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Bo Gu / NBC News
A snapshot of the website that sells fake hymens.
BEIJING – Despite the gradual liberalization of attitudes towards pre-marital sex in China, as well as rampant prostitution and Internet pornography – a woman’s virginity is still highly valued by many men here, especially in rural areas.
So what’s a girl trying to disguise her past sexual experience to do?
Pretend to be a virgin.
Search the words “artificial hymen” on Google in Chinese, and you’ll get seven million results. Search “Joan of Arc Red,” and you’ll get over a million results – it’s the biggest selling brand in China’s growing fake hymen market.
Try to appear ‘shy’ for 'a better effect'
A young woman looking for a solution to her awkward problem can simply log onto the website www.xuexing.org and pay $18.40 for two fake hymens nicely packed in a wooden box. For $14.40, the same products come simply wrapped in a paper box.
The website says the goods were first invented in Japan in 1993 and then became popular in Thailand, followed by the rest of Southeast Asia before eventually making their way to the Middle East.
According to the instructions, the little piece of semitransparent tissue has no side effects and is made of a natural fibrin glue, a medical elastic substance, a soluble base and carboxymethocel.
“After you put this into the vagina, it’ll dissolve and expand. Have sex in about 20 to 30 minutes, and you’ll ‘bleed’,” explains the instructions. “A better effect will be reached if you appear to be shy and in pain.”
Circumventing tradition
I first learned about this product through an anonymous text message that read, “Joan of Arc Red, no surgery, no injections, no pain, and it will re-virginize you in just a few minutes.” I logged onto the website, and an online service agent began chatting with me immediately.
Refusing to tell me how many packs they sell on a daily basis because, the agent said, it’s a business secret, he was frank about the vast market for their product. “A lot of new graduates buy them before they get married,” he wrote. “So do some prostitutes who want to get a better price from their customers.”
A few decades ago, it was commonplace for husbands to expect to see tell-tale red marks on their wedding night. But despite the fact that China is much less conservative today than it used to be, many brides are still judged the same way.
Bo Gu / NBC News
A photo of "Joan of Arc Red" on the product's website.
Lian Yue, a well-known columnist with “Shanghai Weekly,” has been giving love advice for ten years. He says a large number of his befuddled male readers tell him about their disappointment when they find out their girlfriends have had sexual experiences before them. He also hears quite often from women concerned about losing their virginity to Mr. Wrong.
“The Chinese women’s social status is still low, and some of the husbands value wives for having their hymens intact,” said Lian. “This doesn’t necessarily just exist in rural areas. Some urban people have the same idea.”
Reconstructive surgery is an option
If the woman is well-off and prefers a more secure camouflage, surgery is an option to make her feel like a true virgin again.
Li Weifan, deputy president of the Beijing Wuzhou Women’s Hospital, spoke to NBC News quite openly about the “hymen reconstruction” they offer as one of their plastic surgery services.
“Around 10 to 20 percent of our patients come here for plastic surgeries like liposuction or breast implant,” she said. “Some girls – a lot them are newly graduated college students – regret their previous sex life and come here to regain their virginity before they get married.”
Li said the hospital schedules a few surgeries every month, and the patients’ recovery time is about one month. The surgeries cost from $450 to 1,000. Due to privacy issues and the fact that many of the surgeries are done in private clinics, there are no official statistics on how many re-virginization surgeries are performed in China annually. However women’s hospitals like Wuzhou have become popular in China with young, affluent women because they can enjoy better service and greater privacy than in public hospitals.
Although the fake hymen product instructions claim there are no side effects, gynecologists do warn that it could cause infections. Doctors also warn that surgery induced fake hymens could rupture if the girls engage in physical exercise like riding a bike.
Despite the risks, becoming a virgin in a few minutes is not just a dream in China. The easy-to-operate fake hymens are also used by women in the Middle East, where pre-marital sex still has a strong social stigma.
In Syria, an artificial hymen can be bought for $15 on the black market by girls who can’t afford to have hymen reconstruction surgery performed in underground clinics. In 2009, a prominent religious leader in Cairo called for severe punishment of any person who facilitates the sale of artificial hymens, deeming it an immoral and corrupt act.
