The mysteries and urban myths surrounding my cherry

So the other night I was, er, exploring my body. Well, it was a joint mission. (goth guy came around) The point is, SOMEONE tried to convince me I didn't have a cherry, that it'd already gone and popped itself.

Naturally I panicked. How many virgins had this guy actually been with? Did he really have ANY idea? I know I didn't have any idea. I've googled a lot of things about my body, but that one was something I'd never gotten around to. Or even thought about. Until somebody told me I didn't have a cherry to pop.

Of course he gave me a spiel about how it's okay and I'm still a virgin in my mind and all that jazz. NO DUH, ape brain. I'm not WORRIED about that. I was more worried that my body hadn't sent me so much as a memo when it decided I didn't need a cherry anymore.

So I went home and googled it. Here's everything you don't know about the cherry.

It's proper name is Hymen. It's a thin flap of skin on the VERY OUTSIDE of the vagina. It is NOT deep inside, as I always imagined. It's actually sort of a part of the labia, those lips around the opening. It's a crescent shaped flap of skin on the side of the vagina that's closer to the anus. (ugh. I hate the word anus. Which makes talking about the magic finger really awkward... more on that some other post.)

On some women it covers a large part of the vagina. On some women, it's very small, and really doesn't get in the way at all. Barely there. It rarely covers the whole vagina, and if it does, then a doctor has to fix it, or else menstruation is impossible. You can tell if it's broken because it'll be two little flaps instead of one, from tearing. Seriously, the connection to it from the rest of the skin down there is practically seamless. It's just a thin membrane of skin over the lower part of the vag.

MINE is INTACT. SOMEONE has never been with a virgin, or he wouldn't have given me that heart attack. Although mine is there, it is very, very small and very stretchy. I could probably have sex without breaking it. (not that I'm gonna test that theory.)

Breaking the hymen results, usually, in a little pain and a little blood. I guess it's sort of a sacred right. In many faiths, if the woman's hymen doesn't break the first time she has sex with her husband, she's considered unclean and the husband can get rid of her and she brings shame on her family. (COUGH COUGHIslamCOUGH COUGH)

Heh. Did anyone ever watch Bill Nye the science guy as a kid? This is the point in the show where a big booming voice would say "WELL NOW YOU KNOW."