Performing Virginity and Chastity in the Middle Ages presents a compelling and provocative study of virginity, which challenges the belief that female virginity can be reliably and unambiguously defined, tested and verified.
The book opens with a survey of classical and medieval medical treatises that offer advice on verifying female virginity-and sometimes suggest ways to fake it. Proofs of virginity as they occur throughout Christian hagiography (particularly when the virgin is threatened with rape) are discussed, as well as the chastity test or "ordeal" as it is represented in vernacular romance. The representation of the male virgin in hagiography and romance is also analyzed. Finally, the author explores examples from contemporary fiction, television and film in which testing virginity is a theme.