‘In their first affairs women are in love with their lovers,
later they are in love with love.’ La Rochefoucauld
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‘She thought that I knew/and I thought that she knew/so both of us
were willing, but we didn’t know how to do it.’
Elvis Costello,’Mystery Dance’, 1977
SECOND TIME AROUND
Hymenoplasty is surgery for women who want to return to a virginal state and have their first time all over again. One 40-year-old woman from San Antonio in the US had the operation done as a gift to her husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Apparently the reconstruction can cost about $3,500, and can be carried out in day surgeries in America, Japan and western Europe, but is banned in some other countries.
‘I remember the first time I had sex — I kept the receipt.’
Groucho Marx
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‘I want to wait to have sex until I’m married.’ Britney Spears
‘I had to lie so much about sex, first when I was 15, because
I wasn’t supposed to be having it. And then when I got older,
I lied to everybody I was having sex with,
so I could have sex with other people.’ Cybill Shepherd
‘A little still she strove, and much repented,
and whispering, ".I will ne’er consent" — consented.’ Lord Byron
Single mothers
Figures from the National Center for Health Statistics in the US showed a rise in pregnancies of single mothers, more than half in their 20s, with 1.5 million births in 2004. The $50m Abstinence Education Program from the Department of jC S Health and Human Services suggested that women abstain from sex until their 30s.