It’s 2024, and apparently, everyone’s Like A Virgin again.
In what is perhaps the most surprising trend of the New Year so far (which unfortunately doesn’t have anything to do with the classic Madonna song) social media users are jokingly declaring that, when the clock struck midnight, they became virgins again.
‘It’s 2024 meaning all of our body counts have reset to zero,’ rapper Lil Nas X tweeted on New Year’s Day.
And non famous folk have jumped on the bandwagon too. ‘Who else woke up a virgin?’ asked Hugh Jas on X, formely Twitter. ‘It’s a new year, body count back at zero ladies,’ wrote Kimberly Olivia.
We’ve heard of ‘new year, new me’ but this is something else – and it actually says a lot about our current attitudes about sex and virginity, which are surprisingly outdated for 2024.
Yep, we’re still judging ourselves, and each other, for the number of people we’ve slept with.
Sex expert and founder of the sex-positive sex toys website Bedbible, Isabelle Uren, said that ‘sexual shame’ is at the core of this trend.
‘Whether that’s shame surrounding how many people you’ve had sex with, who you’ve had sex with, or the type of sex you are having. And if there’s one thing we’re not taking into 2024, it’s sexual shame,’ she tells Metro.co.uk.
Isabelle says we should leave the phrase ‘body count’ firmly in 2023.
‘It’s used to shame people for having either too many or too few sexual partners,’ she says.
‘In reality, how many people you choose to sleep with says nothing about you or your sexual abilities. The important thing should be the quality of the experience.
‘The idea of going back to being a virgin also plays into the societally constructed idea that virginity represents purity and this is something desirable.
‘However, the concept of virginity and the morality attached to it is totally made up and has been used as a tool to shame people.
‘Whether you are having sex for the first time or the 100th, the important thing is how you feel about it. Virginity is a societally constructed term and doesn’t have a physical, measurable basis, contrary to what many still believe.’
And although Isabelle doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with keeping count of the number of people you’ve slept with, the term ‘body count’ is dehumanising.
‘When [the number] becomes the most important metric, or it becomes a source of pride or shame, I think it’s time to reconsider what you prioritise when it comes to sex,’ she says.
‘The term ‘body count’ really dehumanises sex and takes out the relational quality of it. It portrays sex as a way of collecting sexual partners like Pokémon rather than a shared intimate experience with another person/people.’
After seeing the body count and virginity trend take hold of social media, Isabelle is hoping that we all change our perspectives this year. ‘Instead of perpetuating outdated ideals of sexual purity, I propose going into 2024 with the intention of embracing sex positivity.
‘Start by stripping away societal standards and stigmas and thinking about what types of sexual encounters make you feel good so you can have more of the sex you feel good about.’
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