Virgin Martyrs

I do not wish women to have power over men. I only wish them to have power over themselves. - Mary Wollstonecraft

There’s a particular way that my husband sighs when we have been sitting silently, and I turn to him (usually we’re in the car for this) and say, “Did you know…?” He may know, or he may not - he may not care - but he’ll always let me tell him, and conversations may or may not go anywhere from there.

I do this a lot. I love history podcasts and nonfiction audiobooks, and just generally learning. If cost were not an obstacle, I would be working on a degree in Medieval European history, or sociology, or literature from the ancient world, or a number of other things. I just love information. Everything I learn makes life richer and more meaningful.

Like what I recently learned about the word “virgin.”

Did you know, the word “virgin” only starts being used to reference a person (usually a woman) who hasn’t had sex, in about the 12th or 13th century? Before this, it is used to denote a young woman, unmarried, but of marriageable age. Perhaps not surprisingly, at some point we as a culture deci…