I just read
an interesting blog on the NYTimes site about how TV shows portray virginity; most specifically, the author was talking about
Friday Night Lights (if you haven't seen it,
watch it online NOW).
I won't spoil the character that loses his/her v-card (although it's spoiled in the blog post), but this person was the last well-known senior with his/her virginity intact, and the author wonders why so many shows feel obligated to abide by the No Virgin Left Behind rule.
The CDC reports that 54% of high schoolers are virgins
(
source). In 2007, one in three freshmen and 65% of seniors'd had sex.
I'll say it flat out - I graduated high school a virgin. My friends were virgins. I knew people who'd had sex, but for the most part, the people I knew were holding out for various reasons. But then again, the show's about a football team and the coach's family, not about marching band members who spent a scary amount of time drinking Kool-Aid in their backyards. Sigh, sometimes I miss high school.
You don't have to speak for yourself if you don't want to, but do you think that stat's pretty accurate for your school or your alma mater? Can you think of any TV shows where virgins are open about their choice to abstain?
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Comments (61)
I stupidly thought that in order for this certain guy who was gonna go to my college to like me, that I had to have sex before hooking up with him (which didn't even happen, because he was totally not ever going to be worth it). So, I lost my virginity after graduation, but before I started college.
I graduated a virgin, and so did all but one of my friends. Of course, all but one of them (including myself) lost it shortly after graduation or during the following school year.
there were quite a few pregnant teens at my high school. I remember there was even a pregnant freshman when I was a freshman. every year of school from sophomore to my senior year, there was at least one pregnant girl in my class. I could tell that everybody was staring at those girls in a not so nice way. anyway, most of my friends stayed virgins until they started college lol I think those stats are about right though.
ehhh idk, im actually pretty shocked by the amount of kids in my school who didnt even enter high school as virgins. not even kidding. i wasnt really sexual until the year i lost my virginity. kids in my school seem to be gaining their reputations in middle school. this one particular freshmen girl... gave 7 guys head at homecoming and our principle tried to blame it on this "epidemic" of "freak dancing" or "grinding" but really she's just a slut. it was pretty crazy but anyways i think their are plenty of virgins in my school but sex is definitely "in." i lost my virginity after all my close guy friends within my group, end of sophomore year and sadly it was a relief... i did always think id lose it in college or something. im only a junior now and my awkward days seem like they were a billion years ago but its barely been a year..
Eh, I'm not sure if that percentage is quite correct. But then again, it depends on how diverse a school is, what population is being studied, etc...
most of the people in my program probably graduated virgins... we were in a math/science talented kids program and we consisted of mostly guys who seemed to be socially awkward, so maybe that's why.
@camunderwater@xanga - wow that is insane! it's so weird to think that you felt the odd man out.. SOPHOMORE year! my school, if you're not in the "mega popular crowd," sex is hush hush. it's assumed that if you're a junior or older than you've had sex if you've been going out with somebody for a long time (like a year long), but it's completely normal for people to be virgins for...ever. haha my school definitely has sex way less than yours.
SEVEN guys?!?!?!
i lost my v-card (hehehe) end of junior year to somebody i had been dating for about 6 months, and am still with today (about 1.5 years of dating). it seems to be a pretty big deal here, not to be taken lightly.
The Secret Life of the American Teenager has virgins who are open about their choice to abstain...but then again...the are more characters who didn't abstain, haha.
I think those stats sound correct for the high school I went to.
literally i just counted in my head & half of my friends are virgins and half of them aren't. there are plenty of people who are virgins who just don't feel the need to announce it to the world. & of course you have those slutty females who their entire lives revolve around their sex life. so those stats sound pretty accurate but the Secret Life of the American Teenager has a few virgins on it .... i love that show =)
@PenaltyLife@xanga - haha yeah i was too nervous to even think about that kind of stuff and my friends were definitely not.. but when i started dating this girl i opened up to a lot of different things so after a while i kind of knew i wasn't gonna be a virgin much longer. and YEAH 7 guys, she's really gross. i notice a few things about this years freshmen (SOME of them).. they look older than i did as a freshmen and they're pretty..OPENLY slutty. now that i think of it... a freshman girl last year got knocked up by an 8th grader...
