What is virginity worth?

I read on CNN about a girl, "Natalie Dylan," a 22-year-old selling her virginity online. Apparently her top bid is $3.8 million from a 39-year-old Australian, though she's holding out for more.

Now obviously this amounts to prostitution, and at least she admits it.

I don't think this says anything about society, really. This isn't exactly an everyday occurrence. That's why it's newsworthy: Because 1) a virgin is willing to sell her virginity, and 2) a man is willing to pay her $3.8 million dollars to take her virginity. So that's what I took from it...that there are opportunists out there and eccentric millionaires with too much money.

But that's not what Martha Kempner, vice president of the Sexuality Information and Education Council, took from it. Ms. Kempner reportedly feels that telling a young woman to stay "pure" misses the point:

"By putting the emphasis there, [on virginity], we're actually devaluing the rest of women, the rest of her, and the rest of her sexuality for the rest of her life."

I disagree. I don't think there's anything wrong with valuing virginity. When we value virginity we aren't actually valuing virginity...paradoxically enough we are valuing sex. We are emphasizing appropriate sex--and not just the first time but every time from then on.

Our problem as a culture/society is not overvaluing virginity. It's undervaluing appropriate sexual relationships.