History Main / NatureAdoresAVirgin

* In "Kids", 15-year old {{Casanova}}, Telly, pursues only virgin girls. [[spoiler: Which makes it all the more horrifying when it is discovered that he is an unknowing HIV carrier.]]

* In ''TheEpicOfGilgamesh,'' animals had no fear of the [[{{WildMan}} wild]] Enkidu until he slept with a woman (after which they avoided him) making this trope OlderThanDirt.

The reasons behind this vary depending on the period of the story and the characters themselves. In early stories it's because SexIsEvil, and virginity is a sign of purity, and thus desirability. Modern stories follow the Madonna/Whore Complex: men marry the Madonna, but sleep with the Whore. There's also the bragging rights behind bedding a virgin, which would be a BIG notch in any wannabe {{Casanova}}'s or rare male [[TheVamp Vamp's]] belt. The [[UnfortunateImplications assumptions here]] are that AManIsNotAVirgin, and the [[VirginityMakesYouStupid virginal are idiots]], and non-virginal women are whores. It bears repeating that this can be a gender neutral trope; when a man ''is'' a virgin, that signals to women that this guy is likely waiting for love and not just wanting a one-night stand.

* Played straighter than an arrow for laughs in the play and film ''ReeferMadness'', well, the one that wasn't made in the thirties. Mary, the token adorable little miss diabetes-inducing sweetness, is the high school sweetheart the protagonist falls for. Sally, the only woman with a libido, is the 'reefer den slut' who boasts about being in 'more laps than a napkin.' Sally can seduce the protagonist, since AManIsNotAVirgin, ever, but only Mary can redeem him of the vile weed. Of course, one puff of the whacky tabbacy and Mary turns into a reefer slut as well. Hilarity and [[spoiler: DeathBySex]] follow.

--> "Before, I wasn't even able to buy a woman, on accounnt of the way I look."

* In the novel ''{{Outlander}}'' (''Cross Stitch'' in the UK, for some reason) the main [[AManIsNotAVirgin love interest]], Jamie, is a virgin until his wedding night-- seemingly a pleasant state of affairs for the older, previously-married heroine. This might have been an intentional subversion of the romance novel staple of the rakehell romantic hero and the virginal, innocent heroine, as neither of them are precisely innocent despite it. (There's also an incredibly {{squick}}y possibility that this same perceived innocence is the same reason the main villain [[spoiler:wanted to have sex with him when he was sixteen, and was willing to [[TheScarpiaUltimatum set Claire free in exchange for torture and rape]] later on.]] Nngh. Whimper.)

The reasons behind this vary depending on the period of the story and the characters themselves. In early stories it's because SexIsEvil, and virginity is a sign of purity, and thus desirability. Modern stories follow the Madonna/Whore Complex: men marry the Madonna, but sleep with the Whore. There's also the bragging rights behind bedding a virgin, which would be a BIG notch in any wannabe {{Casanova}}'s or rare male [[TheVamp Vamp's]] belt. The [[UnfortunateImplications assumptions here]] are that AManIsNotAVirgin, and the [[InnocenceVirginOnStupidity virginal are idiots]], and non-virginal women are whores. It bears repeating that this can be a gender neutral trope; when a man ''is'' a virgin, that signals to women that this guy is likely waiting for love and not just wanting a one-night stand.

* ''DangerousLiaisons'' with Madame de Tourvel (And Cecile, though she's much easier, being an InnocenceVirginOnStupidity). (And, consequently ''CruelIntentions'', which is [[{{INSPACE}} ''Dangerous Liaisons'' IN HIGH SCHOOL!]]

[[AC:RealLife]]
* A study has found that the likelihood that one will remain in a relationship decreases as the number of sexual partners one has had increases. This is not due to them just getting used to it or having seen it all or wanting more, or something like that. Instead, sex releases a chemical that helps people remain in a relationship with their sexual partner. If that relationship is broken, such as if they sleep around, less of that chemical will be released with their next partner, and so on and so on. Therefore, if you want to have monogamy with the least chance of your partner cheating on you, you're best off with a virgin. In other words, ''homo sapiens are genetically coded to prefer virgins. It's literally in your DNA.''.[[hottip:*:I'm not sure if I got all of the details correct, but the gist of the study is that if someone cheats on one partner, or has had intercourse before, they're more likely to cheat on you or leave you. Virgins have never had intercourse, and thus by extension haven't ever cheated on a partner.]]
** However, this chemical [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin Oxytocin]] is also released when children are born and during friendships, and this does not seem to place a limit on the number of meaningful friendships or children who are loved.
*** ...Or does it?

