Voices

It's hymen time for change

By Luke Holden (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-23 08:13

A friend of a friend, a Beijing woman, is readying herself to undertake a hymenorrhaphy (also known as a hymenoplasty).

In case the term doesn't ring any bells, a hymenorrhaphy involves a repair job on the hymen - a little piece of tissue responsible for much more trouble than its size justifies. It is the measure by which men try to determine whether their partners are virgins and sadly, is quite misunderstood.

To be clear, this woman has a history, but then we all do - at present she is involved in the third year of a happy and very active relationship.

The crux of the situation is that her mother, completely unaware of the involvement, has lined her up as a candidate for marriage with a family friend. Part of the sales act was to pimp her daughter as a sprightly rose.

Rather than stand up for her rights, repel her mother or express frustration at the medieval standards of certain individuals, she is instead checking out her options: surgery or an implant. Yes, her boyfriend will definitely get the boot.

A little part of me feels sorry for the girl, but only sorry that she wasn't a resident of Xi'an. Time magazine reported that the Northwest University surgical center in that city is offering a deal to "make you tops in both your academic achievements and your looks" with hymen reconstruction at a 50 percent discount for students.

It didn't state how obvious the surgery would be through a tight pair of jeans, but I can only imagine scenes of utter beauty.

Fear not, she can rest assured there are numerous options available in Beijing, too. A Google search for "Beijing hymen reconstruction surgery" yields just more than 250,000 results.

At this point she might need to tread carefully though, since Chinese forums note significant differences in pricing options - between 1,000 and 4,000 yuan - for the same procedure. To give an example, somewhere in the middle is Beijing Modern Women's Hospital, offering a second chance at happiness for roughly 2,500 yuan. This is roughly what the woman earns in one month.

If surgery isn't her first choice, there are also ludicrous products online that claim to do the job without a need to go under the knife.

A stroll through Taobao.com, a widely used Chinese shopping site, uncovers one product that really catches the eye, loosely termed "Joan of Arc Red". It is a translucent rod (5-by-3.5-by-0.02 cm) that turns into mucus liquid when it meets water or something fruity. It can be bought for either 99 or 459 yuan; a vast and unexplained difference for the same product.

A user might jokingly ask whether the product was available in other colors, but their question would be quickly justified after a scan of the user comments - what is advertised as "red" is in fact "pink" and "would not pass the test", as one customer complained.

Armed with such a wealth of choices, you might forget the final task this woman will need to do to carry off the scam: pretend. She can say goodbye to a moment of shared eroticism because tonight will be all about him - but then, isn't that the point of this article?

No, it is not. The point is to educate the few Chinese women reading this who are considering a similar path, as well as the masses of brainless men searching for the Holy Grail. Let me say this once and once only: a torn hymen proves nothing.

As it turns out, hymens get torn all the time. Exercise and sport in general are often responsible, as is tampon use and even a gynecological exam. Some women are even born without one, which seems like a stroke of luck considering the pain involved.

The British Medical Journal in 1998 reported that a gynecologist interviewed 41 female colleagues at a London hospital. Of the group, 26 said they had not bled during their first sexual intercourse. Simply put, hymens cannot be trusted.

So this woman will begin married life with a lie, to a man that has archaic views and an unbalanced perspective on life. Men and mothers need to realize that sex does not mean love, and whatever took place before a relationship must never be judged. It's time to grow up.