Signs of Virginity : Testing Virgins and Making Men in Late Antiquity

Signs of Virginity examines virginity testing in Judaism and early Christianity, and the relationship of these tests to male sexual violence. Rosenberg points to two authorsAugustine of Hippo and the rabbinic collective that produced the Babylonian Talmudwho construct alternative models that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity, encouraging men to be gentle, rather than brutal, in their sexual behavior.