-->"Virgins. I love 'em. No diseases, no loose as a goose pussy, no skank. No nothin. Just pure pleasure. "

* {{Josh Hartnet}} trying to be a ChasteHero in ''40 Days and 40 Nights'' makes him the target of both lust and sabotage attempts on the part of women presumably because, should he succeed, it would prove men can be sexually independent of women and can choose to resist AManIsNotAVirgin. That he looked like a drug addict going through withdrawal towards the end does not help matters.

* Josh Hartnet trying to be a ChasteHero in ''40 Days and 40 Nights'' makes him the target of both lust and sabotage attempts on the part of women presumably because, should he succeed, it would prove men can be sexually independent of women and can choose to resist AManIsNotAVirgin. That he looked like a drug addict going through withdrawal towards the end does not help matters.

** However, this chemical [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin Oxytocin]] is also released when children are born and during friendships, and this does not seem to place a limit on the number of meaningful friendships or children who are loved.

The reasons behind this vary depending on the period of the story and the characters themselves. In early stories it's because SexIsEvil, and virginity is a sign of purity, and thus desirability. Modern stories follow the Madonna/Whore Complex: men marry the Madonna, but sleep with the Whore. There's also the bragging rights behind bedding a virgin, which would be a BIG notch in any wannabe {{Casanova}}'s or rare male [[TheVamp Vamp's]] belt. The [[UnfortunateImplications assumption here]] is that AManIsNotAVirgin, and the [[InnocenceVirginOnStupidity virginal are idiots]]. It bears repeating that this is a gender neutral trope; when a man ''is'' a virgin, that signals to women that this guy is likely waiting for love and not just wanting a one-night stand.

Sometimes this trope [[RuleThirtyFour comes]] in a more [[{{Squick}} disturbing]] form, where the thought of [[RapeAsDrama defiling]] a virgin is a turn on in and of itself. However, it could also be thought of as a [[RuleThirtyFour turn-on]] to be the first one to show someone how great sex can be.

The reasons behind this vary depending on the period of the story and the characters themselves. In early stories it's because SexIsEvil, and virginity is a sign of purity, and thus desirability. The instinct for this evolved through the millennia to give the husband having a better chance of knowing that the kid is his (The advent of DNA tests has not exactly mitigated millennia of evolution yet). Modern stories follow the Madonna/Whore Complex: men marry the Madonna, but sleep with the Whore. There's also the bragging rights behind bedding a virgin, which would be a BIG notch in any wannabe {{Casanova}}'s or rare male [[TheVamp Vamp's]] belt. The [[UnfortunateImplications assumption here]] is that AManIsNotAVirgin, and the [[InnocenceVirginOnStupidity virginal are idiots]]. It bears repeating that this is a gender neutral trope. Because when a man ''is'' a virgin, that signals to women that this guy is likely different and thus not (yet) a player, someone they can easily mold, control, or in the case of the KnightInShiningArmor, want to marry.

There is a fundamental difference in the underlying evolutionary motive, between a man desiring a virgin and a woman desiring a (male) virgin: the woman knows when a child is hers, whereas a man can easily be cuckolded.

Please take the above with a grain of salt, we don't endorse any of the above stereotyping.

* Played straighter than an arrow for laughs in the play and film ReeferMadness, well, the one that wasn't made in the thirties. Mary, the token adorable little miss diabetes-inducing sweetness, is the high school sweetheart the protagonist falls for. Sally, the only woman with a libido, is the 'reefer den slut' who boasts about being in 'more laps than a napkin.' Sally can seduce the protagonist, since AManIsNotAVirgin, ever, but only Mary can redeem him of the vile weed. Of course, one puff of the whacky tabbacy and Mary turns into a reefer slut as well. Hilarity and [[spoiler: DeathBySex]] follow.

* In the Dharma & Greg episode "The Second Coming of Leonard," Dharma's old boyfriend, Leonard, returns from India where he has lived his life completely celibate since the last night he and Dharma spent together. Leonard's celibacy, contrasted by his intimate knowledge of Tantric Sex, is the subject of the majority of the humor in the episode. The entire cast of the show (including Greg at the end) seems to be attracted to Leonard, who receives several sexual advances from Jane.

