Victorian-ish virginity tests

[tasllyn]

Can anyone tell me or point me to a resource on how a doctor or healer would have checked for virginity during the Victorian era? Preferably not by just checking for a hymen, which is the big thing my research is indicating so far. There's mention of checking for scarring, but I don't know if there's anything else that could be checked for.

This

Comments

[meridae]

From what I remember of my women's history in the Victorian era, there were some quite brutal and traumatising ways of 'detecting' virginity because that essentially destroyed the hymen they were looking for. This was around legislation (The Contagious Diseases Act) designed to control venereal disease by controlling prostitution, particularly in military towns (ports or towns with with barracks/garrisons quartered in them). Basically if you were a single woman, you could be grabbed off the street and subject to virginity tests. If you weren't deemed a virgin, you were a prostitute and shipped off to a 'lock hospital' until you were cured of the diseases you carried. If you were a virgin, well, you'd just been violated and traumatised, the proof of your virginity destroyed (in case you got picked up again) and you were told you were a good girl, given a shilling, and sent home. Josephine Butler campaigned against this, so if you googled for the Contagious Diseases Act, Josephine Butler and Barracks towns like , it might lead you to

[bigwinged]

I stand corrected, and... am totally not surprised. o.o

[tyopsqueene]

This isn't strictly true; you were examined for evidence of venereal disease, not virginity

[tasllyn]

Ooh, thank you! That helps a lot!

[tasllyn]

I wish I could say this shocked me, but it doesn't. ::sigh::

Thank you so much for the Google terms! This certainly isn't the happiest subject, but it's been interesting to research!