I think they do that because it's wildly considered "lame" to be a virgin. At least in the highschool here it was. I don't think I have one friend who is a virgin anymore, minus some that aren't all that appealing and have never had a boyfriend at all. In fact, half of my friends lost theirs before they were fifteen. Sad fact.
I don't see myself losing my virginity any time soon, it's pretty much against my morals.
When I was in school, though, half the time they'd look at you like you were crazy if you hadn't tongued a guy within the past month, let alone if you hadn't ever. I still wonder what the hell kind of school I went to. Eh.
I think that most of the people in my school are virgins, but ... then again I didn't know about the football after parties until I heard about them when I was a senior in high school and decided not to take honors econ.
In One Tree Hill, there was the whole Clean Teens and how Brooke wanted to be a born again virgin but realized ... she just wanted to impress a guy. Gigi was a virgin, until in season 6 where she returned as a college party girl desperate for sex. -____-
The one character in OTH who I admired was Millicent. She refused to give up her virginity for Mouth because she wanted to save it until after marriage. She even - at first - refused to share an apartment with him because of this. But, she managed to live with him, date him, and remain a virgin. I was sooo happy :) and pleased with the writers of OTH until ... Mouth gets into too much trouble with Gigi and Millicent finds out ... and decides to just give away her V-card to the first guy she sees ... which happens to be Brooke's ex. Complicated, no? But I was super happy with Millicent's character until then.
I love one tree hill .. ahah :)
I graduated a virgin and I don't care who knows it. As for that show, I find television shows are pretty unrealistic in general.
Many, many kids lie and say they've had sex when they really haven't. I've even had a few male friends come clean about it and make me swear I wouldn't tell anyone. So yeah I think the stats are about right.
Most of my friends aren't virgins. I'm the only virgin in my close friend group. But i guess it depends on who the people are
my high school is full of prudes :]
there's really no pressure here...everyone's too worried about getting into college.
I'm a virgin, and so are a vast majority of my closest friends, guys and girls alike. Some are for religious reasons, some are for personal reasons, but I think when we found each other in high school it made us feel like we weren't alone, you know? I see it on TV way too much that virgins are almost (but not quite) looked down upon as not as much fun, or that geeky kid that only has time for math homework...
omgosh I had a girl I worked with at mcdonalds who would seriously give guys hand jobs in the cooking area... ah!
but that statistic kind of sounds accurate... I was surprised in high school on how many of my friends/classmates lost their virginity (or they claimed to have) lol.
I lost my virginity to true love, as cliche as that sounds. We're in college now; over three years and chugging happily. :D
Lost it when I was 16 at the end of my junior year in high school.
The statistics are pretty accurate with my experiences, and I JUST graduated from high school. I knew all people in my grade, the seniors, and who they'd slept with. xD
I didn't know hardly anybody who was a virgin by graduation. Not even the kids in Christian Club. MAYBE some of the mormons. But seriously, even all the band and ROTC kids were getting it on right away. The good part was that most people (and me) waited until they were in a steady relationship to have sex.
Hm, on TV, I bet that 7th Heaven show had sturdy virgins.
Hmmm although I can't speak for everyone and I don't know for sure, but for those that I know of, I'd say the stats are pretty much relative to my high school. I graduated HS a virgin as well, and I'd say half of my friends were also virgins.
I live in a pretty morally conservative state...so in my high school people had sex (not really sure how many) and everyone pretended like they didn't.
Then i came to college (in the most liberal town in the state) and now everyone pretends they aren't virgins even if they are.
it's stupid.
I'm a college junior, almost a senior, and I'm pretty sure that statistic is accurate for the high school that I went to. Mine was a very high achieving high school so a lot of people were super studious. I graduated high school a virgin and so did all of my close friends. Anyway, I also stayed a virgin for quite awhile...in fact, I only lost it several months ago during the year. So yeah, I held onto my virginity for quite awhile.Â
I know my roommate from freshman year was a virgin though and lost it towards the end of the year.Â
Dawson Leery!
Hmmm out of my immediate group of friends... two of us are virgins {myself not included in those two.} The thing is most are in/ have been in, committed relationships. I have no idea about the general statistic for my school but I live in a small town; all most people do on the weekends is go out and party, stuff is bound to happen...