Virginity. From a child to the teenager I am now, this word has frequently appeared in my life. It is a word whose meaning that is still very perplexing to many female adolescents. I am a senior at an all girls’ high school, and naturally, I have been taught many things regarding sex and women’s health. However, living with a house full of women also means that I get lectures about this topic at home. The perspectives that I have been introduced to contradict each other, and for a long time, I have felt too conflicted about virginity to form my own opinion. Although I may be considered too young to fully address the idea of virginity, I believe that although virginity is a marker of adulthood, the depth of its importance is not as great as …show more content…
The act of having sexual intercourse for the first time for women in some communities such as Africa or India is of great significance. This is because after these women have sex for the first time, they have been ‘deflowered’ and have lost their virginity or innocence. This loss of their virginity is what creates the air of importance around their first time. However, I believe that it should not be the loss of virginity that matters to women, but the simple notion of just having sex for the first time that counts. It should be the fact that they are ready for the level of intimacy and trust involved that accounts for the significance of the situation. When a woman has sex for the first time, she is taking an essential step into adulthood. She is now mentally and physically prepared for taking her relationship with her lover to the next level. These factors should be what counts in sex and not the loss of virginity. Virginity is of a certain value to women, but in the end, the experience and act of having sex is of much greater …show more content…
As mentioned before, I as a child, have been told of many scary stories where a man rejects a woman as she is not a virgin. When a female hears this kind of story, she is led to think that it is her virginity that determines her worth and attracts males. If a male really values you just for the fact that you are a virgin, though, that means he is not the right person for you. If a man decides to stop pursuing you upon knowing that you are no longer a virgin, that means he does not love you enough for who you are, and places too much importance on tangible or physical features. Of course, women would naturally want to save their virginity for their ‘one and only true love’, but it is not crucial for them to do so if their partner do not care about whether they are a virgin or
Those who make the pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have sex as those who don’t and are more likely to have unsafe sex when they do. The churches that facilitated these virginity ceremonies did not offer any comprehensive sex education programs to give accurate information about sex to their children before they take this pledge. Although religion in America is attempting to protect children it is in fact failing the youth of our country by not addressing the true nature of sexuality in a realistic way. The American approach to sex is to ignore that it is happening, this which ultimately results in the highest teen pregnancy, teen birth, and STD rates among the Western countries. Religious groups in America have placed significant restrictions on discussions of sexual expression, identity and health. With lacking conversations about sex that includes all teenagers in America these young people will sadly continue to pay a heavy
Gozalez-Lopez interviews people about their personal stories and how they dealth with situations similar to such. One of the people she interviews, Diego, talks about what he had to do to save his girlfriend from public shame because she had sex with him. “I married her because of honor. I had to come out and face the bull, to protect her image and her name” (Gonzalez-Lopez, 98). If a woman looses her virginity before marriage she can be seen as a whore, slut, or not properly raised. Many women are forced to marry men that they would never consider husband mate...
Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization that aims to provide healthcare for women and educate people of all ages about sexual education. Their website (www.plannedparenthood.org) allows both women and men to learn about reproductive health, find a health center, and discover more about the “mission” of Planned Parenthood. “Virginity” (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/teens/sex/virginity) is the title of one of the articles in the Info For Teens section of the website. This article loosely defines virginity and addresses some of the common fears teens may have about the subject. Another article, “Am I Ready?” (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/teens/sex/am-i-ready), serves to give advice to those who are thinking about having sex for the first time, or just being physically intimate with another person for the first time. Both of these articles leave very little out in terms of different sexualities, genders, and other minority groups. They also both explore the ways power relationships (in this case, boyfriend and girlfriend) can affect sexual relationships. As a result, Planned Parenthood creates information that can be applied to almost any person, male or female,
Sex in today’s world can be seen anywhere. It is on billboards, radio stations, personal books, school books, magazines, peers, movies, songs, and the most famous is televisions. Commercials use seductive images, sounds, and music grabbing the attention of the audience. Movies and television are proof of the sickness of sexual addiction in society. This disease spreads across the country, infecting the way people think and live their lives. Ultimately it is destroying society and what America holds to be morally correct. Two such sources of writing, “Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades” and Countering the Culture of Sex, give examples of what effect culture play in the way of living. Today’s culture pumps out messages of sexual immorality and the idea of sexual relations outside of marriage are fine. Sexual immorality can destroy families and create dysfunction in the sacred vows of marriage.
Many illustrations described in curriculum for Christian youth to demonstrate the value of purity depict having sex as a form of ruining oneself. One in particular “indirectly compare[s teenagers who have had sex] to a glass of water every kid in the room had spit into” (McFarlan-Miller). This develops a culture that says the entire worth of a person depends on the preservation of their virginity. Live Different is a series of lessons published for youth groups. This youth curriculum teaches youth to only have sex in the “right place” and the “right time.” It answers its own questions by saying the right place and time are in the bounds of marriage, and when you’re older.
