I felt compelled to answer because I have never found an answer for this till now…
Just an idea here…
I think the mammal body is designed to protect the womb at all costs. Look at the way it is made. Close in to the body, where warmth, protection and support is at its best.
Babies wear diapers. If the hymen wasn’t there to stop the feces from entering the uterus, women would have problems/infections with the uterus long before it ever had the chance to be used. This would not be conducive to proliferation of the species.
Does this explain other mammals? Well no it doesn’t.
But for now…this is the best answer I can think of!
Interesting subject. Thanks for bringing it up Nancy!
marieta
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, marieta, we’re glad you found us.
When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the column under discussion, like so What is the purpose of the hymen?. Yes, it’s on the front page now, but in a few days it will vanish into the Archives. No biggie, you’ll know for next time, and, as I say, welcome!
Just FYI, all users with usernames from novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle enjoy a certain degree of control over the board. Since you haven’t chosen such a name you don’t have to worry about your username being automatically changed, so you’re safe there.
Regarding the content of your post, I’m pretty sure human babies did not evolve to wear diapers.
More generally, though, it does make a certain amount of sense. Protect the uterus as much as possible for as long as possible. You can’t give it full protection forever, but do what you can.
so forget the diaper part. The point is they don’t get up so it all runs down! If you can’t walk, diaper or not, everything is going in!
Like chronos said…protect as much as possible for as long as possible.
Thanks for the welcome!