Face it: All forests are "sluts"
If you think the word "slut" insults women, how about the use of the word "virgin" to describe a forest that's never been logged?
It's a commonly used term. Dictionary.com, for instance, defines "virgin forest" this way: "a forest in its natural state, before it has been explored or exploited by man."
Still, I was hoping that environmental organizations, which work for the good of the Earth and humankind and all that, might have become more sensitive over the last 40 years or so. So imagine my surprise when I was reading a piece about the importance of biodiversity on the World Wildlife Fund website and found this statement taken from a book published in 1994: " In the contiguous United States, 98 percent of virgin forests have been destroyed." I've worked on forest issues for 40 years and find this statement unbelievable.
Virgin is not only an unscientific term, it is also impossible to quantify. Yet the "virgin forest" moniker has even crept into some National Park Service documents. While looking at descriptions of the agency's National Natural Landmark program, you can find the term "virgin forests," though none of the areas are west of Nebraska.
http://www.hcn.org/wotr/face-it-all-forests-are-sluts
= new reply since forum marked as read
Let's just call them "forests with their metaphorical hymen intact." 
Otherwise, we might recall that lots of english words have multiple meanings and connotations, and that it's not inappropriate to use a word with it's intended meaning, but rather to conflate it with it's unintended meaning.
n.
1. A person who has not experienced sexual intercourse.
2. A chaste or unmarried woman; a maiden.
3. An unmarried woman who has taken religious vows of chastity.
4. Virgin The Virgin Mary.
5. Zoology A female insect or other arthropod that produces fertile eggs without copulating.
adj.
1. Of, relating to, or being a virgin; chaste.
2. Being in a pure or natural state; unsullied: virgin snow.
3. Unused, uncultivated, or unexplored: virgin territory.
4. Existing in native or raw form; not processed or refined.
5. Happening for the first time; initial.
6. Obtained directly from the first pressing: virgin olive oil.
7. Zoology Producing fertile eggs without copulating.
Dr. Male Privilege. 
I didn't read it. But I too have spent some years in forest research and I've been using terms like "virgin stand" forever, although in grants and the like I suppose I prefer "primary forest," but only because I think it's a more accurate descriptive adjective in that context. But "virgin" HAS been in common use to describe things other than female sexual experience for a LONG time. Virgin paper, virgin snow, virgin silk, virgin prairie. Virgin Airlines (although I wonder whether that might be traced ultimately to referencing Elizabeth's virginity, like "Virgin Islands" and "Virginia"
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And don't you think we've known one another long enough to dispense with the honorific? Mike Male Privilege is ao much less formal, don't you think?
