Pure Madness
Unsnarling the irrational, contradictory, still-thriving obsession with virginity April 2017
If the editors of Virgin Envy: The Cultural (In)Significance of the Hymen considered, even briefly, appropriating the title of Madonna’s iconic song for their book, they may have dismissed it as too corny. But, as usual when it comes to iconography, Madonna was on to something. The essays in Virgin Envy explore in depth what the pop singer was gesturing at: what virginity is like—what it stands in…