Bloodstained Defloration

Alice and Bob have Their First Time. It's Alice's first time ever. She bleeds a little bit vaginally, usually attributed to a torn hymen. The blood marks the bedsheets, usually white sheets for ideal visual contrast. (Though if they're Making Love in All the Wrong Places, it may be on something else.)

This is most associated with an Exploited variation where a third party asks to see the sheet as evidence of virginity and the consummation of a marriage, occurring in Altar Diplomacy or cultures where in-laws are very involved. However, that's just one of many possible executions. It can be found in private examples where no outside parties are informed. If the couple isn't supposed to be having sex, the sheet can be evidence that must be disposed of.

The prevalence of this trope has given rise to an Invoked variation, Consummation Counterfeit, where a female fakes the bleeding, either because she already lost her hymen or because the relationship wasn't actually consummated.

In recent years, much ink has been spilt deriding the trope as Artistic Licence – Anatomy: the hymen is not a considered by medical professionals to be a reliable indicator of virginity, since, if it's even present, it's more likely to stretch than tear, and it can be affected by normal physical activity. Yet while not all women bleed or feel pain the first time they have sex, some do — though it's still more likely to be a result of insufficient lubrication or a muscle spasm ("vaginismus") than the hymen. This has left the trope in a weird position: it's real, but much less common than popularly believed, but still not completely unrealistic. It gets the most straight-played mileage in Historical Fiction and Romance Novels, though it's also seen fairly frequently in adult-oriented Japanese media (mainly eroge and hentai, but sometimes seinen and josei).

Its more visible Sister Trope is Virginity Flag.

Rustproof Blood is often in play here. See Menstruation Tropes for other reasons a woman might bleed down there. For more sinister bleeding, see Trail of Blood.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Berserk:
  • In chapters 37-38, while distraught after Guts leaves the Band of the Hawk, Griffith breaks into Princess Charlotte's bedroom and seduces her. She's embarrassed to find a couple droplets of blood on her bedsheets when she wakes up the next morning, then after Griffith is arrested the next morning due to them being seen in the act by a court lady, the King finds the blood spots on her sheets and takes it as proof of Griffith's guilt.
  • When Guts and Casca have Their First Time in chapter 46, Casca is shown bleeding in one panel during the act. She's also indicated to still be sore down there a couple chapters later (to the evident amusement of another Band of the Hawk soldier), though this is probably more due to the inexperienced Guts not knowing his own strength (he also briefly had a PTSD flashback to his Rape as Backstory during their first round).
  • In the Berserk (1997) anime, the King of Midland sees the blood on Princess Charlotte's bedsheets and is horrified as he realizes that Griffith has had sex with her.
• Blade of the Immortal: Briefly alluded to when Anotsu Kagehisa marries Ibane Hisoka to seal a political deal with her adoptive father Kensui. He's concerned for her on their wedding night due to her poor health, but she replies that she'd be a poor samurai's daughter if she couldn't handle the pain of losing her virginity.
• Dance in the Vampire Bund: Mina Tepes, the on-paper Queen of the Vampires, is being fought over as a bride by the three vampire lords Rozenmann, Li, and Ivanovic, who are Jailbait Waiting for the Vampire Lolita to actually become pubescent so one of them can make her their consort. In the chapter where they're introduced, Mina is subjected to a humiliating virginity test at their behest (it's treated much like a sexual assault), implied to be a check to see if she still has her hymen.
• Futari Ecchi, aka Manga Sutra, is an educational exploration of sex through the eyes of an inexperienced newlywed couple, as well as some of the people around them. The first volume discusses various types of wear and tear that could eliminate the hymen before sex, as well as the fact that it could still be present.
  • In Yura's case, her hymen is still very much intact and so the first time is painful.
  • When Jun has her first time with her boyfriend, she bleeds. It's also played in a strange Gender Inverted way for said boyfriend: their first attempt at Their First Time goes badly because he has a medical condition called phimosis which actually makes it painful for him to be erect. It necessitates surgery and healing before they can actually have their first time.
• Occurs in Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation when Rudeus and Sylphiette have Their First Time. He adds the square where the telltale stain is to his “holy relic” shrine. It was particularly important to him because he’d come off a year-plus psychosomatic “illness” that Sylphie “cured”.
• Implied in Tales of Wedding Rings when Hime and Satou finally consummate. Hime mentions losing her virginity was easier than she thought it would be, but doesn't directly address whether she bled.