Teenage sexual activity is a major problem confronting the nation and has led to a rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teenage pregnancy. The existence of HIV/AIDS has given a sense of urgency to the topic of sex education. The issue of sex education in schools especially in the formative years has been a subject of intense debate among parents, school officials, health scientists and religious authorities worldwide for a considerable period of time. The debate centers on comprehensive sex education versus abstinence-only sex education in school. Abstinence only sex education is a sex education model that focuses on the virtue of abstinence from sexual activities; therefore, encouraging sexual abstinence until marriage. This form of sexual education completely ignores all other elements of comprehensive sexual education like safe sex and reproductive health education issues like the use of contraceptives and birth control methods. Comprehensive sex teaching encourages promiscuous sexual activity as “a natural part of life.” Proponents of abstinence only education activists cite several reasons why this type of education is the best. It focuses on the upholding of moral virtues. They also claim that sex outside marriage hat is “encouraged” by the comprehensive sex education which as a result, has some emotional and physical downfall especially when done at a very young age. They blame the comprehensive sex education for failing to discourage premarital sex especially at this time when the HIV pandemic is busy devouring young people in various parts of the world (Deborah 2). In fairness, both programs were designed to decrease the incidence of STDs...
Currently, sex education in schools is primarily centered on the distribution of information without elaborating about the moral implications dealing with sex. Teenagers are well versed on things such as how long sperm lives inside the body and can identify all of the workings of the female reproductive system. However, they are still getting pregnant and still contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Anna Quindlen examines this trend in her essay, “Sex Ed”. Quindlen points out that it is the moral implications of sex that have been left out of the curriculum and it is the responsibility of parents to make those moral connections with their children (277). Understanding the morality of sex, she argues, may help teenagers to make more informed decisions on taking the next step towards sexual activity. They must understand that “…when you sleep with someone you take off a lot more than your clothes” (Quindlen 277). Sex is not simply a...
The media is a large part of our everyday lives; everywhere we go we can find a source of media. It influences our thoughts, feelings and behaviours every day as it is a huge influence in today’s society. Society heavily relies on the media to show them what is in the norm and what is going on in the world. The media also serves as another way to display the normative of the society. Sexuality is a big part in the media and what is appropriate sexuality. The media negatively affects the people who do not fit society’s ideal normative. This includes people with a sexuality that is not the normative of heterosexuality. In the media, these people of other sexualities are excluded and made to feel they do not fit into society. My pyramid shows how society classifies people by their sexuality in the media. This involves highlighting the normative sexuality and excluded any other sexuality from the mainstream media.
Has the idea of virginity become so irrelevant within men that it is now solely a women’s phenomenon? Furthermore, did this cultural stigmatization even exist before the time of the Virgin Mary, the modern epitome of the pure woman? Laura Carpenter, of Johns Hopkins University, says that this stigmatizing of virginity did began to change in the 1970’s as women began to pursue pre-marital sex with men whom they had no intention of marrying. Still, the emphasis that women placed on pre-marital sex and their loss of virginity was often linked with love, whereas men had sex out of curiosity and the desire to simply lose their virginity. Jessica Valenti, a feminist writer, wrote in her book The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women, of a time in which her mother found an empty condom wrapper in her bag.
...odity, desperately sought after by men. Their commodity places them in a double bind: "To be sexually active is to be suspect, to be a virgin is to be desirable and therefore potentially sexually active and potentially suspect. Either way women lose. Either way they are sexualised" (Macfarlane 78).
First of all, it is the many younger teenagers who are inexperienced that get in to trouble like teenage pregnancy. The experience that is so needed is supposed to come from their parents, but that doesn’t happen because, the parents don’t want to talk about the sex issues. With the strict parents the experience is hard to ...
Throughout Western civilization, culturally hegemonic views on gender and sexuality have upheld a rigid and monolithic societal structure, resulting in the marginalization and dehumanization of millions of individuals who differ from the expected norm. Whether they are ridiculed as freaks, persecuted as blasphemers, or discriminated as sub-human, these individuals have been historically treated as invisible and pushed into vulnerable positions, resulting in cycles of poverty and oppression that remain prevalent even in modern times. Today, while many of these individuals are not publicly displayed as freaks or persecuted under Western law, women, queer, and intersexed persons within our society still nonetheless find themselves under constant
The typical morals that were set in the early times are not the same social norms we have in the 21st century. In today 's society, it is perfectly fine to lose your virginity at a young age or even as an adult, as long as you are using protection and other alternative methods such as birth control to reduce your risks of teen pregnancy. I was sixteen years old when I first got on birth control. Although I was still a virgin up until my senior year my grandmother still didn’t want to take that chance and not try to protect me from jeopardizing my future by getting pregnant before I graduated from high school because condoms are not 100% effective. Although I was raised in a Christian household and was taught that you should always value your virginity at that age the person I lost it to I thought I was “madly in love” with them. Sex is perceived to be a great thing from the time we are young from television shows, movies, magazines, and from older friends. It’s a form of satisfaction sex is all over society and it’s absolutely normal. It’s almost impossible to even engage in television shows without seeing people kissing intimately, or even having sex. I believe that sex before marriage is ok for couples in a committed relationship, who are of age and capable of making of responsible decisions. Also, I think that many people have a misunderstanding about sex. Sometimes religion can
This article was published to explain to young people some of the consequences of having sex. More young people are having sex these days without looking at what really can happen. Aggleton shows an overview of the pregnancies, STD’s, and other emotional things that can stick with someone the rest of their lives. Aggleton shows teens the truth about sex instead of something seen as romantic and a risk, and they seeing themselves as people who are experimenting with new things. However, to others it is not a sign of romance but a risk that keeps haunting teenagers with AIDS and pregnancy.
Shah, Amna T. “Sex Education: Its Importance and Need in the Society.” Ezine @rticles. 6 Dec.