Virginity “Tests” for Brazilian Exams Defy Human Rights and Sex Ed

Feature image via Love from Abroad

Within the last year, various states in Brazil have come under attack for discriminatory practices towards female candidates who are taking the public service exams. These public service exams are designed as a selective process to evaluate the capacity for candidates in the roles of government entities and professions; however, a stipulation in many of these exams requires women to undergo invasive gynecological exams to measure the “health” of future public officials.

The highly questionable regulations garnered public attention when activists spoke out against a requirement made by São Paulo’s State Department of Education that female candidates participating in the public service exams, who are virgins, must have a doctor provide a medical testament that affirms their virginity. The State Department’s branch of medical examination (Departamento de Perícias Médicas do Estado or DPME) must also confirm this “proof of virginity.” Those in favor of the requirement suggest that the policy is designed to protect virgins. According to the coordinating body of Human Resources for the State Department of Education, instead of subjecting the candidates to invasive gynecological procedures, the policy would allow virgins to skip the medical examination… if they can prove that they are not sexually active. So, any female candidate applying for a position as a Scholastic Organization Agent, an Administrative Officer, a Public Executive, an Administrative Analyst, a Socio-cultural Analyst, a Technology Analyst, or a Technical Agent for Health Care — all jobs that require that applicants pass the State Department of Education’s public service exams — in São Paulo is assumed to have or have had a vulva with a hymen and must either prove they’ve never had sex or allow medical practitioners to perform invasive procedures on them.

Shout out to archaic gynecological exams. She looks like she's having a blast via JonathanFun.com

Shoutout to archaic gynecological exams. She looks like she’s having a blast
via JonathanFun.com

São Paulo is not the first state in Brazil to demand gynecological examinations from any female-identified candidates. In 2013, activists also condemned public service exams in the state of Bahia that required any female candidates applying for a position on the Civil Police force to either prove that they are a virgin or to submit to invasive gynecological exams. While the “proof of virginity” stipulation is a relatively new addition, the Secretariat of the Bahian Administration admitted that these policies are a recurring trend in “various public service exams administered throughout the country.” In spite of this trend, many organizations are speaking out against these harmful policies. Catholics for the Right to Decide condemned the policies by asserting that  “The submission of executive legislators to religious norms and doctrine for electoral votes is all too familiar for us. The problem is that, beyond violating the constitutional rights of citizens who do not have that religious reference and do not want to have their lives regulated by such norms, this submission directly affects the lives of women and of the LGBT population, in the way that public policies designed for all citizens of the country are implemented or not, as they are approved by these sectors.” [translation mine]

On August 7th, Unified Workers’ Central (Central Única dos Trabalhadores or CUT), Brazil’s main trade union center, released a note in defense of female candidates who face these obscene requirements. In the note, the organization argued:
[translation mine]

“The National Secretariat of Female Workers of Unified Workers’ Central rejects the inclusion of evidence of virginity as a criteria for candidates approved in public service exams as proof of effective characters for jobs as Scholastic Organization Agents, Administrative Officers, Public Executives, Administrative Analysts, Socio-cultural Analysts, Technology Analysts, or Technical Agents for Health Care.

We reject this criteria because we consider it a manifestation of discrimination against women, especially towards those who have not yet engaged in sexual activity, that to occupy these jobs, [female candidates] need to present a declaration from their medical gynecologist to be exempt from exams that cause discomfort.

We reject this action of the State that interferes with the privacy of women and reverts to prejudice and discrimination. It is absurd that in the 21st century, the State causes constraint on and interferes legally with the bodies of women, obligating [women] to submit to exams, [and] above all that these exams do not measure the capacity to function [in the job] for which [the candidates] are selected.

We reject the argument used by the State that these [candidates] need to be without any physical or mental problems. This explanation does not have a real basis, since various illnesses that affect women, when treated, do not make working impractical.

We reject the demand for gynecological exams in selections and public service exams. This practice is abusive. It violates the principle of human dignity, present in the Federal Constitution of 1988.

We reject this practice because it violates the Principle of Equality and the Right to Intimacy, Privacy, Honor, and Image, that prohibits the demand for proof of pregnancy, sterilization, and other discriminatory practices for admission or permanence in juridical relation to work.

We reject this action because it restricts the rights, liberty, and self-determination of women and we urge all to protest against this act of discrimination and prejudice.”

Protest with female workers from CUT via FETEMS.org

Protest with female workers from CUT
via FETEMS.org

There are more than a handful of reasons why this public service exam policy is fucked up as well as just inaccurate. First of all, the stipulation assumes that every woman has a vulva, let alone a hymen. Virginity tests generally involve an inspection of the hymen and deduce that if the hymen is torn or stretched, the person is no longer a virgin. These tests are foolish because there are a number of reasons why a person’s hymen may be torn, stretched, or not very visible. Tampon usage, physical activity, and natural physical anatomy are all reasons why a virginity test is error-prone. Mostly, these policies are absurd because they are just an extension of regulations on female sexuality.

Although it may be disheartening that even in 2014, state governments are requiring archaic and invasive gynecological exams, these gestures are further proof of the systematic regulating of people with vulvas, particularly those who are female-identified. In these moments, the State denies people their humanity to obtain control over how certain bodies are allowed to operate in space. Furthermore, while this particular instance is specific to Brazil, we see these policies that seek to control people’s behaviors by evaluating a person’s worth and morals by their genitals or sexual activity all over the world, from similar rules in China beginning in 2005 that required gynecological exams for female applicants to civil service jobs, to medical “requirements” in the United States that demand that people with uteri undergo invasive gynecological exams for birth control.