Fan Works

• After: Tessa bleeds onto Hardin's bedsheets after losing her virginity to him. This later becomes a plot point as it's revealed Hardin kept the bloodstained sheets and the condom they used to prove to his friends he took Tessa's virginity, as part of a bet as to who could sleep with her first. Tessa is less than thrilled when she finds out.
• As Fate Would Have It: During Their First Time in Chapter 13, Nate immediately notices Yancy bleeding and in pain just as they start making love, with some of her blood spilling on the bedsheet in the process. Concerned for her well-being, he asks her if they should stop, to which she replies with a request for him to continue.
• Inter Nos: When Shizuru and Natsuki have Their First Time, Shizuru discovers that Natsuki is "intact", and cautions her that the initial act may hurt. Natsuki, who was raised in ignorance of sex, is concerned and confused. There is blood, but it's easily dealt with since they're in the bath for this interlude.
  She saw some of the blood still streaked over her fingernails when she brought her hand out of the water and washed it off. Then she stroked Natsuki's head and waited for her to recover, murmuring praise and encouragement.
• Push a Little Further on the Edge has a Defied take. Mirabel made herself bleed while masturbating. Now facing her first time with someone else, she explains:
  Mirabel: You know the physical part of being a virgin as a girl? Well, I kind of, um, already took care of that bit myself when I was, um, experimenting. If we, you know, have sex, you won't need to worry as much about hurting me. We could just— be together without as much first time pressure.

Film — Live-Action

• Breaking the Waves: After their Fourth-Date Marriage, Bess and Jan have sex standing up in the bathroom where they've been celebrating their wedding. Blood is shown on Bess's white wedding dress, to contrast with her decision to become a prostitute after Jan's injury.
• Chasing Amy: Discussed and disparaged. Alyssa tells Holden that his definition of loss of virginity — breaking the hymen — means she lost her virginity at a very early age to her bicycle seat.
• The Dreamers: After having sex with Isabelle, Matthew is surprised to find out she was an Unexpected Virgin, as shown by the blood on his hand.
• Mustang: On Selma and Osman's wedding night, her in-laws check the bedsheets to prove that Selma was a virgin before the wedding. Because there isn't any blood on the sheets, they take her to a hospital for a test.

Literature

• The Bell Jar: Esther bleeds after losing her virginity. Her partner tells her that it's nothing to worry about, but the bleeding won't stop and she eventually has to go to the hospital. The doctor tells her "it's one in a million it happens to like this."
• Discussed in the title story of The Bloody Chamber. The Marquis tells the protagonist, after consummating their marriage, that the blood-stained sheets won't be hung from his window to prove the bride's virginity like in the old days — though she is the first bride he's had who's been able to produce such a proof. This is another sign of his obsession with sex and blood suitably, since he is The Bluebeard.
• The Dark Tower: In book IV, Wizard and Glass — which serves as a Whole Episode Flashback — Rhea of the Coos is charged with inspecting Susan to make sure she's still a virgin before she's sold off as a "gilly" (i.e. broodmare) to a local politician who has a barren wife. Rhea attempts to seduce Susan at the same time, suggesting there were things the two of them could do that wouldn't give the man any clue she'd done anything sexual. Susan is repulsed by her and ardently refuses. Rhea ends up observing Susan and Roland have Their First Time through the Wizard's Glass and knows Susan will be caught when the man who was purchasing the use of her womb doesn't see blood on the sheets the next morning. She does note that there are ways to fake it, like pig's blood in a thimble, but is smug in the knowledge that Susan, who rebuffed her, would be too innocent to know of such things.
• Earth's Children is set in the Stone Age, so the characters' understanding of biology is pretty limited.
  • It's a common belief amongst Cro-Magnon that a girl usually bleeds the first time she has sex. When Noria has sex for the first time, she bleeds a bit on her bed furs. Haduma collects the furs as it's believed the blood from a girl's first time contains special magic and could potentially be used to harm her if it fell into the wrong hands.
  • Ayla's first sexual experience involved rape and she only bled because it was violent and non-consensual. Her official first time is something she genuinely wants with a partner who is gentle and does foreplay. When it happens, Ayla doesn't bleed or experience any pain, though Jondalar still views her as a virgin and treats her accordingly.
• Happens in the "Fate" book of the Incarnations of Immortality series, With A Tangled Skein. Niobe and her husband Cedric have sex for the first time at his college after having been married for quite a while (it was an arranged marriage; she didn't love him until recently, and he refused to even pressure her, much less force her). When she sees the small stain, she cleans it up herself, as she doesn't want the college laundry to see it, betraying not only what they were doing, but that it was the first time. A little silly, as even at the time the novel is set (somewhere around the 1910's-20's), most people would expect that part of the reason a young newlywed would visit her husband would be to make love, and a small bloodstain would be assumed to be menstrual blood.
• The Fangs of K'aath: Raschid and Sandhri lose their virginity to each other just before the Shah's guards come in and drag Sandhri away, with her hymen blood staining the sheets adding to the tension.
• The Flame and the Flower: Brandon believes Heather is a prostitute sent to service him. After forcing himself on her, he realises she isn't a prostitute because she's bleeding, this being her first time. He's later forced to marry Heather to preserve her honour, especially as she ends up pregnant.
• Judge Dee: Mentioned in a roundabout way, in the context of not being a thing. Ma Jong mentions that Mongol women aren't required to be (demonstrable) virgins upon marriage, as they spend most of their childhood riding horses (which would naturally tear their maidenhead).
• Kushiel's Legacy: In Kushiel's Dart, young prostitute Phèdre's virginity is auctioned off. The top bidder, Childric d'Essoms, half-jokes that he intends to show off the white silk cloth she bled on by making it into a new coat of arms.
• Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (written in The High Middle Ages) has a very old Gender Inverted take on the imagery. Lancelot and Guinevere consummate their adulterous affair and by the end, there's blood on the sheets. But Guinevere isn't a virgin—she's married to Arthur—and Lancelot is the one bleeding. Lancelot climbed through Guinevere's bedroom window to come to her, and removed the iron bars over the window to do this. In the process, he injured his finger and started bleeding. Both he and Guinevere were so excited and horny by this point that neither one noticed. They had sex, and he left a little blood on her sheets.
• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation: After Rudeus and Sylphiette have Their First Time, he finds her bloodstain on the sheets the next morning. Both of them had taken a strong aphrodisiac right before in order to cure his erectile dysfunction and for her as a means of liquid courage to get over her nervousness and they ended up going at it for quite a while that night without much restraint.
• The Red Tent is set in the Bronze Age. The women of Canaan are expected to show bloodied bedsheets to their in-laws following their wedding nights, to prove they were virgins when they got married. They're shocked to learn the women of Padan-Aram don't do this; instead, when a girl experiences menarche and becomes a woman in their eyes, she participates in the Ritual of Opening, where she breaks her hymen herself by masturbating with a carved figurine of a goddess and offers her virgin blood to the mother goddess Inanna, with the other women witnessing and cheering her on.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Zigzagged throughout the series, which is set in a Medieval European Fantasy world. While it is rumored that lowborn girls bleed a lot on their wedding nights, an actual bloody bedsheet is almost never demanded as proof that a marriage between nobles has been consummated, because it is well-known that a highborn girl's maidenhead is more likely to be broken by horseback riding.
  • A Dance with Dragons:
    • Barbrey Ryswell Dustin tells a wildly out-of-pocket story about how she had an affair with Brandon Stark in her youth, including way Too Much Information.
      Barbrey: "A bloody sword is a beautiful thing," he told me once. I am old now, a dried-up thing, too long a widow but I still remember the look of my maiden's blood on his cock the night he claimed me. I think Brandon liked the sight as well. A bloody sword is a beautiful thing, yes. It hurt but it was a sweet pain.
    • As Ramsay Bolton and Jeyne Poole (forced to pose as "Arya Stark") are about to consummate their marriage, Skinner boasts that Ramsay has promised him a piece of the bloody bedsheet from their wedding night.
• Stardoc: When Cherijo and Kao Torin have Their First Time, he's concerned afterwards that he's accidentally injured her. She informs him it "always" hurts the first time human women have sex, before demanding seconds.
• A Thousand Splendid Suns: Laila bleeds a bit onto the carpet the first time she has sex. She hopes her parents won't notice the blood drops and ask her about them. In this case, it's because Laila and Tariq are inexperienced teenagers who rushed into sex without much preparation (as they were soon to be separated).

