Virgin Obsession

MTV's "Virgin Territory"

Due to the prevalence of sex in the media today...I'm surprised that most 9 year olds don't know everything about the topic.  Seriously, the amount of sex on television is mind-boggling and shielding young children from these types of sexual messages, images, and behavior is becoming more and more difficult. 

In reading Kelly's Virginity Loss Narratives in "Teen Drama" Television Programs, I found the three scripts for virginity loss she defined to be completely accurate.  By this I mean that I rarely watch a television show where the virgin isn't represented in one of the these three ways:

1. The Abstinence Script: "Virginity as a gift, the pleasures of maintaining a virgin status, and avoiding the dangers of having pre-marital sex" (Kelly 482)

2. The Management Script: "Focus on managing the physical, social, and emotional risk associated with virginity loss because sex is inevitable" (Kelly 482)

3. The Urgency Script: "Sex is a highly enjoyable activity and necessary to affirm gendered identity" (Kelly 482)

The television show, "Virgin Territory" is a show all about.... you guessed it, virgins. However, it doesn't necessarily portray virgins as a good or a bad thing, but we see Kelly's three virgin loss scripts in action, due to the diversity of the teen virgins in the show.

Toward the beginning of the trailer, a male character says "the toughest part of being a virgin is not having sex" ("Virgin Territory").   Although this is a quick-hitting one liner, we see here how the urgency script is in play.  The boy recognizes sex can be a fun activity and we hear a bit of desperation in his voice.  In addition, we might also be able to infer that this young male feels incompetent in not having slept with a woman. 

Building off of this, another young male in the trailer admits to his male friends he is a virgin.  Their response: "SHUT THE F*$% UP" ("Virgin Territory").  In response, the boy laughs in complete embarrassment. This example shows how being a virgin as a male doesn't fit into this idea of having sex to fulfill a man's gendered identity.  In addition, we see here how shame is associated with being a male virgin, a media-created attitude...cue the "40 Year Old Virgin" Poster!

Let's make some casual observations of this poster.  Steve Carrell is dressed like a typical "nerd" and his smile is quite angelic, characteristic of the media portrayals of virgins as innocent perfect creatures. Lastly, we see the catch phrase "better late than never," again feeding into Kelly's urgency script. 

Overall, male media messages (from both "Virgin Territory and "40 Year Old Virgin") fit into traditional sexual gender role for men, or that men are losers or not "manly" for not having sex. 

Moving away from this poster, let's now focus on the young women. One woman says "no ringy, no dingy" ("Virgin Territory"). Again, one hard hitting line fits perfectly into a script, specifically the abstinence script. This woman thinks that sex is a gift for marriage, and her virginity is a gift for her future husband.  We see here how this young woman fits into the "acceptable" gendered norm for women, angelic virgins.

On the other hand, another young woman is "actively looking for someone to loose her virginity to" ( "Virgin Territory). While this is quite the bold statement, we see the urgency script in play yet again, but from a woman's perspective.  In hearing this woman's opinion, viewers might associate her with the "slut" role as seen so many television shows.

After viewing this trailer here are my main takeaways...

Overall, this show is extremely stereotypical. For example, men cannot be virgins or else they will be considered losers.  In the short trailer, men are ONLY portrayed in an urgency script because the men who are virgins want to have sex.  The women in the show are also shown in the two most stereotypical ways: the "pure virgin" and the "sex hungry slut". 

In addition, this show adds value to the idea that we, as a society, are OBSESSED with virgins. People are somehow fascinated by virgins, and continue to be fascinated by virgins. I think our virgin obsessed culture is fueled by some sort of jealousy. For example, women make mistakes and wish they wouldn't have slept with that jerk, and male virgins are jealous of their best friend who sleeps with 7 different women in a month. 

The cartoon above also provides a potential reason why we are obsessed with virgins. They serve as the "voo-doo" doll of people's innermost fantasies. An example of this comes from a scene of ABC's "The Bachelor."

This scene portrays Ashley as a virginal sacrifice to satisfy a viewer's fantasy of sleeping with hottie bachelor, Chris.  I've actually never thought about this before as a reason why virgins are obsessed over, but it makes perfect sense.  People get excited over the fact that a virgin is losing his or her virginity.  Yes, this is sick and bizarre, but it just adds to the fact that our sex obsessed culture is only getting more and more sexualized...

Article Used: Kelly, M. (2010). Virginity loss narratives in “teen drama” television programs. Journal of Sex Research, 47(5), 479-489. doi: 10.1080/00224490903132044