First:
The concept of taking a woman's virginity stems from a time when underage girls were married, whom had not had their first menstruation and were thusly "intact". So unless you sleep with a 7 year old girl (some start as early as , you're not going to sleep with any girl that has not lost her hymen. It can also be severed in severe sports or impact-related injuries.
Venetia, I love everything you've contributed to this thread! A quick correction here, though: menstruation doesn't always destroy the hymen. It is often destroyed before intercourse by rigorous physical activity, by the use of tampons, or self exploration, but it's possible to still have it in adulthood. Both women and men rely too much on its presence as having any significance, but it is not "a thing of the past," so to speak.
Second:
I understand how the concept of women being able to sleep around is probably a more significant issue to most people, but personally, it's a small and insignificant issue to me in light of things like:
--That there are 40 year old women out there that have been married since they were twenty and have never had an orgasm.
--That lesbianism has been subverted from a long-oppressed expression of love between women and turned into a mockery of itself as public entertainment for men. (Covered in this topic previously.)
--That everything in media has raised me to believe that my worth is tied to my looks.
--That even my own mother wanted me to go to college to meet a man and that my father told me that my place was under my husband.
And, female gamer related issues. (I have a lot of these!):
--That I have to leave most message boards because the posters treat it as a boy's-only club and inevitably shower the discussions with "boobiesboobiesboobies!"
--That I can't watch most television or non-family rated movies because the only people that represent my gender are artificial constructs that represent idealized male lust, not anyone I'd ever actually know or be. In other words, boobiesboobiesboobies.
--That I haven't played a game with a female character that was more than boobiesboobiesboobies in a long time.
--That if I do get into the games industry I can look forward to being a poster girl for male gamers that want to see my boobiesboobiesboobies.
--That while most male gamers will swear up and down they would love to see more women playing video games, in reality they react violently to sharing space with them. When women begin talking about dongsdongsdongs, they go screaming in the other direction, troll, flame, and of course they aren't willing to give up the boobs on heels in their games in favor of a female character with substance and integrity. In other words, when they say that want to see more female gamers, they really mean that they want female gamers that love boobiesboobiesboobies too.
Ugh! It's hard to feel like a sexually liberated woman when you're a female gamer.