Virginity Loss Narratives in "Teen Drama" Television Programs‪.‬

Scholars studying teenage sexuality suggest that virginity loss, socially defined as first (heterosexual) sex, is marked as a meaningful event in which adult sexuality is achieved (e.g., Carpenter, 2005; Holland, Ramazanoglu, Sharpe, & Thompson, 2004; Hurtado, 2003; Irvine, 2002; Levine, 2002; Luker, 1996; Martin, 1996; Nathanson, 1991; Thompson, 1995; Tolman, 2002; White, 1999). These scholars demonstrate that teenagers' experiences of virginity loss are shaped by the socially constructed meanings of virginity and virginity loss; these different and often conflicting ways of understanding virginity are part of sexual socialization by family, peers, religion, education, and the media. I expand on this literature--particularly, the work of Carpenter--by examining how virginity and virginity loss is represented in popular culture. This analysis of "teen drama" television programs provides an opportunity to examine how virginity is represented in a genre that is centered on the lives of teenagers and directed at a primarily teenage audience. I focus on virginity loss in this analysis because it represents a highly socially meaningful event in the sexual life course and is a key component in both scholarly and public discussions of teenage sexuality. In her study of virginity and virginity loss, Carpenter (2005) found that most of the people she interviewed used one of three metaphors: virginity as a gift, virginity loss as a process or rite of passage, and virginity as stigma. (1) Carpenter noted that the metaphors used by her participants could also be conceptualized as sexual scripts (Gagnon & Simon, 1973). Gagnon and Simon's concept of sexual scripts "refers to the socially learned sets of sexual desires and conduct that guide people's choices about when, where, how, why and with whom they should be sexual" (p. 220). I draw on Carpenter's metaphors for virginity and Gagnon and Simon's concept of cultural level sexual scripts in this analysis of the multiple scripts in narratives of virginity loss in teen dramas. I suggest that an analysis of portrayals of virginity in the popular media provides insight into both the messages about virginity provided to teenagers, as well as the social construction of the multiple meanings of virginity. I begin by examining the scholarship on virginity and virginity loss and empirical studies of sexual media content to provide a base for discussing how virginity is depicted in the popular media.