In 2012, Chinese students protested in Wuhan against invasive gynecological exams, required for women applying to work for the civil service via The Guardian

In 2012, Chinese students protested in Wuhan against invasive gynecological exams, required for women applying to work for the civil service
via The Guardian

Fortunately, in the case of Brazil, organizations and groups like Catholics for the Right to Decide, Unified Workers’ Central, the Teachers’ Union of Official Education of the State of São Paulo (Sindicato dos Professores do Ensino Oficial do Estado do São Paulo or APEOESP) and the Commission for the Protection of Women’s Rights have coalesced around the question of human rights for female workers. Perhaps these public denunciations nod to Brazil’s history of feminisms, which have made a significant impact on Brazilian politics. Feminist activism featured prominently in the re-democratization of Brazil, after the fall of the military dictatorship in 1985, leading to a form of feminism that can now be branded as “state feminism.” This state feminism, which is not the only kind of Brazilian feminism or feminist movement, translates the demands of feminist and women’s movements to formulate federal policies. Brazilian “state feminism” negotiates the interesting balance between advocating for a more participatory role for women in political and work spaces, while resisting co-optation from the State.

Although this state feminism does face obstacles, such as ensuring that various feminist perspectives are included in its work and that government forces do not simply use state feminist work as a mere guise for inclusion, it may be key in the overturning of the discriminatory policies surrounding public service jobs. If state feminism in Brazil has acted as a bridge between the needs of civil society and the deeds of the government, it can certainly advocate for gender equality in labor related policies. No government should subject people to invasive procedures that measure their worth because of gender identity, genital anatomy, sexual activity or professional desires.

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Helen

Helen McDonald is a 20-something Black lesbian feminist living off of pizza, social justice and a lil snark. By day, she's a community educator, teaching young people about healthy relationships. She also discusses the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality on her personal blog sapphosistah.tumblr.com and is a contributing writer at ElixHer.com

Helen has written 40 articles for us.

13 Comments

  1. There are just so many problems with this. I am a little confused though, do women have to be virgins in order to have these jobs?

    • I think it’s more like, they want to ‘check’ your vulva to make sure you are ‘healthy.’ The exam is very invasive (any exam at all would be too invasive, imo), so as to be able to opt out, you have to prove you are a virgin. This is because if you are a virgin, nothing can be wrong with you medically. Disease, including obvs STIs, only come to sexually promiscuous women who should not be given jobs.

    • It’s like this: the candidates apply to the job by doing a written test first. The ones that go well, need to show proof they did all the medical exams and complied with the all requirements.
      On the instructions/details they must’ve read (it’s usually with the forms they had to fill up to actually sign up to do that test), the requirements, so if they go well on the test they already know they need to do that. Does that make it acceptable? No.
      I’ve read someone the employers’ excuse is to make sure they’re not going to hire some who is pregnant, and will go in maternity leave soon (in Brazil it’s from 120 to 180 days, and we can add our vacation, 4 paid weeks to it). I also read somewhere else that the “proof of virginity” is required so the women who are actually virgins don’t need to go through intrusive exams, and the exams are needed to make sure the public workers are healthy before they can start their job (public workers get full benefits, health care, transport help/discount, food card –actually like a credit card but for supermarkets–, etc.).

  2. This is insane! I can’t for a second imagine going to a job interview and then telling my future boss, “Yes, no problem, I’ll e-mail you my references along with my certificate of virginity by the end of the week. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!”

    Like what the actual fuck.

    And yes, as a reply to @Justina, my understanding is that they prefer virgin candidates because they are less likely to have health issues. This is just weird because what if they’re married and “allowed” to be sexually active? I don’t know. Also the issue that hymen =/= virginity, so. And also trans* issues.

    Whoever thought this up clearly wasn’t thinking.

    • Thanks for the clarification! Virginity has nothing to do with health! Grr… This is so frustrating and fucked up. No one even knew about the hymen until men needed a way to keep track of women’s sexuality.

    • Right?? Like, in need of extra luck and hope that there is a virgin shortage if you really need the job.

  3. The practice of requiring gynecological exams to access professional & other opportunities is so frustratingly common. I had to undergo one to be eligible for a government sponsored program which shall not be named–not with virginity testing in mind, but still, it’s a horrible invasion of bodily autonomy.

  4. This was a big issue a few weeks back in Brazil, but now it seems to have disappeared from the news, so I’m not sure how the government actually responded (they can back out now and just come back with the policy next year hoping no one will notice, though I doubt we will ever let them).

    To Justina: it’s not that they prefer virgin candidates, but that these government branches like to demand very extensive health exams to protect themseves from future lawsuits and early retirements, especially since teachers are forced to work in such terrible conditions that many end up having to retire early with several health issues (being myself a former teacher in private schools in Brazil, and a daughter of a public school one, I’ve been pretty close to this situation and it sucks. A lot). So they ask these exams as a way to try and keep away candidates that might have any kind of health problem in the future (which is incredibly wrong by itself in my opinion). One of these is an exam which checks for uterine cancer and/or other problems, and since only virgins are exempt from this very invasive test, they are requiring virginity tests to make sure everyone is tested. The diseases the government tries to steer away from can still affect virgins so it doesn’t really matter for them if one does have sex or not, so long as this person is not prone to retire early. So you see, not really a matter of choosing virgins, but still a pretty crappy move.

    • Thankyou for explaining this! That makes it a little less horrifying, cuz I could not fathom what any one’s hymen-status has to do with any job outside of sex-work.

  5. This is the most disgusting retarded thing I’ve heard in a minute and I am so not in the mood after the BS election we just had here in the states. It’s looking to me like people would like that kinda crap to happen here too. Apathetic idiots.

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