Crossroads: Virginity Loss Scripts

A couple days ago, I was on Netflix and started watching the movie Crossroads - yes the movie with Britney Spears. I've never seen it before, and was bored, and wanted a dumb movie to watch. As I was watching, a scene came up where Britney Spears and her best guy friend in the movie planned to have sex on prom night (cliche, am I right?). Neither one of them had done it before, they both wanted to try it, and they both - mostly the guy - wanted to get rid of the stigma of not having sex before college. During the scene, Britney asked her friend to remind her again why they were going to have sex, and why it was a good idea. Her friend proceeded to pull out a list, and read off the reasons why it should be a good idea.

After watching this clip, I immediately thought of our conversation in class we had last week about the three different virginity loss scripts presented in Maura Kelly's, "Virginity Loss Narratives in “Teen Drama” Television Programs." The three scripts - abstinence, management, and urgency - can all be seen throughout a variety of television shows. The abstinence script refers to sex as a gift, while also noting the pleasures of being a virgin, and the dangers that arise from sexual intercourse (Kelly, 2009). The management script deals more with virginity as a "rite of passage" (Kelly, 2009). The urgency script implies that virginity is a stigma, and there is a desperation to have sex and get rid of that stigma (Kelly, 2009) In the clip above, the urgency script is accurately portrayed. Britney's friend does not want to go into college with the "virgin stigma" attached to him. He wants to have sex, so he can say that he did, and not be deceptive to others about it.

During the clip, the Britney's friend reads off a list of why they should have sex. One of the reasons was "we are both eighteen and have never done it. VERY important". After he finished reading the list, and Britney was still not all about it, the boy starts saying, "please, I'm begging you, please," showing his urgency to rid himself of the virginity stigma.

Another interesting point I found while reading Kelly's article was that "male teenagers feel pressure to enact traditional masculinity through the sexual pursuit of females, which both puts female teenagers in danger of unwanted sexual advances and limits the ability of male teenagers to fully explore romantic relationships" (Kelly, 2009). In the clip, Britney says, "don't you want your first time to be special?" and "do you want your first time to be with your lab partner?". The guy responds with, "yes, yes I do because do you know what it's like for a guy to go to college a virgin? They ostracize!". He has an idea in his mind that if he doesn't have sex, and is still a virgin in college, others will know, and judge him. This supports Kelly's findings that "for males, the gift metaphor for virginity loss required a rejection of traditional masculinity, whereas the adoption of the stigma metaphor reinforced traditional masculinity" (Kelly, 2009). Britney's friend is trying to be masculine and reinforce the traditional gender script roles. Guys are traditionally known to make the sexual advances on girls, and Britney's friend is attempting to feel masculine in the situation, and rid himself of being a virgin.


Works Cited:

Kelly, M. (2010). Virginity loss narratives in "teen drama" television programs.Journal of Sex Research, 47(5), 479-489.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ogqhF4ems