joy and shadows

Ugh, it is so squicky. I don't know exactly why I find it so disgusting and creepy and incestuous and ick for a father to take such an interest in his daughter's state of virginity. I think you touched on it with the lock&key phallic crap, though. It's one thing for parents to talk frankly about sex ed or to encourage abstinence, it's something else entirely when you throw in rituals and symbols of ownership and paternal "oversight" of the hymen ohgodthesquickcontinues!