Over in some ultra-religious parts of America, and, well, other ultra-religious places and the Middle Ages, a girl’s virginity is considered her father’s property. It’s not to be given away until after he gives her away at her wedding.
And that’s why Brelyn Bowman, in her twenties, got a certificate made up proving her virginity, so she could give it to her dad as a gift on her wedding day.
Uploading a photo of her and her grinning dad to Instagram, she posted this caption: ‘[I] was able to present a certificate of purity to [my father] signed by my doctor that my hymen was still intact.’
The image has now gone viral, with responses including both criticism and fawning, reports The Times. To some it’s ‘creepy’, to others, she’s a ‘role model’. To us? She’s wasted a fair bit of a doctor’s time… and, well, there’s more than one way to break a hymen – imagine being a daddy’s girl who never got to go horseriding?
Michael Freeman, her father (who is a pastor of a church he founded in 1993) said he was surprised by the gift. Which is a little mean considering he made all his children sign ‘covenants’ as teenagers promising they’d steer clear of sex until their respective wedding days.
‘It’s not about what they did for me, rather what they did for themselves,’ he said.
Brelyn’s older sister had done the same on her own wedding day. It’s not known the gender or gift status of the other sibling.
Regardless, making your virginity your father’s property? It’s almost as backward as having to give someone else a gift on your own bloody wedding day!
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.