* In WilliamShakespeare's ''Titus Andronicus'' Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius are attracted to Lavinia precisely because she's a virgin. Originally, they wanted to seduce her and were fighting each other to see which brother would do it, and with some revenging getting in the middle of things they end up [[NightmareFuel raping her over her newlywed husband's corpse, cutting out her tongue, cutting off her hands (so she could neither speak nor write her attackers' names), and framing her brothers for the deed, resulting in their execution.]]
* Inverted in ''A Little Night Music'', where Fredrik leaves his still-virginal wife for Desiree.

* In the novel ''Outlander'' (''Cross Stitch'' in the UK, for some reason) the main [[AManIsNotAVirgin love interest]], Jamie, is a virgin until his wedding night-- seemingly a pleasant state of affairs for the older, previously-married heroine. This might have been an intentional subversion of the romance novel staple of the rakehell romantic hero and the virginal, innocent heroine, as neither of them are precisely innocent despite it. (There's also an incredibly {{squick}}y possibility that this same perceived innocence is the same reason the main villain [[spoiler:wanted to have sex with him when he was sixteen, and was willing to [[TheScarpiaUltimatum set Claire free in exchange for torture and rape]] later on.]] Nngh. Whimper.)
* In TheEpicOfGilgamesh animals had no fear of the [[{{WildMan}} wild]] Enkidu until he slept with a woman (after which they avoided him) making this trope OlderThanDirt.
* In TheDresdenFiles Book 9, ''White Night'', [[spoiler:Lara Raith (a sex vampire/succubus) is instantly driven to feed on young wizard Carlos Ramirez when she realizes that he is a virgin. He deflects her advances and his own supernaturally-fanned lust with some quick thinking, and Lara warns Harry (he and Ramirez being her [[PragmaticVillainy protected guests]]) that virgins are extremely attractive to her kind and Ramirez should stay away from her kin, as they may not be able to control themselves around him.]] This revelation is particularly [[AManIsNotAVirgin humiliating]] for [[spoiler:Ramirez, who had made it a point to brag long and hard about his sexual conquests and prowess,]] and particularly amusing for Harry.

* KingdomOfLoathing subverst this: "While unicorns will lay their heads in the laps of virgins, uniclopses will settle for a girl who doesn't go past second base on the first date."

* In ''{{Taken}}'', the heroes daughter is pointed out early in the story to be a virgin. Being [[spoiler:female and the daughter of the hero, she has ChastityArmor and because of this the female slavery villains who kidnap her check, find out she is a virgin (although in RealLife it isn't always so easy, even for a doctor), and hold off on raping her until after they set up a special sale for luxury virgins, which naturally gives the hero time to save her before it's too late]].

The reasons behind this vary depending on the period of the story and the characters themselves. In early stories it's because SexIsEvil, and virginity is a sign of purity, and thus desirability. It probably had more to do with the husband having a better chance of knowing that the kid is his (The advent of DNA tests has not exactly mitigated millennia of evolution yet). In modern stories, it's because of the Madonna/Whore Complex. Men marry the Madonna. They only sleep with the Whore. There's also the bragging rights behind bedding a virgin, which would be a BIG notch in any wannabe {{Casanova}}'s or rare male [[TheVamp Vamp's]] belt. The [[UnfortunateImplications assumption here]] is that AManIsNotAVirgin, and the [[InnocenceVirginOnStupidity virginal are idiots]]. It bears repeating that this is a gender neutral trope. Because when a man ''is'' a virgin, that signals to women that this guy is likely different and thus not (yet) a player, someone they can easily mold, control, or in the case of the KnightInShiningArmor, want to marry.

* A study has found that the likelihood that one will remain in a relationship decreases as the number of sexual partners one has had increases. This is not due to them just getting used to it or having seen it all or wanting more, or something like that. Instead, sex releases a chemical that helps people remain in a relationship with their sexual partner. If that relationship is broken, such as if they sleep around, less of that chemical will be released with their next partner, and so on and so on. Therefore, if you want to have monogamy with the least chance of your partner cheating on you, you're best off with a virgin. In other words, ''homo sapiens are genetically coded to prefer virgins. It's literally in your DNA.''.[[hottip:*:I'm not sure if I got all of the details correct, but the gist of the study is that if someone cheats on one partner, or has had intercourse before, they're more likely to cheat on you or leave you. Virgins have never had intercourse, and thus by extension haven't ever cheated on a partner. SoYeah.]]

Sometimes this trope [[RuleThirtyFour comes]] in a more [[{{Squick}} disturbing]] form, where the thought of [[RapeAsDrama defiling]] a virgin is a turn on in and of itself. However, it could also be thought of as a turn-on [[RuleThirtyFour]] to be the first one to show someone how great sex can be.