virgin/virginity/virginal

if these terms are intrinsic to your material, apply them to both sexes with equal weight and meaning; in general, there are few good reasons for talking about anyone's sexual status. The double standard associates virginity or virginal behavior with women while it rewards men in subtle and unsubtle ways for being experienced. The concept of virginity is heterosexist, euphemistic, difficult to define physiologically with any precision, and alive today. Jessica Valenti (The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women) describes hundreds of purity balls, "where young girls pledge their virginity to their fathers at a promlike event." (The balls were apparently federally funded.) Valenti reports a number of purity groups are on Facebook: "schools holding abstinence rallies and assemblies featuring hip-hop dancers and comedians alongside religious leaders.... So what are young women left with? Abstinence-only education during the day and Girls Gone Wild commercials at night." And she sums up the moral of it all: "A woman's worth lies in her ability—or her refusal—to be sexual." Replace virginal with one of the dozens of neutral, more telling terms, for example: untouched, innocent, unused, uncorrupted, unsullied, wholesome, fresh, pristine, spotless, unblemished, untainted, unadulterated.