Breaking Female Body Myths

For a TEDx Oslo event, Nina Dølvik Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl delivered a talk on virginity fraud, to consider the many different ways that young women are judged, and how the myths that surround the status of their virginity continue to make life harder for them.

Some of the ideas that Nina Dølvik Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl speak to include the myth that all women bleed their first time, and that the hymen disappears or is somehow altered during intercourse. Due to these ideas, many people continue to believe that a woman's virginal status can be deciphered by examining her genitals. Because of the value that some cultures place on these ideas, these "virginity checks" can sometimes be incredibly damaging to the women who undergo them. This has caused many women to undergo surgeries, or purchase "fake hymens" and vials of blood, in order to uphold these impossible standards.

As these myths are still so prevalent, many women live in constant fear, hindering their opportunities and their success. As Nina Dølvik Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl state, it's time to end these absurd ideas surrounding women's sexuality. To dispel these ideas, the pair show how each women's body is different, and that these strict standards cannot be used to determine someone's virginal status, nor should they. By speaking to this topic, Nina Dølvik Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl aim to improve women's rights, with a small step being to get rid of this controlling measure that impacts them so negatively.