Hymen and Its Effect on Virginity
Early in the 19th century, women are described to be religious, pure, and submissive. During that time, the society places a woman on a certain pedestal and is obliged to remain pure and chaste. Now in the present time, women are empowered. They can do everything a man can do. They involve in a lot of extreme activities not even thought of before.

The Virginity Concept
People of long ago require a woman to preserve her innocence until after she found the right man to marry. It is regarded as her treasure, and she has to protect it at all times. Even an assault should not lead her to giving herself in. And she must not give it to the wrong person. She must, in all her power, resist any temptations and should never stray near temptations.

In the middle ages, a woman is still a virgin if her hymen is still intact. The hymen is the tissue or membrane that is located around the vagina. Once the hymen is torn or stretched, the woman is simply not a virgin any longer.

Breaking the Hymen
Hymens are relatively soft tissues and can be broken lot of other ways than having sexual intercourse. Several other reasons are known to break the hymen. A woman's hymen may be different from each another, in shape and in size. Some women are born without hymen. Some have it either too thin or too thick that it covers the whole vagina.

One of the traditional causes of breaking the hymen is through horseback riding. If you horseback a lot then chances are, your hymen could have been broken. This is the reason why only men can ride a horse before. Women are supposed to use a carriage. But as time went by, women learned how to ride a horse themselves. There are a lot of equestriennes out there better than their male counterpart.

Certain sports can also damage the hymen. Gymnastics and high jump are some examples. We all have seen a good gymnast perform on a floor exercise. She moves as if her bones are made of jelly. With all those muscles stretched out, she most probably has a stretched her hymen as well.

Several medical procedures can also tear the hymen. Pap smear is one, and so does other procedures that require an instrument inserted through a woman's vagina. If you undergo such a treatment, the hymen ripping is a possibility.

The Cultural Scenario
In some cultures a high consideration is placed on a woman's hymen as the sole indicator of her sexual purity. Given the reasons above, this is indeed a poor method of determining the virginity of a woman. Even medical experts don't entirely agree to the idea. And it is really unfair to the part of the woman.

Virginity should be an emotional and a psychological thing, not purely physical. Virginity is a virtue. Only a woman and her whole being should answer to that, not just her one negligible body part.

It is but the culture that implies a woman's virginity to be decided upon the hymen. A lot of feminist groups and even medical organizations are all working together enlighten the public about the facts and the fallacies behind hymens. It is through hope, that in the near future, tightly knit conservative places would embrace the whole hymen concept and eventually transform their way of thinking.