VIRGINITY is a term that can be applied to the condition of either a man or a woman who has not yet engaged in sexual intercourse. Sociological studies reveal widely varying attitudes to it. Male virginity has 996 VIRGINITY rarely been prized among men. Adolescent boys have a tendency to engage in heterosexual intercourse to boost their status within their male group. On the other hand, virginity in women up to the point of marriage has been highly valued in established societies and property-owning classes, where a promiscuous bride could be a threat to the male lineage and the inheritance of wealth. In poorer social groups virginity was considered less important than solid evidence of fecundity. In rural areas of Europe up to the 18th and 19th centuries, courtship included night-visiting in the girl’s sleeping-quarters, and marriage did not take place until a pregnancy was established. References to virginity in the Pentateuch presuppose a patriarchal structure in whic...