Lois Lopez
Bio
A mom, a student, a wife, a writer.
Stories (1/0)
A Woman's Worth
It used to be that a woman's worth lied in her virginity, her purity; what men believed her to be. Growing up, that was all I ever heard. Don't date, don't be easy, a good man won't want to marry you if you aren't a virgin. Accepting your sexuality, as a woman, was the equivalent of blasphemy or committing some unspeakable crime. Yet when young boys went out and slept with 10, 20, 30 girls, they were considered conquistadors, gods; accomplished. It was damaging and confusing to grow up unable to ask questions and feeling like sex wasn't meant to satisfy me and even coming up with extensive lies so that the day I got married, my parents wouldn't be shamed because I wasn't a virgin. This twisted sense of our self-worth being measured by what men thought of us stopped me from coming forward the first time I was sexually assaulted, and the second time, and the third, and so forth. I always rationalized that letting anyone know would break my parents' hearts and that people would know I was worthless, unworthy of love or affection, damaged, unable to be repaired.
By Lois Lopez6 years ago in Viva