 Here are three reasons why what T.I. said about virginity is not only wrong, it's also dangerous. T.I. went on a podcast recently and said some creepy stuff about his 18-year-old daughter. We have yearly trips to the gynecologist to check her hymen. I say, look, doc, she'll ride no horses, she'll ride no bikes, she'll play no sports, man. Just check the hymen, please, and give me back my results. Oh, Jesus. Expeditiously. I will say, as of her 18th birthday, a hymen is still a hymen. First, virginity is a myth anyway. Virginity, which usually references penis and vagina sex, is not a scientific term. But instead, a social, cultural, and religious construct that enforces discrimination against women. Plus, there are plenty of people out there who technically never lose their virginity if you're talking about it in the biblical sense. What if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, queer, trans? Pretty hard to fit into that narrow definition of virginity if you're not a cis woman getting freaky with a cis man. And sex isn't just that one grand act, but rather a beautiful, sexy range of intimate experiences that people should be able to define themselves. Next, what T.I. said is based on bad science. Basically, a broken hymen isn't an indicator of sexual intercourse. A hymen is a thin tissue with no known function that stretches across the opening of your vagina. But here's the thing, just like every other part of our bodies, not every hymen is the same. Yes, it can totally cover the opening to your vagina, and it can also cover just part of it. And some people are born with so little tissue, they don't really have a hymen at all. Your hymen can be stretched open when you have sex, or it could not. It's a flexible tissue, and it can also be stretched out by putting in a tampon for the first time, or doing physical activities like riding a bike. And to round out Natalie's rant, the hymen myth perpetuates policing women's sexuality. Policing a teen's sexuality by checking if her hymen is intact is crossing a boundary and teaching her that she doesn't have any sexual agency. No one has agency over a person's body except that person. My body, my business. Hell yes! And T.I., checking in on his daughter's hymen, is not so far off from the dangerous, common practice of virginity testing that sadly is still happening in countries everywhere, from Egypt to India to the UK and Canada. Virginity testing is an exam where a girl or woman's hymen is inspected or tested and is usually performed by doctors, community leaders, or police officers. Ew! Parents or potential partners might request this exam to see if a woman is marriage material. Sometimes employers do it to see if a woman is eligible to work. That's bulls***! In conclusion, good parenting isn't commissioning a traumatizing, invasive, and medically inaccurate exam on your daughter's vagina to see if she's still a virgin. It's creating an environment of trust where your kid feels safe enough to openly talk about sex and intimacy and making sure they know they have agency over their body. But maybe the most important thing, especially for parents of girls, is to make peace with the fact that someday your kid will become a sexual being. Don't forget, you were a teen once, too.