Virgins For Sale
A Romanian teenager just sold her virginity for £8,800. According to the UK’s Daily Mail, Alina Percea, barely 18, auctioned her virginity on a website last week, so she could afford to pay for college.
The auction winner, a 45-year-old Italian business man, paid for her flight to Venice, met her with a box of chocolates, and took her sight-seeing before they checked in to a hotel. There, she had to provide a certificate verifying her virginity before she was paid for the service.
She said the man “didn’t say if he was married or had a family, and I didn’t ask him.”
Percea isn’t the first to profit from society’s virginity fetish. Most notably, Natalie Dylan sold hers for $3.7 million back in January of this year. Alina Percea credits Dylan with giving her the idea, saying she was “inspired” when she read the story on a German erotic website.
Dylan, a 22-year-old from San Diego, began her online auction in the fall of 2008. Bidding reached $243,000, until a breast augmentation and the added publicity of Howard Stern’s radio show rocketed her into multi-million dollar territory.
Natalie Dylan, Before and After
Since prostitution is illegal in most of America, she completed the transaction through Nevada’s Bunny Ranch brothel.
Unsurprisingly, these events have sparked a series of international debates, a mixture of public intrigue and outrage. Some laud the girls for making widespread perversions work in their favor. After all, they’re raising money to get an education.
On the other hand, at least in Dylan’s case, it’s arguable that America doesn’t practice what it preaches. With very few exceptions, our national laws decry and criminalize prostitution. However, the media rewarded Dylan’s behavior with incredible attention and financial success, not unlike the pseudo-celebrities whose careers were launched by sex tapes. She has since been paid to make appearances at parties, and recently signed a book deal with David Black Literary Agency.
The obsession with virginity is a widespread phenomenon that’s existed for centuries. If so many people are preoccupied with being “the first”, is it really about the appreciation of purity, or merely about conquering un-touched territory? Are they captivated by the presence of innocence, or just relieved there’s no frame of reference for comparison?
Britney Spears made a name for herself as a happy, wholesome pop star who was saving herself for marriage. Her image was shaped as a virginal lolita, a persona of “innocent seduction” that launched her to superstar status.
Former Spears lawyer Eric Ervin, however, said in November, 2007, that the “virgin” image Spears portrayed was a “PR blitz.” He’d been engaged in the media cover-up of her sexual activity from the time she was 14. They chose to hide it from the public because “virginity is a hot commodity, even if it’s an illusion.” And, it worked.
Punishing pedophelia is borderline hypocrisy in a culture that promotes rampant over-sexualization of teens and preteens. Young actresses and pop stars are harassed and objectified by men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers. Stars like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen twins even had fan websites with countdown clocks to the very minute they became “legal”.
The Olsen twins, at ages 15 and 17
Britney Spears, at ages 16 and 17
Lindsay Lohan, at age 17
Many young female celebrities are promoted with implicit sexuality before they’re 18, and immediate explicit sexuality the moment that fateful birthday arrives.
In a recent CBS Sports Community discussion entitled Who’s On Your Countdown Clock? , one father writes, “mylie cyrus will be 18 soon,and i can finaley throw that bag of candy thats been under my truck seat away…besides im tired of bribeing my son into watching hana montana…lmmao” [sic].
Miley Cyrus, at age 8
Miley Cyrus, at age 16
Interestingly enough, the latest generation of tweenie-pop princesses (primarily Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale) have spawned from Disney shows and movies. With their images strictly managed by the Mouse, the girls are now the ones sexualizing themselves, as evidenced by Miley Cyrus‘ MySpace photos, above.
It’s no secret that America is obsessed with youth. But the insatiable appetite for seductive young virgins has led hoards of minors to ooze sexuality, often before they’ve even hit puberty.
They’re taught to seek unhealthy amounts of attention that they couldn’t possibly be emotionally equipped to handle. Is it any wonder why Britney, Lindsay, the Olsen twins, and more, have emerged from their teenage years so maladjusted?
If our society claims to be more civilized than generations past, we need a severe re-evaluation of this ever-present fetish. How can we raise our children correctly, if we’re so obsessed with taking their innocence? The quality of life for our young people, not to mention the future they’ll mold and create, is in serious jeopardy.
Sources:
“Virgin-for-sale Natalie Dylan” // New York Daily News
“Britney Spears’ Secrets: Sex at 14″ // Us Magazine (November 20, 2007)
Virginity is highly valuable and in no circumstance should it be bartered.
I am not very surprised as I saw many did to pass their final exams in their universities!
What a fantastic post! I’m floored by your website, and especially the way you present your work. Thanks for stating this issue so clearly for us.
The media is filled with sexual hypocrisy, and creates no-win situations for all ages and sexualities. Men aren’t allowed to oggle, but are expected to by media’s standards. Women are supposed to look young, but sexualize themselves in such a way as to promote sex. Kids want to be hot and full-grown women want to be kids. It’s preposturous that our social standards ask us to believe and represent these things.