Rethinking Agency in the European Debate about Virginity Certificates: Gender, Biopolitics, and the Construction of the Other

Abstract

Abstract Several European countries have taken measures to discourage or ban physicians from issuing virginity certificates to migrant women, with the stated aim of protecting these women from oppression. Arguments against the practice are centred around questions of medical ethics, gender inequality, and autonomy. What underpins these arguments is an evaluation of whether women have a choice in matters related to their sexuality. This article shows that the reasons provided for why virginity certificates should not be issued can similarly be applied to the prescription of erectile dysfunction medication, yet the latter practice remains largely unquestioned. It argues that the discrepancy in approaches to both practices points to an a priori understanding of migrant women as non-agentic, grounded in racial gendered norms, and that agency is mobilised as a biopolitical tool to Other migrant women and communities. Current approaches towards virginity certificates thus replicate the oppression of the migrant women they (cl)aim to liberate.