a guess that it's more operative denial than actual belief. For instance, a bewildering number of men in the US believe that since women are more likely to contract HIV from a heterosexual (p in v) encounter than men are, men don't need to worry about contracting HIV from sex with women. They have been told over and over and over again--by Magic Johnson, no less--that yes, a dude can get HIV from sex with a woman, but yet they persist.

No less an authority on the subject than Playboy published an editorial to this effect three years ago. I sent them an impassioned email asking whether they thought playing Russian roulette with one bullet in the chamber was safe, because the odds are about the same for a man contracting HIV from a woman. Oddly enough, they didn't respond.

Point being, people believe what they want, especially when it supports other belief structures (like the futility of trying to deal with HIV medically when you have no medicine, or your denial that yes, sex can give you some gnarly diseases).
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battleaxonista...is a humorless bitch
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
*opens wallet and donates this week's grocery money*

Well, that's all I have to say about that.
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SanFranLefty
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
One day old babies? The revolting monsters who would do something like that to a baby (not that it's any better to do it to older girls or women) sorely test my opposition to the death penalty.
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
I can't wrap my head around a rape of a newborn. I have a headache just thinking about it. I mean, I actually feel physically ill.
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Plum-Pie
06/08/09

@Sputnik_Sweetheart: I've actually been having nightmares about Jezebel content recently - this is the price of giving a fuck about what happens in the world.
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whynotshesaid
06/08/09

@Plum-Pie: Seriously. What really gets me is that, even if I were to try to think of the most fucked-up evil thing I could possibly imagine, not only will someone have already done it, but someone has probably come up with something so horrible I couldn't even conceive of, and done that as well.

Which is why I have a very hard time with human exceptionalism. Yes, most people are decent, but a lot of people are just vile.
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gherkinfiend
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
I am really hoping that the British government doesn't try and send this amazing woman back to Zimbabwe as they have been threatening to do with a large proportion of Zimbabwean asylum seekers...

I'm now off to see how I can donate to her cause.
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Plum-Pie
06/08/09

@gherkinfiend: People we should write to - Minister for Women, Home Office/Immigration, DfID, anyone else?
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Plum-Pie
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
I know it's hard times for some of us financially right now, but you can donate by paypal or with a cheque from the UK and the US.

[girlchildnetworkworldwide.org]
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kithkin
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
How on earth does a penis fit in anywhere on a one-day-old infant's body?

Wait. Don't tell me. I don't really want to know the answer to that question.

What a repugnant incarnation of the belief that the bodies of women and girls are consumables that exist wholly for men. They're remedies for disease now? For heaven's sake.
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Cerridwen
06/08/09

@kithkin: I know. I almost posted a similar question and then...I couldn't even type the words because I don't.want.to.think.about.it.

My mind is reeling.
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LadyFabulous
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
It's women like this that remind me that for all the Pratts in the world, there is still someone working for the good of humanity and not for dry shampoo endorsements.
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Deborah2000
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
I hope the Pope's reading this today. This is why practicing absistence, in all its glory, will not stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Those poor girls- it's all so devastatingly awful. And I hope those bastards who rape children get what's coming to them.
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schweppes
06/08/09

@Deborah2000: Neither would condoms, though, in this situation. The whole point of the myth is not using condoms.
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Deborah2000
06/08/09

@schweppes: Yeah I know but there are a significant number of people who believe 'absistence' will stop HIV/AIDS- it's so much more complex than that. Political instability, sexism, lack of education, things like the 'virgin myth'- it all contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
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schweppes
06/08/09

@Deborah2000: True, though, the Pope isn't so much "Abstinence is the only solution" but rather "Condoms aren't the only solution." His focus on "moral" and "responsible" sexual intercourse is actually a lot more holistic than many other organizations whose sole focus is on condoms.
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stacyinbean
06/08/09

@schweppes: Except he said condoms worsen the problem of HIV/AIDS which is totally false.
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CherriSpryte
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
Oh God. I had heard of the "people believe that raping a virgin cures AIDS" myth before, but I always thought it was rare, or an exaggeration, or a way to sort of say "haha look how ignorant people are". I had no idea it was so widespread. Heartbreaking.
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tomatoheart
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
I didn't see this mentioned -- Are these infants usually infected with the disease after being raped? I am assuming the risk is very high with the blood/skin contact involved.

God, the thought of it in detail is making me nauseous.
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Laulau
06/08/09

@tomatoheart: From what I've read, it seems like the rape itself usually kills them, if not from physically injuries, from subsequent failure to thrive. I quite literally cannot understand how someone can bring themselves to do such a thing. I don't care if you're about to be slowly killed using medieval torture methods. How can you possibly even contemplate such an act.
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Cerridwen
06/08/09

@tomatoheart: As I understand it, higher rates of HIV infection in women are thought to stem at least partially from the enactment of this myth. Hortense's post yesterday about the "missing women" (women dying much more than men due to certain systemic disadvantages) touched on this.

If someone has stats to either back this up or prove otherwise, please post.
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Cerridwen
06/08/09

@Laulau: Yes, this is a good point. Infants probably do not survive long enough to become sick. My previous comment was more about older girls/women whose bodies could more likely withstand such an attack.

God, this is just sickening.
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whynotshesaid
06/08/09

@tomatoheart: What everyone else says. The hemorrhaging alone is often enough to do it.

So they are not only rapists but murderers as well.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
She is inspiring. Very much so. My first world problems recede and my heart opens a little more...
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sympathyforthebasementcat
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
It's hard not to feel sorry for HIV+ victims of cultural ignorance, but this pretty much does it. The men who rape babies deserve to burn in hell (if there is one). I don't care how ignorant or desperate they are.
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PreposterousHypothesis
06/08/09

@sympathyforthedevil: I'm with you. There is NO EXCUSE. NONE. I mean...INFANTS. Because they're virgins. Obviously they have to have SOME notion of how they contracted the disease if this is the supposed cure, so they're giving babies death sentences through rape. People like this do not deserve to live.
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mbprice
06/08/09

In reply to Silver Linings: One Woman Takes On The 'Virgin Myth.' Many Others Perpetuate It.
The virgin myth - a widely-held superstition that sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV or AIDS that's been around in various forms, and all over the world, at least since the 16th century

Do you mean it's a superstition that it will supposedly cure uncurable diseases? I thought AIDS wasn't even a glimmer of a concept yet in the 16th century...
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Liz11685
06/08/09

@mbprice: That confused me as well. I think it is supposed to mean that various cultures have held similar beliefs since the 16th century.
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snaffle
06/08/09

@mbprice: Trying not to say "duh!" here. Do you think there may have been other STDs before AIDS?
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mbprice
06/08/09

@snaffle: The original sentence was ambiguous on this point. Actually, not ambiguous; confusing. It's been changed.
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