Dismantling Virginity

This book, a revised and updated version of Ergn's thesis, is currently the most comprehensive source on the social, medical, and legal construction of virginity in the historical context of Turkey. The social construct of virginity supports patriarchal control of women's bodies and sexualities by limiting female sexuality to heterosexual relations within the male-dominated institution of marriage. In Turkey, the practices of virginity examinations, virginity restoration surgeries, and the alternative medical treatment of imperforate hymen constitute the mechanisms by which medical and legal institutions naturalize and materialize virginity into a fixed physical reality. By analyzing these practices, the study demonstrates how the institutions of medicine and law reinforce and perpetuate male control of female bodies and sexualities in Turkey by elevating virginity to the status of an unquestionable and unchallangeable medico-legal fact. The book, with its theoretical discussions, multiple analyses, and policy recommendations, will appeal to scholars of gender and women's studies, medical sociology, and social constructionism as well as feminist activists and professionals.