I'm going to be real quick with this one. Folks, when you write a woman losing her virginity, how do you tackle the popping of the hymen? Personally, in the past, I did research as to what popping the cherry meant and found out why that happens. Apparently, the hymen, the titular cherry in case you didn't know, can pop without intercourse if significant force was applied to the pelvis, or something like that, that results in the hymen being broken or 'popped.' I don't doubt that losing one's virginity has at least 100 results on CHYOA proper, but how they tackle it I'm not going to research myself, but rather, ask how you fellow Forum Poster on how you personally got around the issue in the past.
Like the act of sex itself, the moment of defloration (check out the defloration tag for more examples!) can be either perfunctory or climactic, a moment of intense violence or almost wistful loss, a few spots of blood on a sheet or a gory wound. It is down to the needs of the story, and the skills and desires of the author as to how much of a focus on the act and the moment needs to be in their narrative. I myself have touched on it more than a few times, although given that Lois Lane does not start the story as a virgin, there are usually a few extra steps before that particular moment can crop up, so it is relatively rare in the story compared to, say, Lois losing her anal virginity. For other characters, like a legal-age Supergirl, virginity is much more of a possible option. Normally I use it as an intensifier - a way to take the action to another level, get across to the user that something irreparable has happened or that the rules have changed. The sight of blood from an orifice is a very strong image, raises concerns and apprehensions, and that is a heightened emotional sensibility that can be useful in driving a climax further than the ten thousandth description of humping and pumping can get across.
Personally, I strongly dislike the idea of blood in sex, so I never include that in my stories even if there are virginities to lose. Generally speaking I'm not all that interested in the concept anyway, though. It's a pretty limited concept? There are plenty of other firsts in sex that are more interesting to me than. Beyond that, I fully agree with Zeebop.
In all honesty, a hymen is just a thing that's in the way. And like you said, there are many ways to break it that don't involve sex. A woman can stick a dildo up there, break her hymen, and still technically be a virgin. I think that the symbolism of the defloration is more important than the actual penetration. Was it consensual? Was it romantic? Was it a mistake? How painful was it? Different or within expectations from what her girlfriends/mother/mentor said? How significant is the defloration in service of the plot? That kind of thing.
There is always the cop out that the young lady has used dildos and whatnot and isn't "technically" a virgin but hasn't had sex with any other people yet. ...But for many women the first time is awkward and fumbling experience and I don't consider myself qualified to write it realistically, so I'd either do the cop out mentioned earlier or otherwise have everything work out perfectly to make it into a hotter scene. I suppose if a story was more comedic than erotic then the awkward first time would work as well.
I would always cop out on the assumption that the hymen has gone (for a variety of reasons) long before the lady is of age to be published in CHYOA. However naive, nervous first time fumblings can happen at any age and they can be quite fun to describe. Totally agree with TheLowKing regarding Blood and Sex too.
I've never really bothered with putting the actual breaking of the hymen in my stories, I just found it a bit cliché so I avoided it. If I wanted to add it to a story I'd probably do a bit of online research and see if I could find some real life accounts from women about what it like etc. As an aside, I know that historically the breaking of the hymen was a bit of an issue. Aristocratic young women were expected to leave a little blood on the sheets on their wedding night as proof of their virginity. The problem was that the richer class of women often lost their hymen when horse riding or on bumpy carriage rides. To get around this mothers often provided their daughters with a pin so they could prick a finger and smear the required blood on the sheets as proof of their virginity. The poorer girls tended not to have this problem to deal with as they didn't have access to horses and carriage rides. So, if I was writing a story set in a historic period then I'd probably use some info like the above about breaking the hymen to add realism to first night marriage fumbling's.
Warden - I quite liked the idea you had a little while ago about a girl trying everything possible that's just short of technically losing her virginity. (I think that was the premise anyway) Are you thinking of writing it? (I'm guessing the hymen here could go via another girl's actions for instance).
Lol - my memory is playing tricks with me. I was thinking of your post in https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/male-de-virgining.4814/, however in my head I've re-rule 63'd it and taken the whole idea for a walk until it was unrecognisable.
Merry Meet, Personal preference but the sexual partner's enjoyment greatly affects my own. Consequently, for stories written by me, virgin women are typically described as having broken the actual membrane while performing extracurricular activities, such as sports, martial arts, cheerleading, et cetera. Maybe the fundamental question is what is the point of the coital exercise…?… Presumably neither partner wishes the woman to perceive pain, so what is really served by treating it like a virginity litmus test…?… If virginity is valued, then one presumably trusts the partner to being truthful; so, the blood should be pointless even then.
The association of a hymen with virginity is largely a myth. The hymen is almost never a complete wall or barrier, but is instead tissue around the edges of the cavity. Often it is never "popped", in sex or otherwise, as it can instead be stretched from various non-sexual activities. Sometimes there isn't even enough hymen tissue to tear in the first place. That's not to say that many women don't experience tearing and bleeding during their first time, but it's far from inevitable. You can, therefore, simply not write about it if you don't want to, and your story will remain scientifically pristine. That said, your readers may still complain - nothing is more unrealistic than reality.
