From ancient biblical times, used in rituals and seen in miracles, virginity is an ageless concept. And somehow, the agreeably meaningless construct still manages to have a heavy effect on culture today. The classic and most well-known view of virginity puts female virgins on a pedestal, claiming that virgins are more pure, untainted, and innocent making them more valuable, and thus more desired by men. Clearly, this is a flawed construct because as us living in the 21st century know, our sexual habits and preferences literally have zero impact on a person’s worth.
However, contradictory to this belief, youth and college culture view the matter slightly differently. In the isolated world of a college campus ideals and values tend to disregard those of the outside world, in this case, hookup culture monopolizes colleges. Hookups and one-night-stands always seem to be the end goal of going out on the weekends, and in this small world is seems as if everyone is constantly ‘doing it’.
And because of this, being a virgin on a college campus can be hard. It can feel as if you are missing out on all of the classic college experiences because of such a strong label that you always carry with you. Contradicting to the typical idea that girls should hold onto their virginity, today’s society, and especially that surrounding the youth, pushes sex as if it is something that has a time and age requirement before you’re considered ‘behind’ or ‘weird’. Media and movies such as "American Pie", "The To Do List", and "Easy A", entirely revolve around teenagers trying to lose their virginity, all while playing catch up to their friends who lost it at unrealistically low ages. The media tends to shame virgins, especially those who are older than a certain age, insinuating that they are behind the normal timeline of sex. Rather than the old values of virginity being pure and of value, in this age, it feels that the only things that virginity comes with are an intact hymen and an immense pressure to lose it.
This pressure creates a real struggle for those who carry this label in college. However, it may feel as if everyone on campus is constantly hooking up with each other. A survey done by Her Campus in 2012 concluded that a whopping 43% of girls in college were virgins at the time of the survey. So, if you’re suffering from the seemingly heavy pressure to finally lose your V-card, remember that people are not actually having as much sex as you may think they are. Also, keep in mind that your sexual history, or lack thereof, does not determine anything about you, and frankly it is nobody’s goddamn business.