TV’s virgin auctions: who pays the highest price?

It will be reassuring to some to know that virginity is still highly prized in our society. But now there’s a new twist. Plans for a reality television programme in which young people auction off their virginity to the highest bidder are underway in Nevada.

Justin Sisley, an Australian documentary maker, moved the programme to the desert state after he was told that Australian authorities would prosecute him for prostitution if filming went ahead in the state of Victoria. The show is being hosted by a Nevada brothel.

Sisley claims to have found at least three willing virgins for his programme. Each is being offered $20,000 along with 90 per cent of the “sale price”, the remainder going to the brothel. Initially, bids will be placed online and only the final round of bidders will appear on television where they will appear face to face with the virgin they are hoping to buy.

Both men and women virgins are volunteering and profess different motives, although the large pay-off is a significant factor.

‘Veronica’, aged 21, wants to earn money while at the same time promoting feminist views about women’s sexuality – although it is not entirely clear what these views might be.

Evelyn Duenas, aged 28, a cleaner from Ecuador, wants to raise money for the care of her mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and to fund her own studies. The government in Ecuador is so concerned about the situation that they are seriously considering contributing to her mother’s care and to her studies in order to prevent Evelyn’s participation in the show.

The third of the trio of virgins is a young man called ‘Alex’, who says he simply wants to meet someone.

As for the bidders, we have no idea who they will be or how they will describe their motives.

The announcement of the programme has been received with outrage and curiosity. The fact that it is being hosted by a brothel only underscores the fact that the transaction is a form of prostitution – and traditionally virgins fetch the highest prices in this profession.

The two female volunteers make it clear that they are doing it for financial reasons - a means to an end. Unfortunately, most prostitutes start out thinking the same thing. But the experience is so debasing that they often get hooked as a way of denying what they are doing to themselves and how they are being treated. Once people dissociate from their feelings, it is a very hard process to reverse.

Virginity is the ultimate commodity because it represents purity and innocence. The reward in Islam for being a devout Muslim is to go to heaven and to be surrounded by 72 virgins, representing different aspects of paradise and God’s ecstasy. In most religions, virginity exemplifies purity of spirit and all that is untouched by badness. Virginity confers satisfaction of a spiritual order rather than a sexual one and symbolises pure love.

Historically, most cultures have held to the tradition that a wife needed to be a virgin on her wedding night. This has not only ensured that the patriliny has been kept intact along with the wealth of the family, but it has also been a form of social contract to protect women. In exchange for his wife’s virginity – and fecundity – the husband is bound to care and provide for her and her children.

While women’s position in most western societies has changed radically, it is perhaps the advent of modern forms of birth control that has most challenged the importance we place on virginity. Sex and its consequences can be separated much more readily than ever before.

However, one’s first sexual experience marks an important step in psychological development. It is an initiation into adulthood with the attendant responsibilities of parenting. To minimise the importance of one’s first sexual partner is a way of attacking the mutual dependency that is an inevitable ingredient of any sexual relationship, no matter how much this may be denied or wished away.

What is so disturbing about Sisley’s programme is that it invites the public to participate in the perversion of virginity. As a powerful symbol of love, virginity is debased and turned into a mere object that can be auctioned like a new car.

Sisley’s programme undoubtedly appeals to the omnipotent delinquent viewer in us all. The other person doesn’t matter, there is no responsibility, there is just pleasure and greed and an illusion of power. Above all, feelings of vulnerability and emotional need are denigrated. As long as the ends are stated to be for a good cause, then who cares how they’re achieved? Volunteers and bidders alike can fool themselves with the idea that everyone comes out a winner.

Like a naughty kid, Sisley admits that the parents of the people involved “hate me”. Do we detect a note of triumph here? ·