“It’s really not necessary at all to fake being a virgin, unless you have been raped and this really provides some comfort,” said Wang Xiaoyuan, a young editor in the Beijing office of Bazaar magazine. “Women have no duty to keep their virginity before getting married. If my boyfriend had a virgin complex, I’d absolutely find another guy. I think in the name of no discrimination in China, the difference between male and female does not get the respect it deserves.”
Leave a Comment:
I'm a 63 year old fart and still a virgin any takers before I quack?
go to a massage parlor there Skippy..
This is like robbing a mini mart store and using your everyday car as the getaway vehicle. Hoping nobody knows. Must remember the lie to the alibi. Always looking over your shoulder. Might need to hire a hit-man to erase an old guy or two or three. She'll probably buy pre-made dinners and claim she cooks them.
That's because you lack the brains to be anything better. It's "orgasm", sweetie. Go lie down.
Purity is the issue here. In a false world truth is mistakenly meaningless. Virgins are and have always been highly prized for the purity they represent. Purity contains the potency of human divinity as best represented by the Virgin Maryam and her son, the Christ. No one likes being decieved, tricked or bamboozled. Nowadays purity seems foolish and even virgins cannot wait to be deflowered to enjoy the delusional freedom promised by those corrupted people who glorify sex as a corridor to divinity. Sex is and will always be nothing more than the breeding instinct of all other creatures in this Creation. Human are empowered to dwell animal instincts and cannot do so without a wholesome respect for Purity.
Pastor, read "The Theology of the Body." I think you would enjoy it. Sex is a very beautiful thing when taking place within marriage and when it is lust-free, when sex is about giving to the other instead of taking from them.
Agreed: Sex that focuses on the pleasure of the other person, especially someone you love, is extra special. But... wow, lust-free sex... doesn't really seem worth it. You might as well masturbate into a sock.
Well, maybe that's bc we have different definitions for the word lust. By lust, I mean any attitude that objectifies the other person, that's all. I don't mean we shouldn't enjoy sex.
Pastor: I can't think of a single time that I've heard anyone "glorify sex as a corridor to divinity." On the contrary, I have heard religionists glorify virginity as a corridor to divinity, as you have done above. That's kind of insane. People were having sex and enjoying it long before your supposedly "virgin" Mary came along, and they don't need your particular religion to determine when they should or shouldn't have sex. In fact, they don't need any religion for that. A healthy dose of science would be useful, for the primary drawbacks to having sex are the spread of disease, and the unwanted pregnancies.
I agree with you that "no one likes being deceived, tricked, or bamboozled." (I'm not sure why you need all three verbs, since they all mean the same thing.) However, religious leaders such as you are responsible for doing exactly that. The Bible is such an internally inconsistent book that it cannot be taught as 100% true. One example: No sooner does Moses present his people with "Thou Shalt Not Kill" than his successor Joshua orders the slaughter of every man, woman, child, baby, and fetus in Jericho and other conquered towns. Yet this genocide is taught by you and your pastor pals as some kind of heroic deed. Disgusting. Guess it's OK if it's from your Bible and not from some crazy Muslim book, ay?
Oh net, focus on the New Testament, not the Old. I'm all for religious freedom. You have the freedom to not believe anything. But it doesn't seem very open minded of you to put down anyone who does believe. I know some of us Christians can give Christianity a bad name, but there are and have been many very brilliant, intelligent believers.
We should send the Public sponsored human sexuality professors from North Eastern University to demonstrate to the Red Chinese what US citizens do with their power tools, for the sake of academic interests of course.
Hahaha of course!
Actually this probably brings a premium on the under age hooker market
Joan of Arc Red???? She was burned at the stake. I don't see the correlation.
Wizard,
But she was a virgin burned at the stake. The church even checked before hand. Maybe that entire story rings for some reason in chinese culture.
I'm going to start selling pocket protectors, nerd glasses and highwater pants to men so they can fake their virginity.