Live-Action TV

• Adam Ruins Everything: Conversed and disparaged, with Emily Axford saying that female physical virginity is effectively non-existent, as the hymen can be torn any number of ways, and it is not uncommon for it to heal.
• Masters of Sex: Vivian Scully seduces Ethan Haas at a bar with the notion of some casual sex with him. She realizes afterwards she's bleeding a little, and Ethan is horrified to realize he just deflowered his boss's daughter.

Music

• Billy Idol's music video for "White Wedding" shows a woman having a wedding ring forcibly pushed up her finger, resulting in her finger bleeding. It's Downplayed to just the symbolism — loss of virginity (and innocence) as a consequence of the marriage.

Religion & Mythology

• The Bible: In the Book of Exodus, this is not routine practice—normally there is assumed trust—but becomes a thing if a bride is accused of not having been a virgin. A woman must be able to produce "evidence" that she was a virgin on her wedding night if her husband (or in-laws) demands. If she cannot, she is to be stoned to death by the men of her community right on her father's doorstep (or left on her father's doorstep after the fact). This is the same punishment she'd face if she'd had an affair after the wedding. However, if she (or rather, her parents) were able to produce a bloodied sheet or garment to show her accessor, then the accessor was to receive A Taste of the Lash. (And if it was the groom that made the accusation in that case, then he was never allowed to divorce her.) It should be noted that the Jewish explanation in the Oral law treats showing a bloodied sheet as an expression, and takes into account other reasons for lack of blood.

Tabletop Games

• The Book of Passion, a third-party rulebook for Pathfinder First Edition, cites the blood from a female virgin's ritual deflowerment as a possible material component for spells.

Visual Novels

• Fate/stay night: The original uncensored release shows Saber and Rin each bleeding when they lose their virginities. In Saber's case, it's when she has sex with Shirou to restore her expended mana in order to defeat Hercules on the "Fate" route.
• Katawa Shoujo: Lilly bleeds in her first sex scene with Hisao in her path.
• Princess Evangile: All of the first time sex scenes between Hisao and his respective love interest in each route have the girls end up bleeding and in pain. For the scenes that take place in bed, there are notable small bloodstains shown.

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