I'm Vietnamese and I'm writing an essay about prostitution. I want to ask the word to express properly the people who sell their virginity for money. In Vietnamese, we use a phrase literally means selling their "golden precious".
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3AFAIK, it's simply called "selling your virginity". You might find some information on WP's page on virginity.– coleopteristCommented Mar 1, 2013 at 7:28
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1In some cultures, "selling one's all" is a euphemism for this broad concept (with reference to a virgin). It depends on the cultural, social and geographical context, I suppose. As @coleopterist says, there's probably no one general expression.– KrisCommented Mar 1, 2013 at 8:07
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1Hm, like in bride price?– tchrist ♦Commented Mar 1, 2013 at 12:42
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If a trip to the altar is included, there's the pedestrian marrying for money.– Andrew LazarusCommented Mar 2, 2013 at 16:42
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I know about "Geisha" term for this but it is used in Japan. They were expensive prostitutes.– Persian CatCommented Mar 8, 2013 at 10:06
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3 Answers
One way of selling your virginity is to "auction" it to the highest bidder. Compared to prostitution, auction, has a slightly more positive connotation in that the owner is in control of the transaction, and should be able to pocket the entire sum unlike many instances of prostitution, where the fee is divided between the girl and her procurer.
From the Daily Mail:
Bids reach $35,000 for virginity of high school student, 18, who is auctioning herself to pay for sick mother's medical bills.
After a 20-year-old Brazilian auctioned off her virginity three months ago for $780,000, high school student Rebecca Bernardo made the decision she would also offer her deflowering to the highest bidder. [...]
Despite taking money in exchange for sex, Miss Migilorini denied being a prostitute.
She told the New York Daily News at the time: 'If you only do it once in your life then you are not a prostitute, just like if you take one amazing photograph it does not automatically make you a photographer.'
In different cultures virginity has been and still is regarded as a valuable commodity and the right to have sexual intercourse with a virgin can be bought. For example in Japan between 1603 and 1868, a maiko, an apprentice geisha, would sell her deflowering to her patron in a ritual called mizuage. Although it officially became illegal in 1959 there have been reported cases as recent as 2001.
Wikipedia
"The money acquired for a maiko’s mizuage was a great sum and it was used to promote her debut as a geisha, but this was not considered by geisha to be an "act of prostitution."
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answered Jun 28, 2013 at 22:10
I had some minor success Googling the expression "pimping virgins" but would not go so far as to say that is a commonly used expression.
Utah Mom Accused of Pimping Virgin
SALT LAKE CITY - A Salt Lake City woman has been charged with offering her 13-year-old daughter's virginity to a man for $10,000.
Definition of pimp:
Noun
A man who controls prostitutes and arranges clients for them, taking a percentage of their earnings in return.
answered Mar 1, 2013 at 10:41
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2But pimping would be selling someone else's virginity.– Andrew Leach ♦Commented Mar 1, 2013 at 11:06
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@AndrewLeach, I suppose that one could "pimp" one's own virginity, right? It's still brokering a transaction of money for sex, albeit a one-time-only transaction, by definition of virginity. Commented Mar 1, 2013 at 11:11
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@AndrewLeach - a sordid subject indeed! (and tragic, like those who sell their own kidney) Commented Mar 1, 2013 at 11:20
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1RE: One-time transaction – in the movie Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, the camera briefly shows a tear-off ad that reads, simply, F*** A VIRGIN. Humorously enough, all the phone numbers are torn off the bottom of the ad.– J.R.Commented Mar 1, 2013 at 16:30
The simple answer here is "No, there is no specific one-wordterm for that."
So there's your official answer !
You know, a confusing aspect of this particular site is:
Very often there's a question where the answer is - very simply -
Full answer: "No, there's no one word term for that."
And that's the end of it.
(OK, you can imagine people adding VERY SHORT comments like "consider pimp", but that's it.)
But often - actually, always - on this site (I don't think it happens on any other SO site) you get long article-like answers, for questions where the answer is "No, there is no specific one-wordterm for that."
By no means is this a bad thing, a waste of pixels or whatever - I'm just pointing it out.
