I recently decided to watch Skins on MTV. I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I kept hearing about how it shows teens having sex and doing drugs. I believe this show is part of the reason why many people think this is going on among all young adults.
The show depicts one virgin in the group of friends who is trying to lose his virginity. At the end of the first episode, he is called an embarrassment for still being a virgin.
What students do not realize: One out of every four college students is a virgin, according to Kathleen Bogle, researcher and author of Hooking Up.
A Smarter Sex Survey on SmarterSex.org similarly discovered that roughly “32 percent of male survey participants have not had intercourse, compared to 18 percent of female survey participants.”
In Bogle’s view, students are talking about sex more than they are having it.
Renee Renna, a senior communications major at the University of Tampa, said, “With everything that is portrayed on TV and in media, its hard not to think that [students are having more sex]. I think they aren’t having sex as often as it has been portrayed. The media has a way of over-exaggerating things and blowing things way out of proportion.”
Renna, a virgin, said she chooses to abstain from sex because she is waiting for the right person.
She is not the only student who has decided to remain a virgin on campus. Gabi Gonzalez, a sophomore biology major, is also a virgin. She chooses to wait for a few reasons, including her faith and because she has seen friends regret their decisions to have sex and that the relationships have not lasted. “I want the person I have sex with to be committed to me for the rest of my life,” Gonzalez said.
In a June 2010 Her Campus article, “The Black Sheep: Virgins in College,” Victoria Uwumarogie wrote, “According to the CDC, those who choose to maintain their virginity past age 18 . . . do so because of religious or moral qualms, fear of pregnancy, and simply because they just haven’t found the right person.”
Other UT students like Russell Forsythe, a sophomore elementary education major, also believe students are not having as much sex as they say. “The guys talk about it to sound cool, but really they sound dumb,” Forsythe said.
“The average person doesn’t have sex every day, but they hear about it at least once a day,” said Greg Byer, a sophomore psychology major.
All but one student interviewed believed that students talk about sex more than they partake.