Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2000. / Thesis advisor: Glenn Sunshine. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-66).

No description available.

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2008. / Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-57).

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-57).

Thesis (MPH)--University of Limpopo, 2010. / Background Virginity testing is a practice that has stimulated lots of discussions amongst people from various perspectives. Controversies around this practice have necessitated further research in order to bring the voice of girls into the virginity testing debate. Aim and objective The aim of the study was to explore perceptions and experiences of girls on the practice of virginity testing. Methodology Triangulation of qualitative data collective method was used. The researcher informally engaged in key informants’ interviews with stakeholders who participate in the practice attended virginity testing celebration to observe the proceedings and processes conducted during the practice. Focus group discussions were conducted. Data was analyzed using NVIVO. Results Elders, in particular mothers, encouraged participation of girls in virginity testing. Girls observed and sighted benefits, ranging from viz: HIV/STI prevention, societal recognition and acceptance, purity before marriage and delay of sexual debut. Non participation was attributed to the in availability of virginity testing practices the areas. Concerns of doggy behaviors by testers, uneducated testers of testers, compromised health standards were discussed. Conclusions These findings reveal that there are areas of misunderstanding on how the practice is viewed and represented in the media. Arguments against virginity testing seem to be based on the perspective of on Westernized, feminist and individualistic notions of humanity disregarding the social construction of traditional cultural practices. Socialization and moral standards of people from a particularly Western orientation dominate the debate against virginity testing with no basis that is supported by research.

The purpose of this research was to determine whether or not different virginity status groups make different causal attributions about virginity and sexual choices, to determine whether self-monitoring influences this attribution process, and to determine whether or not there were any group sex differences.This research attempted to answer several questions: 1) What virginity status groups are most likely to be high self-monitors? Low self-monitors? Are there any sex differences? 2) What kinds of causal attributions do the different virginity status groups make about other virginity status groups? Are there any sex differences?The present research used Russell's Causal Dimension Scale (CDS) and Snyder's selfmonitoring scale to assess information about causal attributions and individual self-monitoring styles. One-hundred and ninety-eight subjects participated. Descriptive and correlational analyses were conducted to determine whether self-monitoring and virginitystatus were statistically related. Based on these correlation results, multivariate analyses were conducted. Wilke's Lambda coefficients were computed via a four-way factorial MANOVA analysis. Univariate analyses and F-tests were also computed based on the multivariate results. Post-hoc comparisons of significant univariate means (main effects and interactions) were then calculated using the Tukey B test.Results indicated that 1) self-monitoring and virginity status were not correlated although male subjects were significantly higher in self-monitoring than were female subjects. 2) Although univariate analyses revealed significant effects for attributions of internality and stability, using the conservative Tukey B procedure, there were no significant differences. 3) Adamant virgin subjects attributed significantly more internality to vignettes of males than Potential Non-virgin subjects did to vignettes of males. 4) Subjects attributed significantly more controllability to vignettes of female Regretful Non-virgins than to vignettes of female Adamant virgins. 5) Regretful Non-virgin subjects attributed significantly more stability to vignettes of Regretful Non-virgins than to vignettes of Adamant virgins. 6) Male subjects attributed significantly more controllability to vignettes of Potential Non-virgins than to vignettes of Adamant virgins. 7) Regretful Non-virgin subjects attributed significantly controllability to vignettes of male Potential Non-virgins than they did to vignettes of female Adamant virgins. 8) Non-virgin subjects attributed significantly more stability to vignettes of female Potential Non-virgins than they did to vignettes of female Regretful Non-virgins.A discussion of the results, their implications for practice, and recommendations for further research were also presented.

This thesis examines virginity as a social construct, contextualizes the relevance of first sex for contemporary youth, and presents a model for reading themes of virginity and first sex in popular media. Through discursive analysis, the central sections of this thesis – Virginity, Femininity, and Masculinity – analyze themes of sexual abstinence across the four books of the Twilight series. Examining contemporary and historical contexts placing gendered value on virginity and virginity loss, this project suggests that virginity narratives reflect whose bodies are considered to be valuable in society and for what purpose. The conclusion argues that virginity narratives are fundamentally colonial narratives, requiring the fantasy of unclaimed spaces, conquerors, and those to be conquered.

Abstract not available

I argue that virginity is a distinct phenomenon with essential structures that can be apprehended and described using a phenomenological method, and thus offer the first robust phenomenology of virginity. A more complex passage than the physical transaction of first sexual intercourse, virginity manifests the event of a coming to love through the conduit of the sexual-erotic body. Calling on Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology of givenness, I argue that virginity qualifies as a saturated phenomenon, exceeding or overflowing intuition and signification in its paradoxical phenomenality. As a study in saturated phenomena my work pushes the limits of phenomenology by endorsing the exigency of a phenomenology of the evanescent and enigmatic to engage denigrated domains of human experience such as sex and love. Our access to virginity is possible because of our ontological constitution as sexuate beings, but also because of our essential potential to cultivate our sexuate existence through the lens of a primordial erotic attunement. Conscious development of our erotic potential is a form of ascesis that can elevate the sexual-erotic encounter to the ethical height of love. Still, virginity can never be forced, taken, or lost, since the phenomenon is ultimately only gifted through an act of erotic generosity and the intervention of grace. Virginity is not a one-time threshold crossing. It has the essential possibility of being perpetually renewed with each singular sexual-erotic encounter. I seek to sever sex from its legacy as mere animal instinct and from its functional and reproductive teleology in order to open a new way of thinking about our sexual-erotic being that focuses on its ethical potential and its usefulness as a model for being with others outside of the sexual-erotic relation. I take seriously the Irigarayan possibility that we can craft an ethics of Eros. My work draws broadly from twentieth-century literature on phenomenology, poststructuralism, and psychoanalysis, including that of Marion, Beauvoir, Irigaray, Derrida, Heidegger, Foucault, and Butler.

I argue that virginity is a distinct phenomenon with essential structures that can be apprehended and described using a phenomenological method, and thus offer the first robust phenomenology of virginity. A more complex passage than the physical transaction of first sexual intercourse, virginity manifests the event of a coming to love through the conduit of the sexual-erotic body. Calling on Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology of givenness, I argue that virginity qualifies as a saturated phenomenon, exceeding or overflowing intuition and signification in its paradoxical phenomenality. As a study in saturated phenomena my work pushes the limits of phenomenology by endorsing the exigency of a phenomenology of the evanescent and enigmatic to engage denigrated domains of human experience such as sex and love. Our access to virginity is possible because of our ontological constitution as sexuate beings, but also because of our essential potential to cultivate our sexuate existence through the lens of a primordial erotic attunement. Conscious development of our erotic potential is a form of ascesis that can elevate the sexual-erotic encounter to the ethical height of love. Still, virginity can never be forced, taken, or lost, since the phenomenon is ultimately only gifted through an act of erotic generosity and the intervention of grace. Virginity is not a one-time threshold crossing. It has the essential possibility of being perpetually renewed with each singular sexual-erotic encounter. I seek to sever sex from its legacy as mere animal instinct and from its functional and reproductive teleology in order to open a new way of thinking about our sexual-erotic being that focuses on its ethical potential and its usefulness as a model for being with others outside of the sexual-erotic relation. I take seriously the Irigarayan possibility that we can craft an ethics of Eros. My work draws broadly from twentieth-century literature on phenomenology, poststructuralism, and psychoanalysis, including that of Marion, Beauvoir, Irigaray, Derrida, Heidegger, Foucault, and Butler.