Warning: Attention, readers, this topic is controversial, but it needs to be addressed. You can keep reading, or you can stop here.

Side note: This article in no way is shaming those who choose to not have sex because of personal reasons. This article is written for those who discredit the values of women because they gave up their virginity.

Virginidad/Virginity: pure/pura; the most important thing in life.

The majority of girls grow up with the idea that if you lose your virginity before getting married, or at a young age, then you have done something horrible because you could no longer wear a proper wedding dress to Church. Historically if a woman got married with a white dress, it meant she was pure, and if she wore a cream or beige dress, it meant that she was no longer pure. The pureness means that her body was valuable. Meaning, if she slept with guys before her marriage, her body was seen as low-quality. In some cultures, getting married and not being a virgin brought dishonor upon families.

Society looks at women who are no longer virgins as someone who is "easy" or a "slut." It is implied that this woman does not value her body or respect it because she lets anyone sleep with her. While society shames women for the choices they make, they congratulate men for no longer being virgins. We are made to praise the man but disrespect the woman. Why? I mean, it's not like they were doing the same thing (sarcasm). We mistreat and devalue the choice women take in wanting to no longer be virgins by having people believe that a woman who decides to give up her "purity" should no longer be respected.

This view in which we disregard the value of a woman's body because it is no longer virginal seems ironic. We never make men feel inferior after they are no longer virgins; instead, we congratulate them for the many times they decided to sleep with a woman. The way we see this concept is wrong. A woman should be able to no longer feel the evil stare of people after divulging that they gave their "pureness" up. Just the same way a guy isn't judged, a woman should not be, either.

Judging a woman for her choices but not judging a guy for the choices he makes is a double standard. A double standard is the notion of applying different views on men and women. For instance, we tell girls to close their legs, or to not have sex, because they can get pregnant, yet we give guys condoms and encourage them to have sex. This mindset, or way of thinking, is horrible. We need to stop making women feel that the choices they make are dishonorable.

A women's body is valuable, no matter how many times she sleeps with a man. She has the right to decide what she wants to do with her body, and no one should be the judge of that. The way I see it is, if guys do not get judged when they are no longer virgins, then a women should not have to go through that.