The concept of female "virginity" has a complicated history, and has often been incorrectly linked to breaking the hymen. Bleeding after intercourse was thought to be proof of an unbroken hymen, and thus, proof that a woman had not had sex before. The reality, however, is that the state of your hymen has nothing to do with sexual activity. As for how to know if your hymen is broken, it's near impossible to see it for yourself. But let's back up and talk about what the hymen actually is. The hymen is a small, ragged membrane just inside the opening to the vagina review our vagina anatomy lesson here. All hymens are not created equal. So many things other than intercourse can wear the hymen away, including horseback riding, biking, gymnastics, using tampons, fingering, and masturbation, which basically leads to "breaking" the hymen without ever having sex. Some women are even born without hymens.

related stories
More from Sex & Relationships
There is no one definition of virginity. Others may define virginity as never engaging in vaginal penetration with a penis, despite having had other types of sex, including oral stimulation and anal penetration. Some people may no longer call themselves a virgin after engaging in anal penetration or penetration with a finger or sex toy. Others may reconsider their virginity status after receiving or giving oral stimulation.
R29 Original Series
We suppose you could technically pop a cherry by squashing the stone fruit, but the slang expression pop the cherry means to "lose one's virginity" or "do something one has never done before. Cherries as a sexual metaphor are suggested as early as the s—though fruit in general has long been sexual, if you look to, say, the forbidden fruit in the biblical Garden of Eden. Popped your cherry. Still, the phrase has a playfulness and youthfulness. The figurative pop the cherry sees fairly common use, especially conveying a sense of initiation into a new enterprise or the first time experiencing something exciting. A modifier may be inserted before cherry to qualify the cherry-popping e. This is not meant to be a formal definition of pop the cherry like most terms we define on Dictionary. Menu Dictionary. Everything After Z by Dictionary. Examples Origin Usage.
Top definition. When a girl who is a virgin has sex for the first time with a guy. A piece of skin inside of her vagina is moved once the guy has " put it in ". Making her bleed. When your cherry is popped you only bleed the first time. Last night Mark finally made my cherry pop. Cherry Pop unknown. When a female has sex for the first time, and she bleeds , usually her cherry has popped.