Signs of Virginity

Signs of Virginity examines virginity testing in Judaism and early Christianity, and the relationship of these tests to male sexual violence. Rosenberg points to two authors-Augustine of Hippo and the rabbinic collective that produced the Babylonian Talmud-who construct alternative models that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity, encouraging men to be gentle, rather than brutal, in their sexual behavior.