Vagina myths in formal education

Image: Page 315 of “Review of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology” by Gautam Biswas

This textbook was published in 2012 and is widely used in university teaching in India – outlining the difference between a “true” and “false” virgin. In this educational textbook, students are taught that anything “capacious, lengthy, enlarged” are tell-tale signs of a person who has had sexual intercourse, whilst the opposite traits are identifiers of an individual who has not had sexual intercourse.

This simply isn’t true and is a worrying example of how these myths have become part of the norm, especially within medical practice.