A recent history of virginity auctions

The Vestal Virgins of Ancient Rome were a group of women chosen in their youth to remain celibate for a period of 30 years. During those three decades, their lives essentially consisted of hanging out in the temple and making sure to keep ablaze the "sacred fire of Vesta," which had the dual meaning of an actual, physical flame and the symbolic burning in their loins. There were perks to the job—they traveled in elite company and could free a condemned prisoner just by touching them, kind of like a liberal with superpowers—but if they ever extinguished either of the sacred flames, punishment was severe: being buried alive.

After all, there's no hotter commodity than intact hymen. There's a reason Aztec high priests sacrificed virgins to save their crops, or that the brothers Jonas made news after promising God they'd only finger promise rings. So it's no surprise that when 22-year-old Natalie Dylan (an alias) announced she was auctioning off her virginity to the highest bidder, it made some headlines.

The self-professed virgin—and not to be nitpicky, but in this day and age of hymen reconstruction surgery, can anyone really be sure?—teamed up with Dennis Hof, the sleazily jovial owner of the famous Bunny Ranch brothel in Nevada, to give up her virtue in order to pay for her master's degree. And the early return looks good. Dylan told Radar she's already received offers that "exceed one million," but that she's taking her time choosing the winner, going on to say that a lesser bid can win as well. The presumption here is that she got a look at some of the gentlemen with millions to spare and didn't quite like what she saw.

But let's take this back a few steps. As with any great pioneer, there are countless numbers of more obscure revolutionaries who have led the way, blazing a trail of profiting off popped cherries.