Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins 10

Let’s be clear: this isn't about a few badges. It is flatly inhumane that women, subjected to men in every respect, get to flaunt an honorific badge of their virginity—a badge that makes them suspects, spectacles, and celebrities among the brothers—while men, so many virgins, so many voluntary eunuchs, march on in their private virtue carrying nothing that would also make them illustrious. The men ought to defend some insignia for themselves too: Garamantian feathers, Barbarian strophiums, Athenian cicadas, German braids, British tattoos—or, failing that, let them veil their heads and hide in church. We are certain the Holy Spirit could have more readily authorized such a distinction for men, if he had authorized it for women; besides the authority of sex, the very name of continence ought to have been more honored in men, since their sex burns hotter and hungers more fiercely for women, their continence labors with greater ardor, and is therefore more worthy of all display—if display is virginity’s dignity. After all, continence does not outrank virginity, whether of widows or those who by mutual consent have already refused the common shame. Virginity consists in grace; continence consists in virtue. Not desiring, when you have grown accustomed to desiring, is a mighty struggle. But if you have never tasted the fruit of desire, you will not easily desire it, having no adversary—the desire for the fruit. How, then, did God not authorize such a distinction more for men, whether because they are more familiar to him—namely, his image—or because they labor more? But if nothing for the male, then much more for the female.