The thing about virginity, is it used to be taken for granted. If you met an unmarried woman, throughout history, in every culture in the world, unless you were at a whorehouse, she was assumed to be a virgin. If you interacted in a romantic type setting, ie danced with her or talked one on one after church, virginity was not a question that needed to be brought up, because it was the one thing that separated the married girl from the single girl.
Women wanted to be married, and just as the man was expected to gift a home and clothing and affections to his wife, the girl would grant him the best gift God endowed her with--a gift that could only be granted once. Yes, there was fear of damnation, and yes there were societal repercussions to sluttery, but one of the biggest motivations was a positive one--the girl wanted to be married, and therefore she wanted to have sex with her husband, because otherwise, what is the difference between single life and married life, other than cohabitation (which many "single" people do) ? (I often ask this about secular friends who have "married" their "partner" in a civil ceremony after years of cohabitation--it's not really clear what has changed).
Sure, there were exceptions (though the vast, vast majority of premarital sex was women having sex with their fiance before marriage), and the most important point is that these experiences were shameful and hidden, but I think my grandfather would have been confused if I introduced him to a girl who was unmarried and yet had fornicated with 5 men. Sex was something married people did, partly because of religious dictates, but it was really much bigger than that. It was just accepted that intercourse was for marriage (the pill largely changed this as women could get away with hiding the evidence of their indiscretions, but eventually they no longer even had that shame and became proud to fornicate. Pride in a sin is an extreme form of sinning. Most of us sin shamefully and regretfully.
So in the modern world, you can take one of two paths. You can accept that we live in a world where this particular sin is extremely common, and just accept it, assuming your partner repents, and move forward (after all, we all have sins, and I would argue that the woman is not really to be held responsible for her actions anyway, as she lacks agency and is committing these sins due to the failures of her society and the men in her life), or you can say no, I don't care what year it is, I hold that a bride by definition is virginal, and that is the only acceptable mate for me. I think either is acceptable (though obviously the latter will often require things like marrying before finishing school or looking outside your geographic home for a suitable partner)
For me if I am looking for a woman to marry virginity is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Virginity is just the starting point
Right, it used to be as qualifying a criteria for a bride as "is female" or "has passed puberty"
I'm just extremely old fashioned and don't adapt well to the modern world. Modern changes and pop culture are totally superfluous to my life (of course they affect the women I interact with, and there lies the problem).