That virgin thing was years ago for me. You would be damn lucky to find a good woman today, virgin or not. An experienced agressive woman brings out da tiger in ya baby im tellin ya..not a big deal if the HYMEN's there or not.
Ever stop to think thatthis may be where Muslim terrorists think they are going to get the 72 virgins from?
they ran out yrs ago. now they get 72 GOATS!!!
Some of em would prolly be happy with that too...if you wanna learn something creepy abt ancient terrorist culture, google "Pederast"
what kills me about the whole thing is that there are other signs when i female has been sexually active such as a virgin is usually going to be so tight that it's hard for a normal man to get in and if she has had many partners she is probably going to be looser. I understand that other countries have different cultural and religious beliefs but i agree you should never start any kind of relationship with a lie. Also you have to think if women go around saying I am a virgin then you think she must be free of STDS or HIV/AIDS so to me it makes it easier for thing to be given that could affect other peoples health
You can't beat nature. Its human instinct inborn. There are things you dont like second-hand, including a wife. This is what puts human apart from animals. Re-virganizing may not be good, but defending pre-marital sex is bad bad.
Good point. Being that the sexual act is a renewing of wedding vows, pre-marital sex is actually two people lying to one another. You don't lie to someone you truly love.
I am not saying that pre-marital sex is the way to go but i also do not believe that people should be judged because they have had sex if you don't want a woman that is not a virgin that is your choice but do not condemn those who have different opinions and lifestyles
Pointing out how beautiful love and sex can be is not judging and condemning. We have all made mistakes.
I'm not sure what one would need virgins for anyhow, unless perhaps to sacrifice to a volcano.
I wonder whatthe FDA would say if tiswas sold in America. I wonder if anybody's patentedit here. Congreesspassed a new patent law this week. It changesthe law so that first to file, beats when the acual invention was created.
This will wake up the sleepy patent departmentthat already has a 750,000 patent backlog. Happy news. The new money collection all stays at the patent office und r the new law. This means it can't be used to reduce the deficit if returned to the general fund. Ain't Congress wise? The bill passed theSenate 95-5.
I guess the old statement by (I believe) the Circus tycoon P.T. BARNUM now resonates in China now... "No one ever went broke, underestimating the stupidity of the Public". I believe another saying worth mentioning was by the American comedian W.C. FIELDS, "Never give a sucker an even break". My work is done...
I see it as evolutionary. A man sees a virgin woman as someone who won't infect him and is likely able to have a baby and continue his genetic line. His genetic line's survival is also enhanced by having babies with several different women in different parts of the world so that a catastrophe that wipes out one of his families most likely won't impact the others. Over the tens of thousands of years our species has been procreating, these are traits that are selected for. The business of monogamy, marriage, and the nuclear family are social constructs developed to deal with short term catastrophic situations like the plague, war, famine, etc. but my initial reasoning about primal desires is what resulted in what we feel today.
RE women, the situation is very different. A woman's genetic strain has the best chance of survival if she limits her sexual partners and associated exposure to infection. She should also limit the number of children she has so she can focus her attention. This is in direct conflict with the male desire to have lots of sex (babies) with lots of different women. This is tremendously simplified but demonstrates how amazing it is that the two genders get along at all; I guess sexual desire is a very powerful thing.
This is a inteligient comment, I agree.
If you are going to start a long-term, meainingful relationship with a man who sees you as a virgin first and woman second, you might want to rethink that option. Actually, your "sexual history" like everything else belongs to you and no one else.
If you are going to start a long-term, meaningful relationship with a woman who lies to you, you might want to rethink that option.
Speaking about virgins... at the time that JESUS CHRIST was born, all women without children, were considered virgins. Sex was common (how do you think farming became the basis of the population growth). In modern day, you could call this "looking for Mr. Right". There was no concept of marraige until approximately 800 years ago. People had sex, became pregnant, became a family, not some phoney ritual prior to. You must realize that history doesn't stay the same and attitudes change. In th USA, 150 years ago, if you told someone they were cute, it meant they were 'bow-legged', is that the same now?
