(no subject)

[lizdefiance.livejournal.com]

what's the practical purpose of a hymen? i heard it said it was intact to protect the vagina, but to protect it from what??

Comments

[lottasmiles.livejournal.com]

In my human sexuality class we were told it was probably used to protect from things back in the day when we were not as "sanitary" and modern as we are now. But that now it serves no purpose.

*shrug* The answer for that question seems to each persons opinion. I have yet to find any hardcore fact. :)

[419.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that it's now common for girls to be born sans hymen. Maybe our bodies are figuring out that it isn't needed anymore..?

[puttysan.livejournal.com]

Eh, evolution doesn't quite work that way. Unless there is a reproductive benefit to not being born with a hymen, there's no reason to weed it out of the population.

[foureyeddarlin.livejournal.com]

The hymen is left over from fetal development when the vagina is sealed off.

[fairis.livejournal.com]

Ya know how little kids stick peas/dirt/rocks/small toys in their ears and noses? I always thought the hymen was to discourage little girls from sticking those things in their vaginas as well. I'll be interested in the other responses to this post, cause I don't really know either.

Re: i might be alone here but...

[oddofferings.livejournal.com]

LOL

unfortunately, i never even explored myself or used tampons till i was 18, so it didn't serve any purpose for me...

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

There's a woman called Elaine Morgan who wrote a book in the '70s called _The Descent of Woman_: I haven't read it for a while now, but her theory is that humans were semi-aquatic at one stage in their evolution, and that the vagina was sealed off to protect it form salt water. She also pointed out that the vagina is not immediately near the surface of the body, and that this would have served the same purpose.
Morgan's theories have been largely discredited; she later wrote another book about the aquatic ape hypothesis - I think that may even be the title - in an attempt to be more 'scientific'.
The first book I mentioned is an entertaining read, however.