There's already a shortage of Chinettes over there. Seems like they'd be in a strong bargaining position to put a stop to this virgin fever.
Experienced women are the best. Once you get past the used part, its really great!
Regardless of anyone's opinion on whether pre-marital sex is good or bad, the fact that you lie about it makes you unworthy as a spouse. It doesn't matter if you are male or female. If you lie, then you aren't worth being with.
Too many people (both men and women) get married to someone who isn't good for them. This is especially true among the under 25 crowd. Men tend to focus on how a woman looks rather than whether or not the woman is worth being with. There really isn't any value in a spouse if all she has going for her are her looks. Not any real and lasting value, anyhow. Those are the ones that are divorced in not too many years. Women (mostly younger ones) are also focused on how the men look. A "hunk" is more important than someone who is going to take good care of her and treat her well. Again, the focus isn't on finding someone who is good for them, but instead on finding someone who they can tell their friends about. Not many men or women (young ones more than old) are going to be happy telling their friends that they are dating someone who doesn't look that great... even if the person is perfect for them. It isn't a double standard there... both men and women do it.
The problem with pre-marital sex is that it can really complicate things when men and women choose to date the "hot and sexy" rather than the "quality" people. You get people having kids who don't take care of their kids, drop them into adoption agencies, abort them, kill them, beat them, and so on. You get people who end up with various diseases that can last a lifetime (or shorten it greatly).
From the comments here, it's obvious that most will ignore any of this and continue to have sex with everyone they can. It's rather "funny" how instead of trying to get the men to stay virgins, women choose to stop being virgins, which just increases the number of men who aren't virgins. And they still complain about it.
Why don't we just say that everyone can have sex with everyone regardless of age or marital status? I mean, everyone should be allowed to use their bodies any way they choose, right? Obviously, that's a bad idea. But is it really any different from running around having sex with many people before marriage?
Men or women... if you or the person you want to marry has a focus on sex instead of love, then you're wasting your time getting married. It won't last.
I agree. Why would someone want to have sex with a person the rest of their life (even if they are monogamous) if that person's focus everytime they get close is what pleasure your body can provide him/her. Personally I would want someone who want to get close bc they want to love me and share love with me. Purity of heart is necessary for a happy, fulfilling sex life. Otherwise, we are just using each other for pleasure.
I'm still confused as to why you can't "love," "share love," and "use each other for pleasure" simultaneously. Judging from some of the posts here, one would think that having uninspired, vanilla sex is a requirement for a successful marriage. Yikes!
You're not the first person to be confused about sex. (Tee hee I know you didn't mean it like that). Really though, it's difficult for us to have sex without objectifying the other person. I'm only encouraging everyone to strive for that purity of heart that doesn't degrade another person. It's very easy to misuse sex and in so doing misuse one other. Sex should be pleasurable, but I just think we are depriving ourselves of a truly fulfilling conjugal act if our focus is ever "how much pleasure can I get out of this?" I am fascinated by this topic. I think the way men and women approach one another in the sex act affects their entire relationship. I'm just advocating for healthy, fulfilling relationships here where everyone is treated like they have value.
This seems so unnecessary. Virginity is not something to cherish--it's something to shed, preferably while someone's using a condom. And perhaps a second form of birth control as a backup. I'd tell her to come back once she knows what she's doing.
Any woman who would have sex with someone with that degrading attitude is insecure bc she has been hurt in the past possibly or bc she never was taught that she has value.
Wow... Well here in the US they would need to make hymens the size of footballs in order to fit in "some" women snuggly. Talk about open society, it's wide open. Notice I did say some so no offense.
Pretty amazing society. We can cover up just about anything today. But remember, we still have to live with ourselves.
"He also hears quite often from women concerned about losing their virginity to Mr. Wrong."
Doesn't the author mean Mr. WONG? ;) Hey if you can't laugh at other cultures, then, you're just not trying hard enough.
LOL! Very cute.
tee hee
I thought it said "Wong" for a moment too lol.
Its not Mr. Wong its MR. WANG Because we know WANG can HANG